By Lucas Villa
Think of your favorite reggaetón track. Whether it’s a Wisin & Yandel cut from the genre's 2000s breakthrough, like “Abusadora,” or a contemporary hit, like “Yo Perreo Sola” or “Callaíta,” Tainy has likely had a hand in it. When reggaetón was first rising up, the Puerto Rican producer was working under Luny Tunes, the duo du jour behind the song that lit the fuse for reggaetón, Daddy Yankee's “Gasolina.” In the 15 years since, he's become the go-to hitmaker for artists like J Balvin, Bad Bunny, and Anuel AA. Last month, on Billboard's Latin Producers chart, which ranks the producers with the biggest hits of the week, Tainy had sat at No. 1 for over 50 weeks. Recently, he was awarded Producer of the Year at the Billboard Latin Music Awards for his achievements in that medium.
"That was amazing for me," he tells MTV News. "That's the first time [for me] getting an award like that. I'm happy, but I'm back to work to keep it going."
He’s also won three Latin Grammys, and he’s up for four more at the 2020 show later this month. He's nominated twice in the Album of the Year category for his work on two of the year's biggest releases: Bad Bunny's YHLQMDLG and J Balvin's Colores. This kind of success has been over a decade in the making.