When you’re 15, you start having big dreams. Your future possibilities start crystallizing the more you learn about how the world, and life in general, works. Your sense of self evolves, and you start getting ready to dive into the world of being an adult with responsibilities and expectations.
Marcos “Tainy” Masís dove in when he was 15. At that young age, he became the youngest high-profile reggaeton producer and was thrust into the spotlight. By the age of 16, he had produced chart-topping hits, like “El Telefono” and “La Barria,” for some of the biggest names of the genre, and established himself as a household name for fans.
Now, nearly 20 years later, Tainy is still at the top of the game: Two years ago, he became the first person to land at Number 1 for 100 consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Latin Producers chart. He’s won a Grammy for his work on Bad Bunny’s history-making Un Verano Sin Ti album. And his own 2023 debut album, DATA, was universally acclaimed upon release, making it to number one on Rolling Stone’s list of 2023’s best Spanish-language albums. Last night, he took a victory lap in his native Puerto Rico with a concert he appropriately named “DATA LOADING”.
After selling out San Juan’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum, he recreated the LED cube set from his three-city U.S. tour last summer. Under thundering speakers and a wild lightshow, he gifted the audience with a trip down memory lane by playing his biggest hits, covering two decades’ worth of sensational music production.
Here are the highlights of a memorable night:
Gallego Narrates Tainy’s Origin Story
The show kicked off with a pre-recorded rendition of “La Borinqueña,” the Puerto Rican anthem by Tito El Bambino. After that, a video retrospective showed Tainy’s childhood in San Juan. It included clips from his early teen years as a producer, juxtaposed with vintage footage of reggaeton history that depicted how the genre started to form and evolve in chronological lockstep with Masís himself. The footage was narrated by Gallego, a rapper/spoken word poet who’s been a go-to for album intros and interludes since Tainy still had his learner’s permit (“Driving a Mercedes since he was 16,” said Yandel once in a 2008 ad lib).
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