DJ Negro

DJ Negro was a leading mover through the formative many years of reggaeton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, simply because his turntablism and membership coordination helped start the style’s formation. Blessed Felix Rodriguez, he first set up himself as Vico C’s DJ; actually, he also got co-billing in the rap en español pioneer’s debut record, Mision: La Cima (1990, Perfect Information), where he’s pictured on leading record cover, searching quite younger. DJ Negro continuing dealing with Vico C, showing up on Hispanic Spirit (1991), but he quickly started devoting himself towards the golf club picture in San Juan. In 1992 he founded the Sound, a golf club night where people were asked to freestyle over hip-hop and reggae monitors spun by DJs. The golf club became a collective, as turntablists Tony Contact and DJ Nelson became regulars, plus a long set of aspiring cantantes who have been eager to freestyle for the masses. Ivy Queen, Baby Rasta & Gringo, Todas las Guanabanas, Baby Rates, Stage Breakers, and Trebol Clan had been among those that gained their stripes using the Sound. This club-oriented synthesis of hip-hop and reggae support songs with on-the-spot freestyling demonstrated mighty powerful, and DJ Negro started issuing an important series of Sound CDs — some documented reside in the membership, others in the studio room — via Sony Discos. He also documented a solo record, Quiero el Amor (1994), of music constructed by vocalist César Flores and manufacturer Elvis García; nevertheless, the Sound was his even more promising project, for the collective acquired begun producing its proto-reggaeton monitors. DJ Negro also oversaw debut single albums by Ivy Queen (En Mi Imperio, 1997) and Baby Rasta & Gringo (Live Desde un Mas Allá, 1997), and continued together with his series of Sound CDs until a tenth and last volume, The Sound, Vol. 10: THE FINAL Sound (2004). By that time, reggaeton had advanced into an internationally regarded and commercially practical design of music, and DJ Negro himself begun to receive increased identification for his central function in its initiation.