How Bad Bunny Became Famous
In just a few short years, Bad Bunny has gone from bagging groceries at his local supermarket in Puerto Rico to being a worldwide superstar rapper with hit records, brand deals, and film and TV roles to his name. His rise to stardom seemingly happened overnight.
Bad Bunny was bagging groceries before he was famous
Bad Bunny reflected on his job bagging groceries in a 2018 interview with People. “All I wanted was for my shift to end so I could go home,” he said. “It was really motivating…because you never really want to be doing that. All you want is to reach your dreams and earn money doing what you like.”
“It served as motivation when it came to making music,” he continued. “There were also a lot of songs that I started creating while working [at the supermarket]. I would write songs outside or in my mind and then I would sing them multiple times throughout my shift to just remember the lyrics.”
He became a rapper in the mid-2010s
In a 2022 interview with GQ, Bad Bunny looked back at his meteoric rise to fame from complete obscurity in Puerto Rico.
“I always made rhythms, tracks, beats. I was clear that I wanted to be an artist, but I wanted it to be serious. Like, I’m working seriously. It’s not like I’m here trying to do crazy things,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t upload songs until I felt as prepared as possible, at the flow level, at the rhythm level, at the lyric level.”
After he started bagging groceries at a supermarket chain, his friend Ormani Pérez, who’s now his official DJ, encouraged him to upload some tracks to SoundCloud. “There was a page on Facebook that still exists, and my friends would always tell me to upload it there,” he recalled. “I was never very confident. I’d say, ‘No, I won’t do it on there. I want to be a musician and post them when they’re finished.’ But there was a scene of young guys making music, and they uploaded it on SoundCloud. And I said, ‘Well, that’s what I’m going to do then.’”
He started racking up hundreds of thousands of listens almost overnight. “It was 500,000, then it was a million,” he said. “It’s exciting to throw out a song and hit ‘Refresh,’ and see how many people have played it.”
Still, he always had a backup plan in case music never worked out. He started releasing smash singles and collaborations in the late 2010s before releasing his debut album X100pre in late 2018.
He’s won awards and performed at the Super Bowl halftime show
Bad Bunny has transformed into a globally-recognized superstar since the turn of this decade. In early 2020, he performed alongside Shakira and Jennifer Lopez at the Super Bowl halftime show; a few weeks later, he released his smash sophomore album YHLQMDLG. He released two more albums in 2020, and set records with his 2022 album Un Verano Sin Ti.
To date, Bad Bunny has earned two Grammy Awards, four Latin Grammy Awards, eight Billboard Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, and two American Music Awards, among other accolades.
