Puerto Rico’s Million-Dollar Bunny is Anything but Bad by Mariana Escobar

My biggest hot take as a Latina? I hate Bad Bunny. Well, I used to.

Reggaeton, trap, and rap music with shallow lyrics about the usual drugs, women, and clubs wasn’t my cup of café. But then came Debí Tirar Más Fotos.

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, whose stage name is “Bad Bunny,” is a 31-year-old three-time Grammy-winning Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and songwriter spreading Latin music throughout the world from the small Caribbean island. Bad Bunny’s newest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, took a step away from his usual sound and, for the first time, incorporated the other –and arguably better–  side of Latin music: salsa, merengue, mam

bo, plena, and bomba. 

“His most Puerto Rican album ever” comprises 17 tracks, and each transports the listener to Puerto Rico and its sandy beaches with its maracas, conga, cowbells, bongo, trombones, and trumpets. One of the top trends on TikTok revolving around Debí Tirar Más Fotos was of Gen Z introducing their grandparents to the openings of “NuevaYol” or “Baile Inolvidable,” claiming it was classic salsa. The twist? As the older listeners started dancing, faces froze in shock and ultimately denial when the younger ones revealed the culprit: Bad Bunny, the very artist they had long disapproved of. (Same, abuelita, I get it.)

However, besides the musical shift, what took fans the most by surprise was the lyrical one. The songs and album as a whole tell a story: a love letter to Puerto Rico, its culture, and its people. It’s an album about nostalgia, family, and enjoying the moment. The literal translation of the title is “I Should’ve Taken More Photos,” and Bad Bunny noted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “It really means I should have embraced and appreciated more the moment, the present. I should have appreciated more the people who are around me, the people who love me.” To Benito’s surprise, the plena (one of the oldest Puerto Rican rhythms) track “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” quickly became the number one song in the world, filling him with pride and international acceptance. With its bittersweet message about wishing for more hugs and kisses with loved ones now gone, it makes perfect sense.

The album cover has white monobloc chairs under plantain trees, a nostalgic setting in which Latin families are known to have late-night talks, drawing fans in before even listening to the songs. Given his lyrics about tourism and gentrification in “Turista” (Tourist), learning to dance salsa in “Baile Inolvidable” (Unforgettable Dance), colonization and displacement in “Lo Que Le Paso a Hawaii” (What Happened to Hawaii), and an ode to his culture, family’s sacrifice, and flag in “La Mudanza” (The Move), suffice to say a review of the album is for another article. Not only does it pull on the listener’s heartstrings, but it simultaneously gives them a history lesson and educates them on the political issues on the shore. 

This ultimately comes into fruition in the album’s counterpart: tour. Bad Bunny’s No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui (I Don’t Want to Leave Here) Tour rapidly rose into the headlines for skipping the United States, where he is a key figure in music charts, due to fear of his Latin audiences making his show ICE hotspots amid the political climate in America. However, what truly broke the news was his announced 30-date residency at the 19,500-seat Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, the capital city.

Thanks to the good bunny, the island’s economy has hopped forward –a lot. Puerto Rico is the dream destination for a Caribbean vacation, but hurricane season from June to November stalls tourism, as it drops by anywhere from 25 to 45 percent. According to The New York Times, the tourism sector of the $114 billion economy accounts for 7 percent. 

Nonetheless, the young singer is making sure that the small percentage is felt. While accommodation prices can fall by almost 50 percent during this time, August and September short-term rentals rose by numbers between 130 and 175 percent in comparison to the previous year. With 600,000 people flocking to Puerto Rico for the concerts, there was an instant boost of $250 million in the economy. 34 hotels marketed themselves with the residency, sold out 48,000 nights in 35 hours, and generated almost $200 million. Jamie Lane, chief economist of AirDNA, a data platform that examines the short-term rental market, stated, “You see this kind of bump when it’s the Paris Olympics or the Super Bowl, but those are short stints. This is the first time we’ve seen it consistently, in one city.” 

The stage’s spotlight is on the $400 million of total spending, though, which is not directly associated with the shows. Locals are understandably taking advantage of the surge in tourism. Street vendors make $5,000 a night selling hand-held fans outside the stadium, and a nonprofit that helps impoverished Puerto Rican communities launched a $25 island guided bike tour called “I should have biked more.” I mean, can one follow the concept of utility maximization any better? This impact ultimately led Moody’s Analytics to raise its 2025 economic forecast for Puerto Rico from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent.

There is una ultima cosa garnering Bad Bunny’s newfound intergenerational and international recognition. It comes down to cultural pride. Given the raw emotion and passion listeners feel from the singer in Debí Tirar Más Fotos, it makes perfect sense that Bad Bunny wants to give back to his beloved island. The first few shows of the residency were exclusively available to residents and offered at affordable prices, ranging from $35 to $250. 

However, as much as I would love for it to be all about economics, there is a deeper layer. With his long residency, Benito indirectly told his fans: if you loved the art, come and see what inspired it — get to know it and support it. Rather than going into the world, he invited the world to his home. 

In the album’s “Turista” (Tourist) music video, critiquing careless tourism’s consequent gentrification, Bad Bunny cast himself as an Airbnb cleaner tidying up after an American family’s lavishly inconsiderate mess after a night’s stay. That created perspective. Now for the tour, audiences want to respectfully experience Puerto Rico and mindfully engage in the culture. In the end, “visitors come not only to see him but to explore his island.” Tourists now are supporting more small businesses, venturing out of San Juan, asking locals for hidden beach gems, visiting Bad Bunny’s hometown, and trying to find the album’s mascot: the Puerto Rican crested toad.

Debí Tirar Más Fotos is undoubtedly a pivotal moment in Benito’s career—inolvidable, if you will. Besides making an increasing number of appearances on Saturday Night Live, collaborating with Adidas, getting sponsored by Calvin Klein, and partnering with Prime Video to livestream the residency’s last concert, he mastered the art of connecting with audiences and expanding his fanbase. 

Not only did he help grandparents bond with their grandchildren over trumpets, but now I truly only have him to thank for the newfound bridge he formed between me and my teenage boy cousins. Never did I think the one thing we would bond over would be this: looking forward to Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl LX halftime show together.