BoricuameRican

Bad Bunny: Musician, Actor, Model, Philanthropist, Activist, Wrestler

April 11, 2024 Nancy Pinto Episode 55
Bad Bunny: Musician, Actor, Model, Philanthropist, Activist, Wrestler
BoricuameRican
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BoricuameRican
Bad Bunny: Musician, Actor, Model, Philanthropist, Activist, Wrestler
Apr 11, 2024 Episode 55
Nancy Pinto

Surely by now you’ve heard of the ubiquitous Bad Bunny. He’s something for everyone. Maybe you’ve heard one of his many hit songs, saw him bring fire to the Grammys, or caught his appearances on SNL. Perhaps you saw him in Bullet Train! There’s a good chance you’ve seen him in a Corona TV ad with Snoop Dogg. If you love fashion, maybe you follow his daring, gender-bending outfits. And if you’re a wrestling fan, you’ve probably seen him fight.

If none of the above is true, then you’re about to learn a thing or two about the award-winning Puerto Rican rapper taking the world by storm!

Seguro que ya has oído hablar del omnipresente Bad Bunny. Tiene algo que ofrecer a todo el mundo. Tal vez hayas escuchado alguna de sus muchas canciones exitosas, lo hayas visto prender fuego a los Grammy o hayas visto sus apariciones en SNL. ¡Quizás lo viste en Bullet Train! Es muy probable que lo hayas visto en un anuncio de Corona TV con Snoop Dogg. Si te encanta la moda, tal vez sigues sus atrevidos atuendos que cambian de género. Y si eres fanático de la lucha libre, probablemente lo hayas visto pelear.

Si nada de lo anterior es cierto, ¡entonces estás a punto de aprender un par de cosas sobre el premiado rapero puertorriqueño que está arrasando en todo el mundo!

CONNECT WITH US!

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/242722224736098/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082362745798
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boricuamerican/ and
https://www.instagram.com/boricuamerican_podcast/

BIG THANKS to our brother, Santos , for composing our intro and outro music. Check out his music here: / Gracias a nuestro hermano, Santos, por componer nuestra música de intro and outro. Escuche su musica aqui: https://www.reverbnation.com/santoscornier?fbclid=IwAR1_flS4Dy8i9t6JFhrCkzW220URLKJMVPfndmi0wl7idlA82ECx6Q-wW2Q

Thanks also to the following sites for music and sound effects:
https://freepd.com/
https://pixabay.com/
https://freesound.org/
https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/

Show Notes Transcript

Surely by now you’ve heard of the ubiquitous Bad Bunny. He’s something for everyone. Maybe you’ve heard one of his many hit songs, saw him bring fire to the Grammys, or caught his appearances on SNL. Perhaps you saw him in Bullet Train! There’s a good chance you’ve seen him in a Corona TV ad with Snoop Dogg. If you love fashion, maybe you follow his daring, gender-bending outfits. And if you’re a wrestling fan, you’ve probably seen him fight.

If none of the above is true, then you’re about to learn a thing or two about the award-winning Puerto Rican rapper taking the world by storm!

Seguro que ya has oído hablar del omnipresente Bad Bunny. Tiene algo que ofrecer a todo el mundo. Tal vez hayas escuchado alguna de sus muchas canciones exitosas, lo hayas visto prender fuego a los Grammy o hayas visto sus apariciones en SNL. ¡Quizás lo viste en Bullet Train! Es muy probable que lo hayas visto en un anuncio de Corona TV con Snoop Dogg. Si te encanta la moda, tal vez sigues sus atrevidos atuendos que cambian de género. Y si eres fanático de la lucha libre, probablemente lo hayas visto pelear.

Si nada de lo anterior es cierto, ¡entonces estás a punto de aprender un par de cosas sobre el premiado rapero puertorriqueño que está arrasando en todo el mundo!

CONNECT WITH US!

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/242722224736098/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082362745798
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boricuamerican/ and
https://www.instagram.com/boricuamerican_podcast/

BIG THANKS to our brother, Santos , for composing our intro and outro music. Check out his music here: / Gracias a nuestro hermano, Santos, por componer nuestra música de intro and outro. Escuche su musica aqui: https://www.reverbnation.com/santoscornier?fbclid=IwAR1_flS4Dy8i9t6JFhrCkzW220URLKJMVPfndmi0wl7idlA82ECx6Q-wW2Q

Thanks also to the following sites for music and sound effects:
https://freepd.com/
https://pixabay.com/
https://freesound.org/
https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/

***At the end – I misspoke, meant to say “texts” instead of “tweets.”  

BEGIN:
Almost everyone by now has heard of the ubiquitous Bad Bunny. His music and his giant persona have infiltrated the mainstream entertainment scene. He’s put out hit after hit, set music records, appeared in a Brad Pitt movie, wrestled with the pros, modeled for top designers, and speaks out on social issues, especially in his homeland of Puerto Rico.  
He's making it in America – and around the world – without having had to sing in English!

Real name: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio 
Let’s start with his very auspicious first name. The name Benito has Christian origins. It comes from “Benedictus” which means blessed. Well, love him or hate him, whether you think he’s talented or not, I think we can all agree Bad Bunny has been blessed!  

EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Date of birth: March 10, 1994
Place of birth: The neighborhood of Almirante Sur in the city of Vega Baja, on the island of Puerto Rico. Its population in 2022 was 2,352. Vega Baja is in the north center of the island, approximately halfway between San Juan and Arecibo. 
Parents: Tito Martínez, a truck driver, and Lysaurie Ocasio, an English teacher.
He has two younger brothers, Bernie and Bysael. They had a normal Puerto Rican life, working hard, hanging out with family all the time, a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins. 
Benito was a shy, introverted child with an active imagination. He was always playing and inventing characters by himself. Growing up, he was also into skating, fashion and wrestling - all things that would continue to come into play as he hit adulthood and hit it big.  Not sure if he still does it, but every year he and his boys would go back to the skate park in Vega Baja where they hung out and took a group photo. Even when he blew up he would go back and take pictures with any star struck teens. He’s still very much a hometown boy. As a child, when his mom took him and his brothers clothes shopping, he loved wandering around the women’s department. He hated the standard jeans and t shirt look for guys. Women’s clothes were much more interesting and colorful! He started wearing his mom’s clothes to school, and didn’t care that he got picked on. If you know Latino culture, that takes BALLS. Boys are given the message from early on to be a manly man. No crying. No acting flamboyant. Girls and boys have their roles. But to him, clothes have no gender. Clothes are just clothes. His parents must’ve been extremely supportive. 
We know they were supportive with his pursuit of a music career! Music was his essence, in his soul, his DNA. Benito can’t remember a time when music wasn’t a part of his life. Like in most Puerto Rican households, his was full of music, including salsa, merengue and ballads. Apparently Benito also liked rock music and the Bee Gees! However, his favorite genre was the urban Latin music known as reggaeton. Reggaeton is gritty, sexy, vulgar – it’s not music for the faint of heart. His family was Catholic and his mom was strict, so for the most part he wasn’t allowed to listen to it, although she gave allowances for two of his favorite performers. Any time he didn’t wanna get up for school, his parents would threaten with not allowing him to listen to them. THAT would get him up and he’d be ready for school at lightning speed. Benito sang in the church choir but quit at 13. He was determined to make his own music, urban music. He started mixing tracks. 

After high school, Benito enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo and took a job bagging groceries. At the same time, he was writing songs. He was a perfectionist and didn’t wanna make them public until they were JUST RIGHT. Not many people knew he was recording.  One close friend that did urged him to start uploading them on SoundCloud. He did, under the username Bad Bunny. How’d he come up with Bad Bunny? One Easter when he was a kid they made him dress up in a bunny costume and he HATED it. There’s a picture of him and he’s scowling. So that was his inspiration. 
Anyway, his songs started getting a lot of attention, hundreds of thousands of listens. One of those songs, called “Diles” (“Tell Them”) got him signed to his first record label, an independent outfit called "Hear This Music.” But they wouldn’t let him release an album, they just wanted to keep on releasing singles, so they parted ways. Shortly thereafter he signed with "Rimas Entertainment,” which was very popular with Latin American artists. They released a single called "Soy Peor” (“I’m Worse”) which was a huge hit.  And the rest is history…
Bad Bunny’s musical style is groundbreaking and fearless. He sings and raps in a low tone, and he’s recognizable by his signature “ey” and hiccup sound. His song topics run the gamut from economic issues to partying, and a lot of the lyrics are extremely vulgar (hey, it’s reggaeton). But as much as he sings about getting laid, he sticks up for women and the LGBTQ+ community. You have to read between the lines, or think about the lines, it’s not all just face value. Like any work of art, you have to interpret it. He’s very socially conscious and he doesn’t just sing it, he lives it. His attitude flies in the face of the machismo typically associated with reggaeton and Latin urban music. He's unapologetic. He doesn’t care about his haters. Listen to him or don’t. He does his music because he loves it and he’s very grateful and he’ll be all right. 

Bad Bunny has collaborated with everyone from Cardi B to Marc Anthony (who we covered in Episode 8 called “I Need to Know” All About Marc Anthony!). He records with everyone from OG reggaetoneros to the up and coming. He’s the biggest thing in trap and reggaeton right now, of course, but he might infuse his songs with rock, pop, or merengue. One of his songs sounds like The Girl from Ipanema! All this, and he’s done it in Spanish. Whereas Latinx artists who’ve come before recorded songs and albums in English in order to crossover into the English-speaking market in the US, he hasn’t had to. He doesn’t feel the need to! In an interview, he pointed out that no one around the world asks English artists to sing in their language. So why should Spanish speaking artists? The music is the music, you either like it or you don’t. He makes a good point! And he is not against speaking other languages. In one of his songs, he sings in Japanese, and he sprinkles others with English words and phrases. 
ALBUMS:
2017: El Conejo Malo (The Bad Bunny)
2018: El Baño (The Remixes) – with Enrique Iglesias, Natti Natasha
2018: X 100 PRE:  the X is a Spanish abbreviation for “por” which means “for.” The number 100 is “cien” in Spanish. “PRE” is just how it looks, “preh” (not “pree”). So putting it together: Por Cien Pre = Por siempre = forever (yes, I know cien and siem are different I don’t get it)
2019: Oasis (with J Balvin)
2019: Reggaeton y Trap (with Nfasis)
2019: Up Next – this is a live album, recorded from Apple Piazza Liberty. looks like it’s from a short film about rising stars? 
2020: YHLQMDLG (yo hago lo que me da la gana meaning I do whatever I want) – “Yo Perreo Sola”
2020: El Último Tour del Mundo The Last World Tour)
2020: Las Que No Iban A Salir (Those That Weren’t Going to Come Out – referring to a bunch of songs he'd written but hadn’t planned on releasing until one day during quarantine he was so bored that he went live and started sharing them. They got such great reception that he made an entire album out of the best ones). 
2022: Un Verano Sin Ti (A Summer Without You) - “Titi Me Pregunto”
2023: Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana (No One Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow) “Baticano” – Nosferatu – Steve Buscemi

According to the website Concert Archives dot org, Bad Bunny has had 421 concerts (and counting!) as of April 2024. He’s currently on tour. It’s called the “Most Wanted Tour,” and he’s performing all throughout the US (plus a show in Toronto). This tour will culminate with two shows in San Juan, Puerto Rico on June 7 and 8! 
Notable songs as well as Nancy’s favorite songs:
*Titi Me Pregunto – “Auntie Asked Me” - it’s about his not wanting to settle down (that’s insane in PR)
El Apagon – “The Blackout” – firstly, it’s one of those songs that incorporates a bunch of different musical styles. Bad bunny is able to do that without the song sounding like a cacophonous mess. It’s mostly reggaeton and bomba but adds house, techno and samba. There’s plenty of vulgarity – I wouldn’t recommend your kids listen to it unless you wanna answer some very uncomfortable questions such as what is a “chocha”! – but reading between the lines it’s a critique of the electrical company (you may know that the island had been suffering from frequent power outages), also criticizing the tax laws that attract a lot of quote unquote outsiders to the island, buying up a lot of land, building giant houses, and in some cases wanting to privatize beaches. That’s not very popular with a lot of the locals. Side note, I know I’m gonna sound like a boomer, but I personally don’t know why you have to say “chocha” ten million times in a song to convey I don’t know what message, but anyway that’s me…I don’t get it. But I like the song and overall I like him and his music and I would definitely see a show if I ever have a chance.
Baticano: Baticano is “Vatican.” In the video, Steve Buscemi creates a monster, which is Bad Bunny looking like Nosferatu. Right before he goes out the door and into the world, Buscemi tells him the world is very cruel and is going to hate him because he is different and they are not ready for him. But he assures him he is beautiful and perfect. You can kinda guess the metaphors here. He also tackles hypocrisy in the church, 

AWARDS/ACCOLADES/ACHIEVEMENTS: 
Bad Bunny has been breaking records and making history all over the place!!
Let’s start with the ASCAP Latin Awards, ASCAP being the acronym for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Bad Bunny has won a buttload since 2019. As of this recording, in the spring of 2024, he’s won 46. He’s also won an ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Award, and two ASCAP Pop Music Awards. 
Then there are the Billboard Music Awards, Latin and regular. He’s won 50 between 2018 and 2023!
He’s won 53 Latin Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) awards between 2019 and 2024, and 15 Latin American Music Awards between 2018 and 2023. 
He’s all over the Latin Grammys, which is a separate event from the American Grammy Awards. He’s won 11 between 2019 and 2023 tho his first nomination was in 2017. 
How about MTV Awards, of which there are several events: he has 8. 
He’s won 6 Premios Tu Música Urbano, which is televised from Puerto Rico every year to honor top Latin artists, although he’s been nominated A LOT. 
Then there are the Premios Juventud (Youth Awards), again which we were not aware of. Per wiki, this is “an awards show for Spanish-speaking celebrities in the areas of film, music, sports, fashion, and pop culture, presented by the television network Univision. Winners are determined by online vote at univision.com.” What makes them unique is what they call their categories, for example "Me muero sin ese CD" (Album I can't live without), "Mi concierto favorito" (My favorite concert), and "La más pegajosa" (Catchiest song). FYI pegajosa literally translates to “sticky.” It could be a substance or a person too. Your Spanish lesson for the day. Again the fans love Bad Bunny and I’m sure it helps that it’s an online vote considering his fan base is probably mostly young. He first appeared on the ballot in 2017, and between 2019 and 2023 has won 21 times. 
In 2019, x100PRE won Latin Album of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. 
In February of 2020 - a month before COVID! - Bad Bunny performed with J-Lo and Shakira (poor him) in the Super Bowl halftime show. 
El Último Tour del Mundo from 2020 was the first Spanish-language album to debut at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200. 
His album YHLQMDLG was 2020’s most streamed album on Spotify – it got 3.3 billion streams.  He thus became the first Spanish artist to become the most globally streamed act on Spotify. In total, Bad Bunny accumulated the most Spotify streams in one year with 8.3 billion. That got him into the Guiness Book of World Records! And all that led to a whole bunch of Spotify music awards: he’s won 17 between 2020 and 2023. 
In 2020, he won the American Music Award for Favorite Latin Male Artist and Favorite Latin Album. Bad Bunny ended 2020 as Spotify’s most-streamed artist in the world. 
In 2021, the Grammys established a new award category, Best Música Urbana Album, for Latin music that was more edgy, like hip hop, dancehall and reggaeton. [Previously those genres were lumped into Latin Pop. So for example you could have Bad Bunny and Shakira in the same category. Great artists on their own but totally different musical styles. So with the rising popularity of reggaeton, trap, etc. they decided to separate the genres.] Guess who won the first two awards? Yep, for El Último Tour del Mundo and Un Verano Sin Ti. 

Also in 2021, Bad Bunny set a record for the most Lo Nuestro Awards (lo nuestro is Spanish for “ours”) in one year, with seven wins, for: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Crossover Collaboration of the Year, Urban Song of the Year, Male Urban Artist of the Year, Urban Album of the Year, and Urban/Trap Song of the Year. The Lo Nuestro awards is an annual Spanish-language music awards event. It’s not the Latin Grammys. The Latin Grammys is a separate event. The Lo Nuestro awards are based on fan votes.
In 2021, he won the E! People’s Choice Award for “The Latin Artist of 2021.” He also won a Grammy award for Best Latin Pop or Urban Album for YHLQMDLG. That album also won Latin Pop/Reggaeton Album of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. 

Further in 2021 (and again in 2022), Bad Bunny again won the American Music Awards for Favorite Latin Male Artist and Favorite Latin Album. And for the second year in a row, he was Spotify’s most-streamed artist in the world.
April 19 2021:  Bunny announces he’s going on tour in 2022, and tickets sell out in record time. According to Billboard, “Bad Bunny's El Último Tour del Mundo ranks as the top sales day for any tour on Ticketmaster since 2018, with 480,000 tickets sold in less than a week. Bunny’s pre-sale date ranks as the top sales day for any tour on Ticketmaster since Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run II Tour on-sale in 2018.” 
Continuing in 2022, two years after El Último Tour del Mundo debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200, Un Verano Sin Ti also reached number 1 on the US Billboard 200, becoming the 2nd Spanish-language album to hit that record. Same artist for the first two Spanish albums to hit that record! When Un Verano Sin Ti dropped, it set another record: first Latin album with the most-streamed songs in its first week (356.66 million streams).

But that’s not all! Un Verano Sin Ti has 23 tracks. Twenty-two of them debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the week dated May 21, 2022 - the most in a week for an exclusively Latin performer, and the most songs in one week sung exclusively in Spanish.

In 2022, Bad Bunny was very busy. He took home six Lo Nuestro awards, for: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Perfect Mix of The Year, Male Urban Artist of the Year, Urban Collaboration of the Year, and Urban Album of the Year. His album El Último Tour Del Mundo won a Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album. He was the first Latin artist to win the Apple Music Award for Artist of the Year. Un Verano Sin Ti was Apple Music’s most streamed album this year, and its biggest Latin album ever. So yeah, he deserve the recognition! Also on his mantel went the iHeartRadio Music Award for Latin Pop/Reggaeton Artist of the Year. 

On April 6, 2022, Bad Bunny’s 35-show tour, El Último Tour del Mundo, which we talked about a few minutes ago, grossed $116.8 million dollars, and sold 575,000 tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.  He thus becoming the highest grossing tour by a Latin artist in Billboard Boxscore’s 30 plus year history, beating the wildly famous Luis Miguel, whose tour made in $101 million dollars in 2018-19.

In 2022, Bad Bunny again broke the record for most streams on Spotify by a non-English-language performer. 

In 2022, rightfully so, Bad Bunny was named Billboard’s Top Artist of 2022 — the first time the honor went to an artist who records primarily in Spanish. And he is named Billboard’s Top Latin Artist for the 4th year in a row. 
By the end of December 2022, Bad Bunny has broken more records. He’s done 2 tours: the World’s Hottest Tour in Mexico City and El Último Tour del Mundo. Combined, they are the highest gross for any artist in a calendar year EVER, since the inception of Billboard Boxscore in the 1980s. Some numbers for you number lovers: the tour sells 1.9 million tickets and grosses $314.1 million, re-setting the record for the biggest Latin tour in history. With these tours, plus a few other shows throughout the year, Bad Bunny grossed $434.9 million in 2022. He beat none other than Ed Sheeran, who made a measly $434.4 million in 2018, for the highest calendar-year gross in Billboard Boxscore history.

Two of the songs from the album Un Verano Sin Ti were in Spotify’s top 5 most streamed tracks globally (Me Porto Bonito & Titi Me Pregunto). That album was Spotify’s most-streamed album in the world AND in the US. It was also the first Spanish-language album nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy awards (he lost to Harry Styles). Bad Bunny actually kicked off the ceremony, which was held on February 5, 2023, becoming the first all-Spanish opening act in the Grammy’s 65-year history!
In 2023, Bad Bunny took home three Lo Nuestro awards, for: Album of the Year, Urban Album of the Year and Urban Collaboration of the Year. He also won the E! People's Choice Awards for The Male Latin Artist of the Year, and a Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album for his colossal hit Un Verano Sin Ti, which also won Latin Album of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Un Verano Sin Ti was also Spotify’s most-streamed album in the world for the 2nd year in a row.  

Here’s an award we’ve never heard of and probably wouldn’t know about if it weren’t for this episode: the Heat Latin Music Awards. This is a Latin music awards event held every year in the Dominican Republic. Fans vote for their favorite artists in a bunch of different categories. Bad Bunny’s been nominated a bunch of times since 2019 and finally won an award for Best Collaboration in 2023.  
Besides all the awards we mentioned, there are 16 other awards from a handful of other events. 

On March 30, 2023, he won the Vanguard Award for his support of the LGBTQ+ community. The Vanguard Award is presented at the annual GLAAD Media Awards event. Ricky Martin, a fellow Boricua and a gay man, presented him with the award.  
On April 14 2023, Bad Bunny became the first Spanish-language artist to headline Coachella. 
Bad Bunny has been on SNL three times (twice to perform and most recently in October 2023 to host), becoming their first musical guest who performs exclusively in Spanish.

In October of 2023, his album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day, with 145.9 million total streams.
As of December 19, 2023, Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny has 15.177 billion streams on Spotify, making it the most streamed album on the platform of all time. It is also the first album to surpass 16 billion streams, and the first and only album to surpass 14 and 15 billion streams on Spotify

Some more of Bad Bunny’s notable achievements:   
*First artist with the most Spotify streams in the world 3 years in a row (2020,21,22).
*Most Lo Nuestro awards won in a single year by a main-credited artist (7). 
*Most consecutive Artist of the Year awards at the Billboard Latin Music Awards (3).
*First Latino performer to win Artist of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards.
*Most Top Latin Album of the Year awards at the Billboard Latin Music Awards (3).
*Most Billboard Latin Music Awards nominations for an artist in a single year (23).
*First Grammy nomination for Album of the Year for a Spanish-language album.

Fashion:
Bad Bunny has become a fashion icon and a model for top designers. He’s a guy and he’ll dress like a guy  – like when he wore jeans, a white t- shirt, baseball hat and white sneakers to perform at the Grammys. He is heterosexual but does modeling and photo shoots in dresses, and he paints his nails. He is just as comfortable in gender-bending clothes, mixing male and female garments and accessories – and manages to pull it off naturally. His masculinity does not come into question. He’s got swagger, grabs his balls and all that, but then in a dress he is tall and poised, very glamorous. 

Bad Bunny attended the Met Gala twice, in 2022 and 2023, and will be a co-chair this year, 2024. What is the Met Gala, you may ask? This is an annual benefit where celebrities dress up in outrageous and insanely expensive designer outfits and walk a red carpet to raise money for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. I am not making that up. I’m sure people have been salivating dying to know what he’s going to wear. Last year, he made headlines with a crisp, white, BACKLESS suit and floral train. For his debut the year prior in 2022, he was inspired by Puerto Rico’s Gilded Age, nice tailored streamlined suits for men, and puffy sleeves on women. His top was a blue button-down dress shirt with a puffy sleeve jacket over it, and a long skirt. And gold clips in his hair. And men’s shoes. Which he joked in a video while he was getting ready were the perfect shoes with which to kill a cockroach. 
ACTING:
F9
Before making his way into film, Bad Bunny appeared as himself on several television shows. If you look at his iMDB page, he has over 140 credits. Mostly for music videos. And yes, it looks like he collaborated with everybody. JLo,  Cardi B, Marc Anthony,, Will Smith, Daddy Yankee and a ton of his own videos. And there are a bunch of Wrestling credits in there too. 
He played his first character, Everardo Arturo "Kitty" Paez, in Netflix's Narcos: Mexico. 
His first film, however, was the ninth main installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, F9. 
After what has been described by a “Blink and you’ll miss it cameo” in Fast and Furious 9 by USA Today https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/08/07/bad-bunny-bullet-train-worlds-hottest-tour/10243447002/
Bad Bunny was featured in a small cameo as "Lookout" during the 1989 flashback following Jakob and Dom. The flashback saw Jakob lose a race against Dom, leading him to be exiled and eventually become a master thief, driver, and assassin. (I don’t know who these people are- John Cena & Vin Diesel)
Bad Bunny was one of many talented artists who appeared in F9. Other artists included Don Omar, Cardi B, Bow Wow, and Ozuna. Of course, the franchise's Tej Parker has also been portrayed by the one and only Ludacris since 2003. 
Bad Bunny also wrote the song "De Museo" for F9, which ended up not being featured on the soundtrack, but still played during the film's end credits. The song referenced the late Paul Walker with the lyrics, "For brothers that are here and all those who left / Aay, from heaven they watch over me." Even before F9, Bad Bunny had already included a Dom Toretto reference in "¿Quién Tú Eres?" in 2018. Dom Toretto being Vin Diesel. And yes I had to look it up. 
According to Movie Web: With Bad Bunny having such a small cameo in F9, it's possible he will later return to the franchise as a new character. The Fast Saga has been confirmed to conclude with Fast & Furious 11, but the universe and franchise will continue to live on (via Screen Rant). This has left the door open for Bad Bunny to return in a potential spin-off. Now I don’t know if there’s any truth there or they’re just speculating. 
Narcos Mexico 2021
Made his acting debut in 2021 on Netflix series Narcos Mexico. When he was 26.  The series takes place in the 80’s and focuses on the development of Mexico's illegal drug trade, He played Arturo “Kitty” Paez. the character was based on a notorious cartel leader named Everardo Arturo Paez, aka “El Kitty.” Part of the Arellano Félix cartel in Tijuana. the Narco Juniors. This group is made up of rich young people from high society who joined the cartel life for the money, drugs and violence.
https://elpais.com/cultura/2020-11-11/el-artista-bad-bunny-sera-uno-de-los-narcos-de-netflix.html 
Told Jimmy Fallon that acting is different but the same. You have to work hard and be responsible. Said he was a fan of the show and they came to him about acting in it. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iESxvjkMcoE 
Bullet Train 2022
He played the Wolf in Bullet Train with Brad Pitt. They sent him the script. His Mom said Brad Pitt! You have to say Yes. So he said Yes. I saw it in the theater and I remember you saying that Bad Bunny was in it. At the time, I didn’t know who he was before I saw it. And he had an awesome fight scene in a train car with Brad Pitt. At one point, he picked up Brad Pitt and Brad is saying Who are you? Can’t we sit down and talk about this? Then they weave in his backstory and you find out why Bad Bunny aka “Wolf” attacked him. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHzaaz4bqDs 
"I have always dreamed about making movies and acting," Bad Bunny told USA TODAY 
"But I never, ever had a dream where I was trying to kill Brad Pitt in a movie scene."
Bad Bunny jumped at the chance to play the revenge-seeking, knife-wielding Wolf. He utters few words, but shows off impressive stunt fighting with Pitt in their climatic battle.
Bad Bunny said "It was intense, three weeks of training and fighting, getting ready with a lot of physical exercise and choreography," says Bad Bunny, who insists neither actor took a hit in the screen battle. "Nobody was damaged. Maybe it was the adrenaline. But I wouldn't have cared if I had been hurt by Brad Pitt.
"Director David Leitch credits Bad Bunny's effective performance to his dance ability.
"He's an incredibly physical actor, but it was his natural ability to understand choreography which makes it work," Leitch says. "He took to it quickly."
Even Pitt was wowed. 
"He has all my respect. Bad Bunny jumped in there and rolled with it," the actor says. "He understood the joke, and it was all just funny. He crushed it."
Bullet Train was easily one of the most entertaining action comedies of 2022. Bad Bunny played "The Wolf," a skilled assassin and the ex-kingpin of a powerful drug cartel. The Wolf's wedding was ruined by "The Hornet" (Zazie Beetz) poisoning The Wolf's wife and the wedding guests. Seeking revenge, The Wolf boarded the titular bullet train where he mistook Ladybug (Brad Pitt) as The Hornet. Revenge turned out to be The Wolf's undoing when he accidentally impaled himself with his own knife.
For the rest of the film, Bad Bunny continued to appear as a corpse disguised as a drunken guest. Fans were disappointed to see The Wolf killed off so soon after being heavily featured in the film's marketing campaign. But fortunately, Bad Bunny was able to make the most out of his minimal screen time. Not only did Bad Bunny's character have an interesting backstory, but his character also had one of the film's most memorable fight scenes. In the film's end credits, Bad Bunny was credited under his real name; Benito A Martínez Ocasio. Bullet Train marked Bad Bunny's first non-cameo role in a major film, and could technically be considered his first movie.
https://movieweb.com/bullet-train-bad-bunny-movie/ 
At the time in 2022 But Bad Bunny makes it clear that rumors of any music retirement – partially based the title of his third album and companion tour, "El Último Tour Del Mundo" ("The Last Tour in the World") – are greatly exaggerated.
"I'm never going to retire from music," Bad Bunny says. "I've been making music since forever, long before the fame, and I will continue to make music forever. But maybe I'll stop touring, the media, the albums. I need to take time to enjoy everything I have done."
Bad Bunny, who made his WWE premiere at a WrestleMania event in 2021, is honored to play the first major Latino superhero, the wrestler El Muerto in a Spider Man spinoff.  Which unfortunately never happened. 
Bad Bunny was excited about it. Bad Bunny spoke about El Muerto on stage at last year's CinemaCon, telling the audience, "It's incredible. I love wrestling. I grew up watching it, and now I'm a wrestler. That's why I love this character. I think it's the perfect role [for] me. It will be epic."
Vanity Fair asked him about the status of El Muerto, resulting in "an awkward silence." "I don't know what to say," Martínez finally said, telling Vanity Fair that the situation was "delicate." His publicist later chimed in, saying of the film: "Obviously, it's out."
Sony pulled the film from its release schedule in June, attributing the shift to the ongoing Hollywood strike and Bad Bunny's busy touring schedule. The film is still in development, with Jonás Cuarón attached to direct.
So it was yanked by Sony, and I think they are still trying to put it out, but we will just have to wait and see. 
https://ew.com/movies/bad-bunny-no-longer-starring-el-muerto-movie/ 
https://gamerant.com/spiderman-spinoff-movies-el-muerto-development-resumes-bad-bunny/#:~:text=Per%20Variety%2C%20while%20Bad%20Bunny,in%20development%20at%20the%20company. 
He took 3 months off from making music to train to fight in the WWE. Was a huge fan of it growing up. Triple H, Undertaker. Had some guys in his videos: Ric Flair, Stone Cold Steve Austin
Said it was hard, but he enjoyed it. 
Enjoying acting. Had always wanted to and now has the opportunity. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ilaxXnPKkM 
Cassandro 2023 co-star and executive producer Gael García Bernal.
The movie is about Saúl Armendáriz, played by Bernal, and his rise to fame as a gay lucha libre wrestler. Felipe, played by Bad Bunny, is a drug dealer who becomes an important person in Armendáriz’s life after being introduced by Armendáriz’s promoter. The two become very close and end up showing an interest in each other.
https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2023-09-18/cassandro-movie-bad-bunny-acting-wrestling-kiss 
The end of the trailer captures a glimpse of Casandro seemingly leaning for a kiss from Bad Bunny, following a scene of the two dancing with wide grins.
Bad Bunny previously opened up about his onscreen kiss with Bernal in an interview for Time. “My first kiss for a movie, and it was with a man,” he said, later adding, “That’s the penalty I get for being with so many women during my life.”
“If you’re acting, you’re being someone you’re not,” he added. “So when they asked me for that, I said, ‘Yes, I’m here for whatever you want.’ I think it was very cool; I didn’t feel uncomfortable.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/cassandro-gael-garcia-bernal-trailer-bad-bunny-1234810351/

Bad Bunny has appeared in a number of TV commercials, mostly for Corona, a few for Cheetos, and a few other miscellaneous ads. 
WRESTLING:
Benito got into wrestling while watching it on TV with some cousins. He’s since been a huge fan of the WWE as well as the International Wrestling Association in Puerto Rico. Starting in 2021, he’s made several appearances, performing as well as fighting. In case you were wondering, he’s 5’11” and weighs 165 pounds. He has 4 matches under his belt, 3 wins and 1 loss. He even has a signature move, the Bunny Destroyer (which is a “front flip piledriver”). His first appearance was at the 34th annual Royal Rumble on January 31, 2021. He was there to perform but got into a fight outside the ring (long story short, will link to everything in the show notes).
The next month, on February 15 2021, he was in the lineup at WWE Monday Night Raw, and defeated someone named R-Truth. 
On April 10 2021, he participated in WrestleMania 37, tag teaming with a gentleman named Damian Priest. The guys won.
Bad Bunny fought only once in 2022, at the 35th Annual WWE Royal Rumble on January 29, where he was part of the 30-Man Royal Rumble, and lost. 

And last but not least, in 2023 he fought once, on May 6, at WWE Backlash, against his former friend Damian Priest. This was especially significant for him because the event was held at the Coliseo De Puerto Rico, in San Juan. In attendance were 17,944 wrestling fans. Wrestling is called lucha libre in Spanish and it’s a big sport on the island! Apparently Bad Bunny, with no formal training or prior experience, is an impressive wrestler! 
PHILANTHROPY:
In 2018, Bad Bunny and several business partners established the Good Bunny Foundation, which is geared towards helping children in Puerto Rico and the US, especially those from underserved communities. Their focus is to help their development and interest in music, sports, and the arts. They work with other organizations in the community to raise funds and provide, for example, free basketball clinics and restore recreational areas in neighborhoods. Every year they hold a huge event to distribute thousands of toys to Puerto Rican children during the holidays. Kids receive art supplies, musical instruments and sporting goods to encourage their passions! He is there in person and loves to meet the kids. We’ll link to an article that might …stimulate your allergies. 
(Side note: Bad Bunny has 46.4M IG followers. The Good Bunny Foundation only has 51.5K followers!)

https://www.goodbunnyfoundation.org/
https://www.nbcmiami.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/bad-bunny-delivers-christmas-gifts-to-thousands-of-children-in-puerto-rico/3190850/#:~:text=On%20Saturday%2C%20the%20Puerto%20Rican,part%20of%20their%20Christmas%20celebrations.
https://latv.com/bad-bunnys-parents
https://www.biography.com/musicians/bad-bunny
https://www.gq.com/story/bad-bunny-june-cover-profile
https://www.thefader.com/2018/08/28/bad-bunny-cover-story-conejo-malo-interview
https://www.billboard.com/lists/bad-bunny-timeline-history-making-accomplishments/dec-1-2020/
Bad Bunny: How a Bag Boy Became the World's Biggest Star:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkIO2LZqJy0
Bad Bunny: ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ and Capturing the Sound of Puerto Rico | Apple Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN6NBSikyaY
https://www.grammy.com/news/bad-bunny-2023-grammys-performance-el-apagon-despues-de-la-playa
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/02/02/bad-bunny-grammys-history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_M%C3%BAsica_Urbana_Album
https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/bad-bunny-historic-headliner-coachella-2023-recap-1235303337/
https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/bad-bunny-un-verano-sin-ti-most-streamed-album-spotify-history-1235368920/
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/12/spotify-wrapped-2023-bad-bunny-claims-most-streamed-album-with-un-verano-sin-ti-762559?fbclid=iwar1cwthplymdvp2pcr6_phck3jzkism70mane5xhbd0no8-aferf_zwaq3k
https://www.popfiltr.com/articles/bad-bunny-sets-guinness-world-record-for-the-most-streamed-album-un-verano-sin-ti#:~:text=Bad%20Bunny%20has%20been%20a,2020%20and%20again%20in%202022.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premio_Lo_Nuestro_2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premio_Lo_Nuestro_2022
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premio_Lo_Nuestro_2023
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Bad_Bunny
https://www.wwe.com/superstars/bad-bunny
https://bwwe.fandom.com/wiki/Bad_Bunny
http://www.profightdb.com/wrestlers/bad-bunny-17984.html?prom_id=2
https://routenote.com/blog/most-first-day-streams/
https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/bad-bunny?page=1#concert-table
https://www.ispot.tv/topic/musician/ZRj/bad-bunny
https://www.grammy.com/news/bad-bunny-2023-grammys-performance-el-apagon-despues-de-la-playa
https://www.billboard.com/pro/bad-bunny-2022-tour-sells-out/
https://www.billboard.com/lists/bad-bunny-timeline-history-making-accomplishments/april-19-2021/