For Albert Laguna, a professor at Yale University, one of the most renowned educational institutions in the US, understanding Bad Bunny's success is not only a matter of the industry musical.

Benito Martínez Ocasio, the name of the 31-year-old Puerto Rican artist, has proven to be a marketing genius, capable of transforming Spanish music - and Latin culture in general - into products that transcend the borders of Spanish-speaking countries like never before and attract global audiences.

For example, in 2024 he was the most listened to Latin singer in the world on the popular streaming platform Spotify. While his new album, “Debí tira más fotos,” remained in the top 10—also worldwide—for weeks after its release in January.

But his impact isn't limited to the music business, says Laguna, a cultural studies expert.

Over the years, Bad Bunny has taken an increasingly political stance. In his music - and in his public appearances - he explores themes of gender, inequality, migration and the colonial situation of the island where he was born, a US territory since 1898.

Furthermore, he has managed to give a sonic twist to reggaeton, fusing its rhythmic pattern with genres such as salsa, bachata, bomba and plena.

Laguna maintains that, through his lyrics and melodies, Bad Bunny builds a map that allows us to understand the history of Puerto Rico and its diaspora.

According to the Cuban-born doctor of literature, all of this adds importance to the Puerto Rican artist's indisputable influence on the popular music of our time.

Therefore, in September Laguna will teach a course on “The Bad Rabbit” at Yale University.

What does it mean to include Bad Bunny in the curriculum of one of the world's most important universities? How will you address the figure of the artist in the classroom? What was the response of students when they learned about this new academic offering?

That's what we talk about in this interview.

How did the idea of creating a course on Bad Bunny come about?

I listened to his new album, "Debà Tirar Más Fotos," while walking the streets of New Orleans, a city with a strong Caribbean heritage. At the time, I thought the album's success was an opportunity to focus on Puerto Rico in the classroom. My students are very interested in Bad Bunny, but they don't know much about the relationship between the island and the U.S.

I'm going to use his songs to address important topics for both the Puerto Rican diaspora and the people who live in the territory.

For example, the song "Nuevayol," which opens the album, references "Un Verano en Nueva York," a song that was released in 1975 by the salsa orchestra El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico.

When I heard a fragment of that melody on Bad Bunny's album, I was shocked. I thought: there's something different about this production.

Through the salsa genre, which was born precisely in New York, we can talk about the migratory flow of Cubans and Puerto Ricans in the US and the Afro-Caribbean influence in the country.

We can also discuss the conditions that led to the creation of this type of rhythms.

It's not just about talking about the lyrics, but also about the history of music and the cultural imprint that Puerto Ricans have left there since they arrived in the 19th century.

I know this is a very broad question, but what is the cultural impact of the artist?

It is ultimately very broad. But, for example, Bad Bunny is holding a 30-concert residency in Puerto Rico this summer. These events in themselves are a political act.

Many artists develop an audience in their home country and bring their culture to the world. But what Bad Bunny is doing is bringing the world to Puerto Rico. He's focusing his shows on the island, and they become an opportunity to talk about issues that occur at the local level.

How will the album you're referring to help students understand the territorial relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S.?

With a song like "TURiSTA," which is about the tourism industry and how there are people from the U.S. who travel to Puerto Rico and behave as if they own the island.

That's another political issue on the album. Bad Bunny insists that Puerto Rico should be for Puerto Ricans.And it does so in the midst of a complicated economic situation, when the island is administered by a Fiscal Oversight Board appointed by the U.S.

It seeks to make visible the colonial relationship between both nations and how that affects Puerto Ricans today.

Many Americans still don't know that Puerto Rico is a colony of their own country.

And how does it help them understand the reality of the diaspora? Not only Puerto Rican, but Latino in general, especially at a time when the U.S. government has approved restrictive measures on immigration.

For many immigrants and Latinos in general, their native country, the land of their parents, is always a reference when they live abroad. In “Debà tira más fotos,” Bad Bunny explores and celebrates that constant connection.

You can't talk about the history of New York without Puerto Rico, nor about Puerto Rico without New York. You can't talk about salsa without New York and its relationship with the Latin diaspora that made the city their home.

You can hear those connections in Bad Bunny's production. But it's not just the importance that migrants give to their countries, but also to their identities, the way they build community in the U.S.

On that album, Bad Bunny also managed to internationalize certain musical genres that hadn't previously been heard as loudly outside of Puerto Rico, like bomba and plena...

Yes, that's very important to acknowledge, but it's an old story. By this I mean that the music of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic has shaped global music trends since the 19th century. I'm talking about Cuban danzón, son, mambo, salsa, and more recently, reggaeton.

Bad Bunny is another link in the chain of that story.

Is the Caribbean's impact on the music industry recognized enough?

No, there aren't enough references. That's one of the reasons why I'm going to offer the class.

Similarly, with his new album, Bad Bunny offers a music course. It doesn't just include reggaeton songs, with salsa, bomba, or plena, it's a combination of genres. It contains folk music, rhythms from rural Puerto Rico. When you listen to this music, you wonder where it comes from?

The album opens up avenues to understanding a broader, Caribbean story in particular.

Bad Bunny's music, despite having received awards like the Grammy and topping the charts, still receives enormous criticism. It's sometimes described as unsophisticated, and its lyrics are questioned. Why is it so difficult for some sectors to conceive of this artistic expression as something that has value?

That's also an old story,What is very popular is often considered unsophisticated. In the 19th century, Cuban danzón was talked about as scandalous. Maybe in 50 years we'll laugh at the people who mock it and say that Bad Bunny is also one.

But I must say that it's important to maintain a critical perspective. My job as a professor is to understand all the complexities of a cultural product: how gender, race, ethnicity, and other issues are represented in music.

Bad Bunny's album is a cultural product. And a course on the subject can be used as an excuse to analyze, among other things, the history of women in urban music.

Part of the interest in this course is that I am offering the class at Yale University. Sometimes people think Bad Bunny is one thing and Yale is another. My job is to reiterate that Bad Bunny has his place at Yale. All popular culture has its place at Yale. Through an artist like Bad Bunny, we can understand the present and past of Puerto Rico, the U.S., and also how the artist became a global phenomenon.

The course will be very focused on "I should have taken more photos." How would you describe that production?

A joyful adventure through the history of Puerto Rico and the U.S. through music.