YHLQMDLG

YHLQMDLG (abbreviation of "Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana", Spanish for "I Do Whatever I Want"[2]) is the second solo studio album (third overall) by Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny. It was released on February 29, 2020, by Rimas Entertainment.[3][4][5] The album's music style is heavily influenced by "old-school" reggaeton,[6] and features guest appearances from [Sech (singer)|Sech]], Mora, Jowell & Randy, Anuel AA, Myke Towers, Kendo Kaponi, Arcángel, Duki and Pablo Chill-E. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, becoming the highest-charting all-Spanish album ever on the chart at the time, until the release of his fourth album, El Último Tour Del Mundo.

YHLQMDLG
Studio album by Bad Bunny
Released	February 29, 2020
Recorded	2019–2020
Genre	Reggaeton Latin trap alternative reggaeton
Length	80:05
Language	spanish
Label	Rimas
Producer	Albert Hype Bad Bunny Based1 Chris Jeday Demy & Clipz Dez Wright Dímelo Flow DJ Orma Ilikai EMG EZ Made da Beat Frank King Forthenight Gaby Music Haze Hazen Hide Miyabi Jota Rosa Lennex Mora Music Nesty Nino Payday Prida Soteldo Beats Subelo NEO Taiko Tainy The Skybeats
Bad Bunny chronology
Oasis (2019) YHLQMDLG (2020) Las que no iban a salir (2020)
Singles from YHLQMDLG
"Vete" Released: November 22, 2019 "Ignorantes" Released: February 14, 2020 "La Difícil" Released: February 29, 2020 "Yo Perreo Sola[1]" Released: March 27, 2020

YHLQMDLG was the best selling Latin in the United States of 2020 and became Spotify's most streamed album globally of 2020,[7] and received a nomination for Best Latin Pop or Urban Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.[8]

Backgrounds ands singles

"Vete" was released as the lead single of the album on November 22, 2019.[9] The album title was first mentioned during a sequence of the accompanying music video.[10][11] The second single "Ignorantes" with Panamanian singer Sech came out on February 14, 2020.[12] Bad Bunny announced the album on February 27, 2020,and stated that it would be released on Leap Day 2020.[13]

Composition

YHLQMDLG is a reggaeton and Latin trap album, that incorporates elements of R&B, electronica, reggae, and rock music. Billboard described the album as a "old-school perreo, romantic reggaeton, and Latin trap with global appeal."[14] It is a departure from Bad Bunny’s know Latin trap style showcased on his very beginnings and focuses more on fun, bouncy, and aggressive reggaeton beats and lyrics. Bad Bunny’s vision for the album was for it to bring back the “glory days” of reggaeton, drawing inspiration from it, like the song “Safaera”, which is a heavy, 00’s-inspired, beat switching described "reggaeton symphony", which features Puerto Rican duo Jowell y Randy and Nengo Flow. The album also features Latin trap sounds, incorporating the widely known 808 drum patterns, and both fun and aggressive melodies, such as in “Si Veo A Tu Mama”, which samples the bossa-nova classic "The Girl from Ipanema",[15] featuring a sweet, Nintendo-ish keyboard sound, while the song “25/8” is an example of the dark, hard-hitting melodies that some of the trap songs in the record share. Lyrically, Bad Bunny sings and raps about themes such as women, partying, heartbreak, and women-empowerment, an example of it is the song “Yo Perreo Sola”, which talks about a girl that Bad Bunny wants to dance with, but she refuses, because according to her, Bad Bunny also refused to dance with her in the past, so now he is the one who is "begging". In the last track of the album, “<3”, Bad Bunny thanks all his fans and team of work for supporting and believing in him, while also expressing his desire to retire and living with no more stress, closing both the song and album with the title of the record.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	88/100[16]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
Consequence of Sound	B+[18]
Pitchfork	8.5/10[19]
Rolling Stone	[20]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 88 based on 5 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]

Writing for AllMusic, Thom Jurek stated Bad Bunny "turns the notion of the cohesive urban statement into a sprawling 20-track mix of styles, production techniques, and completely accessible hooks in a work of peerless musical invention," and described YHLQMDLG as "a transformative fever dream of an album that accents freedom by breaking all the rules without writing new ones."[21] In Rolling Stone, Suzy Exposito gave YHLQMDLG 4.5 stars, writing that Bad Bunny "convenes a family reunion of his favorite rappers and reggaetoneros to produce a genre-promiscuous work of reggaeton a la Marquesa."[20] For Consequence of Sound, Lucas Villa wrote that Bad Bunny "is emerging as a rarity in the game like the mythical Mew. Benito is game-sharking a system that was once othering Latin music artists with his perreo takeover of pop."[22] Matthew Ismael Ruiz in Pitchfork deemed the album "outstanding" and described it as "a big party record that pushes boundaries and pays homage to reggaetón's past and future, all made by a swaggering star with absolutely nothing to prove."[19]

Accolades

Accolades for YHLQMDLG

Publication	List	Rank	Ref.
Billboard	The 50 Best Albums of 2020	2	[14]
Complex	The Best Albums of 2020	4	[23]
Entertainment Weekly	The 15 Best albums of 2020	5	[24]
NPR	The 50 Best Albums of 2020	5	[25]
Pitchfork	The 50 Best Albums of 2020	3	[26]
Rolling Stone	The 50 Best Albums of 2020	2	[27]
The New York Times	Best Albums of 2020 (Jon Caramanica)	8	[28]
Consequence of Sound	Top 50 Albums of 2020	6	[29]
Crack	The Top 50 Albums of 2020	9	[30]

Commercial performance

YHLQMDLG debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 dated March 14, 2020, earning 179,000 album-equivalent units, including 35,000 pure album sales in its first week. It earned 201.4 million on-demand streams in the country, achieving the biggest streaming week ever for a Latin album, surpassing the record set by Ozuna's Aura (2018, 53.2 million streams). It became the highest-charting all-Spanish album to ever appear on the chart at the time—before he broke his own record with El Último Tour Del Mundo's release in November, which debuted atop the chart. Previous record-holders for an all-Spanish-language albums were Shakira's Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 (2005) and Maná's Amar es Combatir (2006), both at number four, while two mostly-Spanish albums have reached number one, Selena's Dreaming of You (1995) and Il Divo's Ancora (2006).[31] In its second week, the album dropped to number three on the chart, earning an additional 111,000 units.[32] In its third week, the album remained at number three on the chart, earning 69,000 more units.[33] In its fourth week, the album fell to number four on the chart, with 51,000 units.[34] YHLGMLG was the best selling Latin Album of 2020 in the United States with 1,444,000 album-equivalent units.[35]

Bad Bunny charted all 20 album tracks on the US Hot Latin Songs ranking dated March 14, setting several records: most concurrently charting titles in the top 10 (8), in the top 20 (18) and in the top 25 (20). With eight top 10 songs on the chart, Bad Bunny outdid himself as he previously held the record for the most simultaneous top 10s, with six (September 2019). With 18 songs in the top 20, he surpassed J Balvin's nine-song mark (February 2020). Both Bad Bunny and Ozuna have placed 20 songs simultaneously on the chart.[36] Bad Bunny brought his total career entries on the chart to a record 83, surpassing Daddy Yankee's 74 entries.[37]

Bad Bunny also placed 11 album tracks simultaneously on the US Billboard Hot 100, the most for any Latin artist performing only in Spanish.[37]

YHLQMDLG became Spotify's most streamed album globally of 2020, with 3.3 billion streams during the year.[7]

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Category	Result	Ref.
American Music Awards	2020	Favorite Album – Latin	Won	[38]
Grammy Awards	2021	Best Latin Pop or Urban Album	Pending	[39]
Latin Grammy Awards	2020	Album of the Year	Nominated	[40]
		Best Urban Music Album	Nominated

Track listing

YHLQMDLG track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Si Veo a Tu Mamá"		Subelo NEO Elikai	4:50
2.	"La Difícil"	Martínez Gabriel Mora Jose Cruz Freddy Montalvo Jesus Prato	Subelo NEO Lennex Mora	4:43
3.	"Pero Ya No"	Martínez Cruz Montalvo Dylan Cleary-Krell Emanuel Gonzalez	Subelo NEO EMG Dez Wright	4:40
4.	"La Santa" (featuring Daddy Yankee)	Martínez Ramon Ayala Marco Masis	Tainy	5:26
5.	"Yo Perreo Sola"	Martínez Cruz Montalvo Marco Masis Genesis Rios-Serrano	Bad Bunny Tainy Subelo NEO	4:52
6.	"Bichiyal" (featuring Yaviah)	Martínez Ernesto Padilla Cruz Montalvo Javier Marcano	Nesty Subelo NEO	5:16
7.	"Soliá"	Martínez Mora Cruz Montalvo Etienne Gagnon Steve Martinez	Subelo NEO Demy & Clipz Mora	5:59
8.	"La Zona"	Martínez Egbert Rosa Carlos Ortiz Juan Ortiz Nino Segarra	Chris Jeday Gaby Music Haze Nino	5:36
9.	"Que Malo" (featuring Ñengo Flow)	Martínez Edwin Rosa Abner Boria Michael Masis	Mvsis Jota Rosa	5:17
10.	"Vete"	Martínez Ivaniel Ortiz Cruz Montalvo Cesar Batista-Escalera Edgar Semper-Vergas Xavier Semper-Vergas	Subelo NEO Hazen	5:12
11.	"Ignorantes" (featuring Sech)	Martínez Eduardo Soteldo, Sr. Carlos Morales Jorge Valdes	Dímelo Flow Soteldo Beats	5:30
12.	"A Tu Merced"	Martínez Henry De La Prida Cruz Montalvo Ezequiel Rivera	EZ Made da Beat Prida Subelo NEO	4:58
13.	"Una Vez" (featuring Mora)	Martínez Mora Cruz Montalvo Nicolas Jana	Taiko	5:59
14.	"Safaera" (featuring Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow)	Sly Dunbar Martínez Lloyd Willis Cruz Montalvo Melissa Elliot Timothy Mosley Bob Marley Ormani Perez Shaun Pizzonia Richard Lied Felix Rodriguez Marco Masis Joel Munoz Randy Ortiz Rosa	Tainy DJ Orma	6:55
15.	"27/05"	Martínez Cruz Montalvo Kaled Rivera Ben Sturdivant Felix Rodriguez Jason Garcia	Subelo NEO Hide Miyabi Based1 Elikai	6:03
16.	"Está Cabrón Ser Yo" (featuring Anuel AA)	Martínez Emmanuel Gazmey Frank Packer Harald Sorebo	Payday Frank King	5:47
17.	"Puesto Pa' Guerrial" (featuring Myke Towers)	Martínez I. Ortiz Cruz Montalvo Michael Torres	Subelo NEO Hazen	5:10
18.	"P FKN R" (featuring Kendo Kaponi and Arcángel)	Martínez Charles Ocansey Frederik Thrane Jose Rivera Austin Santos	The Skybeats Forthenight	6:18
19.	"Hablamos Mañana" (featuring Duki and Pablo Chill-E)	Martínez Marco Masis Pablo Acevedo Mauro Lombardo Carlos Melendez	Tainy Albert Hype	6:00
20.	"<3"	Martínez Marco Masis Melendez	Tainy Albert Hype	4:37
Total length:				80:05

Sample credits

• "Si Veo a Tu Mamá" contains interpolations from "The Girl from Ipanema", written by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes and Norman Gimbel, performed by Stan Getz and João Gilberto.[41]
• "La Santa" contains interpolations from "Aquí Está Tu Caldo", written and performed by Daddy Yankee.[42]
• "Vete" contains interpolations from "Si Te Vas", written by Cesar Batista-Escalera, performed by Kartiel.[43]
• "Ignorantes" contains interpolations from "No Sé Si Fue", written and performed by Arcángel and Zion.[44]
• "Safaera" contains samples from "Get Ur Freak On", performed by Missy Elliott, "Could You Be Loved", performed by Bob Marley, "El Tiburón", performed by Alexis & Fido and an opening line from Cosculluela's "Pa' La Pared".[45]

Charts

Weekly charts Chart performance for YHLQMDLG Chart (2020) Peak position Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[46] 62 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[47] 75 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[48] 17 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[49] 27 French Albums (SNEP)[50] 79 Italian Albums (FIMI)[51] 14 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[52] 44 Spanish Streaming Albums (PROMUSICAE)[53] 1 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[54] 48 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[55] 12 US Billboard 200[56] 2 US Independent Albums (Billboard)[57] 1 US Top Latin Albums (Billboard)[58] 1 US Latin Rhythm Albums (Billboard)[59] 1

Year-end charts 2020 year-end chart performance for YHLQMDLG Chart (2020) Position US Billboard 200[60] 14 US Top Latin Albums (Billboard)[61] 1

Certifications

Sales certifications for YHLQMDLG

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[62]	3× Platinum	120,000
United States (RIAA)[63]	19× Platinum (Latin)	1,140,000
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

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2. Bloom, Madison (February 29, 2020). "Bad Bunny Drops New Album YHLQMDLG: Listen". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
3. Espinoza, Joshua (February 28, 2020). "Bad Bunny Reveals Title, Release Date, and Cover Art for New Album". Complex. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
4. Haylock, Zoe (February 28, 2020). "Don't Freak Out, But Bad Bunny's New Album Drops at Midnight". Vulture. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
5. Renshaw, David (February 28, 2020). "Bad Bunny to release new album YHLQMDLG this weekend". The Fader. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
6. Fernandez, Stefanie (November 27, 2020). "Bad Bunny Drops The Indie-fluenced 'El Último Tour Del Mundo'". NPR. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
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8. "Grammy Nominations 2021". The New York Times.
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10. Alvelo, Joel. "Confirmado el nuevo álbum de Bad Bunny YHLQMDLG". talentomusical.net (in Spanish). Retrieved February 5, 2021.
11. Bustios, Pamela (January 23, 2020). "Daddy Yankee's "Que Tire Pa Lante" Continues Its Latin Charts Domination". Billboard. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
12. Malone, Chris (February 14, 2020). "Bad Bunny Previews Upcoming Album With Sech Collab". Forbes. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
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36. "Ozuna Breaks Own Record With 20 Titles on Hot Latin Songs Chart". Billboard. September 5, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
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63. "American album certifications – Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 12 November 2020. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click Type, then select Latin, then click SEARCH.