Daddy Yankee’s Latin GRAMMY tribute traced reggaeton from cassettes to ‘Gasolina’
DJ Playero revisited early tracks before Feid and Trueno joined Tito El Bambino and Jowell & Randy for the hit.
Daddy Yankee performs in Honduras in a 2019 file photo, not at the 2026 tribute. Photo: Chrishonduras / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chrishonduras · Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International · Resized for display.
At Daddy Yankee’s Nov. 11 Person of the Year gala in Las Vegas, DJ Playero revisited early reggaeton tracks before Feid and Trueno joined Tito El Bambino and Jowell & Randy for “Gasolina.” The Latin Recording Academy’s recap put artists from different points in the genre’s history on the same stage.
The gala recalled the genre’s underground years
The ceremony also recalled the conditions around reggaeton’s early circulation. Jorge Drexler performed “Ante La Duda, Baila,” a song referencing Puerto Rico’s Ley 112; the Academy says the 1995 law was used to seize reggaeton cassettes from San Juan record shops. Playero’s set brought that earlier music into a tribute built around one of Daddy Yankee’s best-known songs.
J Balvin and LL Cool J presented the award, which the Academy said recognized nearly three decades of Yankee’s career and his humanitarian work. He closed the gala with “Sonríele,” “BOTZ” and “Lo Que Pasó, Pasó.”
