Bad Bunny is hard to define. Is he straight? Is he gay? Does he make trap music? Does he make reggaeton? With the release of his new music video ‘Yo Perreo Sola,” we don’t get too many answers.
That’s ok. Because we get something else we’ve never had before: a mainstream rap artist dressing in full drag for a music video.
The Puerto Rican artist was on full display today when he dropped his new video ‘Yo Perreo Sola.’ He dressed up as multiple different women, including a Latina with a massive bust.
The song is about a woman who just wants to dance alone at the club without getting harassed. Bunny told Rolling Stone:
I wrote it from the perspective of a woman. I wanted a woman’s voice to sing it — ‘yo perreo sola’ — because it doesn’t mean the same thing when a man sings it. But I do feel like that woman sometimes.
We’ve had artists like Andree 3000 and Young Thug bend the gender line. But, to my knowledge, no one has leaped clean over that line quite like Bad Bunny.
There are so many things changing in the world right now. The economy is crashing; then, it’s rallying. The coronavirus is shutting down entire countries while saving the environment. But perhaps the most shocking of all is rappers dressing up as women.
In a category that was previously defined by womanizing, toxically-masculine attitudes, Bad Bunny is like a little butterfly that landed on a gun.
While fans seem to be embracing this newfound sexual expression, some artists are still stuck in the past. Rappers like Boosie Badazz are still sending transphobic messages to the youth.
Warning – NSFW:
When Dwayne Wade’s son Zion decided to identify as his daughter, Zaya, Boosie could not handle it. He tore into Dwayne Wade for allowing this to happen. He moaned that Wade is letting his child get a sex change surgery, even though Wade never mentioned it.
Boosie Badazz is part of the old school way of thinking. He comes from a time when you had to be a tough guy, a gangster, a thug, in order to make it. And he’s clearly not comfortable with the new wave of thought. But he should get on board.
When rappers talk about being “gangster,” what do they mean? Sure, sometimes, they mean just being flat out aggressive and violent. But if you take a step back, it ultimately means ‘courageous.’ Gangsters act in the face of fear. They’re brave. They don’t do what other people tell them to do.
Bad Bunny is doing the most gangster thing possible. He’s dressing as a woman in a culture with a history of homophobia and, also, violence. He could be putting his safety at risk, but he’s acting on his beliefs anyways. What’s more gangster than that?