Daddy Yankee
Latin Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican reggaeton and hip hop songwriter and recording artist, Daddy Yankee, first appeared on the 1993 DJ Playero mixtape Playero 37. His first official studio project as a solo artist was No Mercy, which was released on April 2, 1995 through White Lion Records in Puerto Rico. While music wasn’t his first love, Ayala aspired to be a professional baseball player. As a teenager, Ayala tried out for the Seattle Mariners Major League baseball team. Before he could be officially signed by the team, Ayala was hit by a stray round from an AK-47 rifle while taking a break from a studio recording session with reggaeton mixtape icon DJ Playero. Ayala spent roughly one and a half years recovering from the wound in a hospital, and was temporarily restricted to moving about only with a wheelchair. The bullet was never removed from Ayala’s hip, and he credits the shooting incident with allowing him to focus entirely on a music career.
