It's been three years since Daddy Yankee's turbo-charged "Gasolina" roared to the top of the charts and signaled the mainstream arrival of reggaeton, the down-and-dirty Latino rap style cultivated in the urban barrios of Puerto Rico. The revved-up single triggered predictions of a hip-hop crossover and a new Latin music craze.


But the craze never came and the race for a crossover has since been canceled.

Now, Yankee returns with his first full studio album (in stores today) since the charismatic and disciplined rapper was crowned most likely to lead that elusive crossover bid. The Big Boss has thrust his engines in reverse and signaled the genre's new direction: A reggaeton retrenchment.

But not a retreat.

Like a good politician in shaky times, Yankee is playing to his base with 21 tracks that mostly stick to reggaeton's irresistibly bouncy rhythms and chest-thumping themes: sex, partying, nationalism, barrio loyalty and, as the title suggests, brash bragging about who's the best.

The new work gains a little hip-hop/R&B luster with the help of non-reggaeton collaborators such as will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas, Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls and Fergie, who's featured on the first single, "Impacto," produced by Canadian hitmeister Scott Storch.

Yet with the exception of a duet with Akon on the taut, politically defiant "Bring It On," the star power Doe's provide the best moments on a CD that could have been trimmed by a third.

Daddy Yankee (born Ramon Ayala) leaves no doubt that he still has the skill and style that made him stand out from reggaeton's crowded rank-and-file. He wrote or co-wrote every tune, delivering lines with a rat-a-tat torrent of syllables and Caribbean street cadence that makes his Spanish almost unrecognizable at times.

Yankee's rap camouflages in his lyrics, which the wicked wit and schooled artfulness of, say, the young duo Calle 13. But while newer acts test the limits of decency with depravity and foul language, Yankee stakes out high moral ground with unabashed thanks to God for his survival and his success. That spirituality coexists with his barrio bravado in autobiographical tunes such as "Soy Lo Que Soy" and "Coraza Divina."

In the end, Yankee takes on critics and gossipy reporters in the sarcastic, Fresh Prince-styled "Todos Quieren A Raymond" (Everybody Loves Raymond). The title is a play on his real name, which he uses to sign off: "Tell me what the devil I can do if there are bad people/ Just go on being me, Ramon Ayala." (Dime que rayos puedo hacer yo si hay gente mala/ Solamente seguir siendo yo, Ramon Ayala.)


This cd is basically the #1 Prime example for popping this in a Car stereo, Or of course in party's which will get everybody out of their Chair's And Hallucinate while dancing to "El Cartel".

Prolific Grammy Award Winning Reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee (A.K.A. Ramón "Raymond" Ayala) return's with his latest effort in "El Cartel: The Big Boss" (2007) a twenty-one track release which features guest appearances from Akon, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, Hector El Father, will.i.am and Fergie. Being that I rarely listen to Reggaeton music (except when visiting South America) and do not speak the language well, I can't really give this album a complete review. My favourite track on this release is Daddy Yankee's collaboration with singer Akon for the excellent "Bring It On". Akon laces the track with a memorable chorus while Daddy Yankee reps his native Puerto Rico with pride. Got this cut on heavy rotation. One of the early track's to standout for me was the upbeat "Cambio", while "Ella Me Levanto" is an entertaining track musically, creative instrumentals - can picture beautiful mamacitas dancing to this one. The lead single on this release is "Impacto", the album also features a bonus remix featuring Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas. "Me Quedaria" is a late standout for me. Though relatively new to the genre, one thing I admire about Reggaeton music is the flair and passion that the artist's put into their music, combined with distinct instrumentals. 3.5.

Best to review it, track by track.

Jefe - What is this, Hammer revisited? As an opener, it sucks. It is not a bad track, though.

En Sus Marcas - nice beat, difficult to understand at times; somehow this is Rompe, Revisited.

Cambio - clever use of rhyme and lyrics, slightly bachateao, so to speak.

Fuera de Control - identity crisis... would have taken the dembow away and leave as a straight hip-hop track.

Impacto - first installment, again, good beat, energetic; second one, less so.

Ella me levantó - a cliché from beginning to end, hate it. Would be loved by the average 15 yo. Sucks donkeys.

A lo Clasico - somehow reminds me of Calle 13's "Se Vale To-Tó". Has Voltio written all over it. Rompe The Third.

Bring it on - freshest track in the whole album... who cares if he's trying to pander to the English speaking audience?

Who's Your Daddy? - great, DY's voice is a bit buried in the mix. A bit too busy, but great.

El Celular - nice, would offend his die-hard fans, but great sounding, even if the lyrics are a bit clicheish.

Ven dámelo - filler track, period. Gasolina sin plomo.

Papi Lover - as a crossover track beat-wise, nice effort.

Qué pasó? - as a crossover track, better effort than Papi Lover, but would tolerate the previous' subject matter better.

Mensaje de Estado - as far as tiraera goes, this is the best curse streak I've heard in a long, long time. W&Y, consider yourselves dissed. My concern is that tiraera is so old by now...

Tensión - lyrically busy, good beat.

Soy lo que soy - autobiographical tracks, nicely written, but spare me the Popeye treatment... I Yam What I Yam, revisited.

Coraza divina - nice lyrics, awful beat. Proves that DY can get serious and not too saccharine while getting personal.

Plane to PR - great beat, really infectious... hate the idea of oversimplifying things and conveying a clichéd image of Puerto Rico, a la Will Smith's 'Miami', but good dance track

Me quedaría - somehow reminds me of Vico C, ol skool. Good.

Todos quieren a Raymond - great subject matter, great lyrical images. Weird beat. I hate the title, he probably was watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" on his first class seat

Overall impression - DY is trying too hard to please too wide an audience, and his talent for lyrics is getting diluted. Should he be making an international impact on the same league as Ricky Martin, Raymond better remember that Ricky's last English album was a miserable stinker, because it was too busy and unfocused. This album is way too long. It consists of quite a few gems buried between a lot of filler. The braggadocio is starting to take its toll, but he's still the best lyrics delivery man in the business. When he's experimental, he's good; when his lyrics are focused, no one can touch him. Beat-wise, this album is inconsistent. Three stars.

Definitivamente esta producción está dirigida al mercado Gringo y no al Latino. Es una desición de Yankee. No esta mal, pero no me deslumbra.

Get Ready Ladies and gentleman to a whole nother round of beef between Don Omar and "DY". I've waited patiently for this album and came out to be decent, but right off the bat you kno Daddy is lookin for fire and adds more wood with his first Track "Jefe." That Track has such a powerful beat and a lyrical stance sayin he aint goin nowhere, that he is the KING. His cockiness flows all ova the track, but thats what shows he still has it at battling and defending himself.

Alot of tracks on this album catch me production wise, more then lyrically. Reason being, Daddy Yankee is still the same with his quick lyrics on some tracks, which is fine, but much harder to understand now. He seems to stress his accent more and takes pauses before the next word which is annoyin sometimes but like i said the production makes up for it. Example, "En Sus Marcas Listos Fuera" is quick paced like some of his olda tracks with a ridiculous beat that will surely get the parties pumpin. It has such a catchy beat but tryin to hear da words is a struggle. Track 3, "Cambio", another catchy party pumpin beat talkin about people in da club and him cambiando da females. Now the Hottest Reggaeton track here is Fuera De Control, its an infectious beat that gets you perrando to death with a female/male and talks about this shorty who is like no other, who is FUERA DE CONTROL. Now the Lead Single Impacto and its remix are without a doubt infectious tracks dat get you pumped up, but dis is better lyrically cuz he is quick and you understand him more. "Ella Me Levanto" has a hard beat and describes about a shorty dat played him but the next came up and lifted his up world up, strong song without a doubt. "El Celular" has such a decent hip hop beat with a crazy electronic beat that has a tiny trance like flow in da back. He Flows perfectly with this beat and elevates it with his lyrics, its about him callin a shorty, but wats up, her number is disconnected. A song wit a beautiful hip hop beat is "Me Quedaria" whis is more a political in its lyrical content and shows his discontent for somethings, including our immigration problem ova here in da U.S.....ESTAMOS UNIDOS O DIVIDIDOS. Da best hip hop track shows he still has lyrics up his sleave and dats "Todos Quieren a Raymond" which he talks about everyone talkin shit about him but he loves them cuz the talk helps him. It gave him fire for this track.

Daddy Yankee tries to keep dis album solo, to show his lyrical superiority by himself, but Latin hip hop/reggaeton is not about that now a days and often times it hurts the album. I just wished there were other star artist like Wisin & Yandel, Franco "El Gorilla", Rakim & Ken-Y, Tito "El Bambino". I seemed to get this aura from him like its an honor for you to be on his album and you aint worth it right now. This is totally a horrible stance to take in reggaeton it reminds me of 50 cent and dats bad. He has graced everyone elses albums just to prepare himself and get everybody edgy for his album but he lacks collabs. His collab with Akon on "Bring it On" was truely off da hook and more hip hop. Once again the production is top notch on dis track. Impacto with Fergie more commercial in nature, and da one with Nicole in "Papi Lover" is more for da girls if they even like it. The Hottest Collab is with Hector "El Father" called "Tension", and dey both together put people in tense mood, i would like to truely see more collabs with these two....it has a reggaeton and hip hop type flow. Another good Collab was wit Will.I.Am on "Plane to P.R.", its easy to understand and off da hook to bump, trust me.

The overall Feel of this album was excellent for a mostly solo effort, and it hit superbly production wise, considering Scott Storch on a few tracks, but he needed some more of our P.R. DJ's on dis album i think tracks would have been hotter. I left out some tracks cuz they stand ok on their own and its everyones opinion for dis album. Collaborations were too few and 2 of them didnt really need to be on dis album, it lacked some great all stars. This is why i give it 4 out of 5 stars. Honest and true to da core from a fellow Yankee Fan. Lets see if beefs rise and burn harder