WHO LET THE DOG OUT
Jean Carlos Santiago started
freestyling in middle school, and
soon after decided to pursue
music full time under the name
Guaynaa. Nearly 10 years later,
the Puerto Rico native released a
viral freestyle in 2017 about Hur-
ricane Maria, and the following
year broke through to the U.S.
mainstream when he released
the now viral “ReBoTa.” Guaynaa
recalls telling a friend he missed
old-school reggaetón, and within
20 minutes, he’d written the sala-
cious, tongue-in-cheek lyrics to a
beat from Miami producer Kino,
inspired by Dominican rapper
N-Fasis’ “Lento.” But the record-
ing process was a comedy of
errors: “We had to turn off the fan
because the mic was picking up
the sound, and there was a dog
that kept coming into the studio
and barking,” he says. When they
finally finished, his friend turned
to him and said, “That’s a banger.”
YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR
The stripped-back track high-
lights the 27-year-old’s gravelly
baritone, while its video embraces
his persona as a popped-collar
prepster — a style he jokingly
evokes to go with his performance
name, which is Puerto Rican slang
for a high-class snob. The gim-
mick worked: Guaynaa started
hearing “ReBoTa” all over Puerto
Rico, and realized it could be his
big break. “It was blasting out of
cars, in all the clubs and on the
radio,” he says. “It was just really
crazy — the song connected hard,
and the world made it big.”
PURE CHEMISTRY
In April, the track peaked at No. 35
on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs
chart, and in June, Guaynaa inked
a joint-venture deal with Universal
Music Latino and Republic Re-
cords. He says signing a recording
contract affirmed his path; after
high school, he spent four years in
Boston aiming to become a jockey,
before moving back to Puerto Rico
to study chemical engineering. “I
sacrificed everything and I won-
dered if I’d missed an opportunity,”
he says, now certain he made
the right call. By July, Becky G,
Farruko, Nicky Jam and Sech all
jumped on a remix of the track,
which has garnered 20.8 million
streams, audio and video com-
bined, according to Nielsen Music,
and hit No. 3 on the Latin Digital
Song Sales chart.
PUSHING THE LIMIT
Earlier this year, Bad Bunny invited
Guaynaa to perform “ReBoTa” on-
stage with him at Puerto Rico’s big-
gest indoor arena. More recently,
Guaynaa met with Visitante, the
pioneering producer and member
of Calle 13, a duo he says has had
a large impact on him. Already,
Guaynaa says hanging out with
Visitante is encouraging him to
get even weirder and bolder on his
forthcoming debut album, promis-
ing that the in-the-works project
“isn’t going to be conventional.”
GUAYNAA
How Latin’s biggest names — and a barking
dog — helped push Puerto Rico’s next star
BY JULYSSA LOPEZ // PHOTOGRAPHED BY DEVIN CHRISTOPHER
CHARTBREAKER
No. 19
ON BILLBOARD’S
LATIN RHYTHM AIRPLAY CHART