King Daddy II: Elemento DY

King Daddy II: Elemento DY (often stylized as King Daddy II or KD2) is the upcoming eight studio album (fourteenth overall) by Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee, scheduled to be released during early 2017, possibly on January or February. It is a sequel to his previous album King Daddy, produced by Los De La Nazza, a production duo that worked with Daddy Yankee from 2007 to 2014. The title Elemento DY (Spanish for DY Element) refers to the Dysprosium symbol, DY, which are Daddy Yankee's initials. The album will include "Sígueme y Te Sigo", "Vaivén" and "Shaky Shaky" as its singles, which were released between March 2015 and April 2016. Its release date remains unknown, although it was confirmed during a Facebook Live stream with Zumba fitness program creator Beto Perez that it will be released on January or February 2017.^[1]

Background

King Daddy II: Elemento DY is the sequel of his previous studio album King Daddy, released on October 2013, which was originally part of Los De La Nazza's El Imperio Nazza mixtape series, but became a standalone album. It was recorded in two weeks and didn't have much promotion because of being a less elaborated album in terms of production in comparisson of his previous ones. However, King Daddy became the first digital-only Latin album that managed to appear in the top 10 of Billboard's Top Latin Albums and its main single, «La Nueva y La Ex», received a lot of airplay in Latin America and in U.S. Latin radio stations.^[7] About two months after the release of King Daddy, he announced that there was going to be a physical version of the album, with exclusive bonus tracks, planned to be released during 2014, but it wasn't published after all.^[8]

Chris Jeday and Gaby Music were hired as the album's main producers during late 2014. King Daddy II is the first Daddy Yankee album since 2008 that isn't produced by Los De La Nazza.

The production duo Los De La Nazza, which has been working with him since 2007, left El Cartel Records and stopped being his main producers in order to focus on their careers. Because of that, Yankee hired three producers, Nekxum, Fenndel and Oreo Beatzzz, in order to start recording the album and create instrumentals. Eduard Fenndel stopped working because of health problems and Oreo Beatzzz left the label in order to dedicate to trap music and producing for new Latin urban artists. After five months of work, producers Chris Jeday and Gaby Music were hired as the album's main producers. King Daddy II: Elemento DY was officially announced during mid-2014 with the promotion of the single «Sábado Rebelde» featuring Plan B, released on 31 October. During 2015 were released other two singles: «Sígueme y Te Sigo» and «Vaivén», both reached the top position on Billboard's Latin Rhythm Airplay chart, tying Daddy Yankee and Wisin & Yandel as the artists with most No. 1 songs in the list, with 14 each.^[9]

During early 2015, he signed new rapper Brytiago to his label. Daddy Yankee first met him as an 8-years-old fan in 2000, but they met again 14 years later in a gym, Brytiago now as an artist, because of a common friend, and showed him some of his songs. Two weeks later, Yankee called him in order to work together at El Cartel Records' studio and after some weeks he showed his approval, deciding to sign him and also including him in the song «Alerta Roja», which became one of the biggest collaborations in reggaeton history. Brytiago confirmed that he will appear as a guest artist on King Daddy II.^[10]

In 2015 was announced a special concert by Daddy Yankee and Don Omar called The Kingdom at the Puerto Rican José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum, which was divided into four shows between 3 December and 6 December 2015.^[11] The idea was to show both artists performing their career hits and then having a rap battle, featuring ring announcers Michael and Bruce Buffer. During late November, both artists released their own diss tracks to each other in order to promote the shows. The concerts were produced by Raphy Pina and its last show was foccused on collecting money to charity for a children's hospital in Puerto Rico.^[12] In 2016, The Kingdom became a tour around the United States, starting on 30 July at the Madison Square Garden in New York and ending on 27 August at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.^[13] After the shows there were a series of online surveys about "Who's the King of Reggaeton", most of them were led by Daddy Yankee, who won in Billboard and Telemundo's surveys, with 979 votes to 663^[13] and 900.031 to 774.115, respectively.^[14]

On April 2016, he was involved with the Panama Papers cases after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) made public a series of documents that implicated him with offshore companies created for his concerts in Peru in 2006, in which the show's rights were given in exchange of $350,000 that were transferred to a foreign bank account through Arion Investments LLC.^[15] A month later, the Puerto Rican Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (Spanish for Investigative Journalism Center) revealed that he and his label El Cartel Records owe in total $3 million to the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS) since 2013, year in which the Argentinian producer Diego de Iraola won a trial against him for breach of contract and defamation after a cancelled tour trough Argentina in 2010.^[16]

He also was the coach in American talent show La Voz Kids' third and fourth season alongside Natalia Jiménez and Pedro Fernández, serving also as a vocal coach to his team members, claiming that he actually knows about music despite of being critiziced for the genre he represents.^[17] His Team Yankee finalists, Cuban Franser Pazos and Puerto Rican Axel Cabrera, were runners-up in season 3 and 4, respectively.^[18]

As to awards between July 2015 and October 2016, Daddy Yankee won 3 out of 5 nominations for Favorite Urban Artist: twice in the Premios Tu Mundo^[19][20] and once in the Latin American Music Awards;^[21] on the other hand, he was nominated twice in the Premios Juventud.^[22][23] His single "Sígueme y Te Sigo" won a Latin American Music Award for Favorite Urban Song^[21] and was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Song and Best Urban Performance.^[24] He also received a special Billboard Latin Music Award in 2016 for Industry Leader^[25] and was nominated for Latin Rhythm Songs Artist of the Year.^[26] His fanbase DYArmy was also the winner of two Premios Tu Mundo for Fan Club of the Year.^[19][20]

On 10 September, he was moved urgently to a nearby hospital in Cali, Colombia, where he was going to perform later that night. Yankee suffered a rise in blood pressure, hypoglycemia and dehydration, which almost caused him a heart attack, but was intervened by doctors. His condition improved and was sent to rest in his natal Puerto Rico, but had to cancel other concerts in Colombia.^[27] On 16 October, he received a special award during the People en Español Festival in honor to his career.^[28][29] Three days later, Yankee confirmed that his hypoglycemia worsened and turned into a prediabetes, just like one of his daughters, who also suffers from that illness.^[30][31]

In December, Daddy Yankee will have a special series of sold-out concerts in the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum on 3, 4, 16 and 17 December with Nicky Jam in commemoration of the year they became friends, in 1996. They collaborated in various songs and forged a great friendship until 2004, year in which they had a big fight because of Nicky Jam's drug problem and irresponsibility, although Yankee was trying to help him.^[32] In 2011, Nicky apologized in person for his behavior, so they became friends again and recorded a bonus track for the album Prestige, released in 2012.^[33] After Nicky's international consolidation with his hit single «El Perdón», he and Yankee sarted working together more frequently and on October 2016 they announced their upcoming concert in Puerto Rico.^[34]

Release

Daddy Yankee confirmed on 26 October 2016 during a meeting with Zumba fitness creator Beto Perez at Pina Records that King Daddy II: Elemento DY will be released during early 2017, probably January or February.^[1] As to its future sales, it's worth mentioning that US Billboard magazine added digital and streaming information on December 2014 to count sales: 1,000 digital songs sales and 1,500 song streams separately equals 1 album sale. Considered on-demand audio services includes Spotify, Google Play, Beats Music and Xbox Music.^[35]

Singles

	"Shaky Shaky" A 29-second sample of the single "Shaky Shaky". According to Daddy Yankee, it is a fusion between old and new school reggaeton. It became a number one hit single on three Billboard categories.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Daddy Yankee and Zion working on "Exagerao" at Criteria Studios in Miami. 20 March 2016.

• «Sígueme y Te Sigo» was released as the first single on 12 March 2015. It's a dance love song written by Daddy Yankee, Chris Jeday and Luis "Wichi" Ortíz Rivera, inspired by social networks but not centred on them, and mixes reggaeton with Latin pop, including an electric guitar riff.^[36] It peaked at #1 on Billboard's Latin Airplay chart on 23 May 2015. The music video, directed by Jessy Terrero,^[37] was filmed in Miami and was released on 8 May 2015 through his Vevo channel on YouTube. It has currently more than 380 million views. The song was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Song and Best Urban Performance,^[24] and won a Latin American Music Award for Favorite Urban Song.^[21] It was certified with 2× Platinum by the Spanish PROMUSICAE on 31 December 2015 for surpassing 16 million streams^[38] and also with Platinum by the IFPI Chile on 28 November 2016.^[39]
• «Vaivén» was released as the second single on 17 September 2016. It's a dance moombahton song written by Daddy Yankee, Luis "Wichi" Ortíz Rivera and the producer Chris Jeday. Although it hasn't an official music video, the song received a lot of airplay in U.S. Latin radio stations and in Spain, but not much around Latin America. It peaked at #1 on Billboard's Latin Airplay chart on 23 January 2016. Its lyric video was released alongside the single through Daddy Yankee's official YouTube channel and surpassed 50 million views. The song was nominated for an International Dance Music Award for Best Latin Dance Track.^[40] It was certified with Platinum by the PROMUSICAE on 24 March 2016 for surpassing 8 million streams^[41] and also with Platinum by the IFPI Chile on 28 November 2016.^[39]
• «Shaky Shaky» was released as the third single on 8 April 2016, although it was going to be released just as a gift from Daddy Yankee to his fans on 2015 Christmas. The song was born as a freestyle during early December 2015, and was later recorded by the production duo Los Evo Jedis.^[42] According to Yankee, the main vocals were recorded in one-take.^[43] The keyboard bass line was based on the one from the single «Murder She Wrote» by Chaka Demus & Pliers, released in 1992.^[44] It also includes a repeating sample of a horse's neigh from Mel and Tim's «Good Goys Only Win in the Movies» (1970), which became popular after Cypress Hill's «Insane in the Brain» (1993).^[45] Before its release, a preview of the song was officially published by Daddy Yankee in order to incentivate his fans to make a 16-second-long video dancing to the track in a contest named #ShakyChallenge. The song peaked at #1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs, Tropical Songs and Latin Streaming Songs charts. It became his fourth No. 1 song on Hot Latin Songs chart and the first one since February 2013.^[46] The music video was filmed in Miami, New York City and Los Angeles, featuring more than a hundred dancers,^[43] and was released on 14 July 2016. It has currently more than 540 million views. The video version replaces the words jodedera (jargon for party or screwing) and jodona (a woman who likes to have fun bothering other people) from the single version by gozadera (Spanish for revelry) and en la zona (Spanish for in the zone). It was certified with Platinum by the PROMUSICAE on 8 September 2016 for surpassing 8 million streams^[47] and also with Platinum by the IFPI Chile on 28 November 2016.^[39] A remix version featuring Nicky Jam and Plan B was released alongside its official lyric video on 14 October 2016. Another song based on the remix' "Hula Hoop" hook was announced on 21 October, scheduled to be released during the rest of the month, but it's unknown if it will be part of the album.^[48][49]

Other releases

• «Sábado Rebelde» was released as a promotional single on 31 October 2014 although it was originally released as the album's first single. It features reggaeton duo Plan B and was written by them, Daddy Yankee and the producer Haze. It peaked at #41 on Billboard's Latin Airplay chart on 21 March 2015. The music video was directed by the company 36 Grados and was filmed in Medellín, Colombia, recreating a night club with more than a hundred extras.^[50] It was officially released on 23 January 2015 and has currently more than 180 million views. The song received a lot of airplay around Latin America but not so much in the U.S. An official EDM trap remix by Puerton Rican production duo Damn Frog (composed by DJ Nelson and Gaby Metálico) was released on 12 May 2015.
• «Alerta Roja» was released as another promotional single on Daddy Yankee's birthday on 3 February 2016 as a gift to his fans.^[51] It's the biggest non-remix nor tribute reggaeton collaboration in history, surpassing Zion & Lennox' «Yo Tengo Una Gata» (2009, 13 artists), Eddie Dee's «Los 12 Discípulos» (2004, 12 artists) and Luny Tunes' «Royal Rumble» (2006, 10 artists). It features other 17 artists from four different countries: Zion, Nicky Jam, Arcángel, De La Ghetto, Kafu Banton, Plan B, J Balvin, Farruko, Cosculluela, El Micha, Brytiago, Alexio, Mozart La Para, Secreto and Gente de Zona. The song's concept was to include some of the most popular Latin urban artists.^[52] The song's lyric video, directed by Pepe Quintana, surpassed 25 million views. Singers Osmani García and J Álvarez (Cuban and Puerto Rican, respectively) were originally guest artists but their verses weren't included in the song. J Álvarez stated not knowing about being out of it and manifestated his anger with Daddy Yankee through his social networks.^[53] Two weeks later, Álvarez said that he wasn't aware of the song's concept and also that his anger was caused by a misunderstanding.^[54]

Track listing

To be announced.

The following table is in order of releases, it's not the official track listing. Some songs may not appear in the final product. Unreleased tracks are marked and start at No. 6.

Chart performance

Accolades

Notes

References