The new docuseries Reggaeton: The Sound that Conquered the World reunites some of the biggest hitmakers in the genre — including Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen and Bad Bunny — to tell the story of how it went from underground music to a style that went on to reign supreme.
Set to premiere Oct. 3 on Peacock, the four-part project — directed by Omar Acosta (Mixtape) and executive produced by Yankee — breaks down the genre’s evolution from its earliest iterations when it soundtracked the barrios of Puerto Rico to its global takeover and commercial success thanks to hitmakers such as DJ Playero, Bad Bunny, Karol G, Vico C and J Balvin, among other key players.
“The project is important today because reggaetón has come such a long way,” Acosta tells Billboard. “I remember when I was a kid in Puerto Rico, and if I’d run into Playero, because he was already pretty big locally, and I would ask him for tapes. First he would give me mixtapes with hip-hop or house music. And once he gave me a tape of local kids singing and it was very raw but to see it go from that to this global phenomenon. It’s important to tell the story of reggaetón because I don’t know that people understand that impact or sometimes they think that it just got there overnight but it’s been generational at this point.”
Acosta worked closely with Daddy Yankee over the past five years to bring the docuseries to life. “We would sit together when I was cutting and editing, and I would see him thinking of the process almost like making a song,” Acosta explains. “He’d tell me, ‘the rhythm in this part here should be more like this.’ It was a great collaboration.”
Below, watch the trailer to Reggaeton: The Sound that Conquered the World.