Bad Bunny Drops New Song, Addresses Racism, and Supports Biden

Bad Bunny’s silence during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement earned him a lot of backlash but with his new track “Compositor del Año” he touches on racism, immigration, the election, and how the hatred toward him is misguided. The song is reportedly a response to the critics who said he didn’t deserve the songwriter of the year award from the 2020 ASCAP Latin Music Awards in July. In the 2-minute, 34-second song he raps (in Spanish), “It’s 2020 and racism is worse than COVID/ A black man with a gun, that’s a criminal, but if he’s white, they say that’s a hobby.”

He adds how a badge is used as a “license to kill” but “it’s being white that makes you lethal/and being Black is what makes a white person/easy to shoot you. He addresses Trump as a “mamabicho” and encourages people to vote to oust “quien nos jodió ante’.” It’s also worth noting the song samples Little Richard’s 1955 hit “Tutti Frutti” that was also sampled by Elvis Presley – who was criticized for appropriation. In the song Bad Bunny says Little Richard was always better than Elvis.

In addition to his support for the Black community, his political involvement extends to supporting Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign through the use of his song  “Pero Ya No.” The ad is aimed at the Puerto Rican constituency in Florida and Pennsylvania with visuals that include Trump throwing paper towel rolls at Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

The lyrics read, “I loved you before but not anymore. I liked you but not anymore. I was there for you but not anymore. … I won’t give you a break. I don’t want your fake love.”

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He reinforces the importance of voting in “Compositor del Año” saying “There are more important things than sitting down to criticize the achievements of an artist,” adding “There are more important things like fighting for the rights of immigrants.”

He closes the track by saying how these problems have existed long before he was born and that he would change it if he could. “All that we have is to teach and learn, live and grow/Understand that there’s always going to be something that’s going to hurt us/and keep the faith.”