"Although Daddy Yankee's breakthrough single ""Gasolina"" was a party track, it was also a song that diffused cultural and genre boundaries and made the Puerto Rican talent the first to produce commercially successful reggaeton.Before he was the reggaeton king Daddy Yankee, he was Ramón Ayala (aka Raymond), born to a musical family in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1977. As a teenager, Daddy Yankee became interested in Spanish-language hip-hop (most notably that of rapper Vico C) and was heavily involved in the street life of his Villa Kennedy housing project. It was in Villa Kennedy that the reggaeton artist earned his nickname. ""Big Daddy"" is the loose translation of Daddy Yankee, as ""Yankee"" is Puerto Rican slang for ""someone tall, who is big in what he does."" During the early ‘90s San Juan DJs were fusing hip-hop, dancehall and freestyle, and Daddy Yankee was heavily influenced by early reggaeton artists like the Noise and Playero, with whom Yankee got his start in a cameo on 1992's Playero 37. Daddy Yankee released his full-length debut, No Mercy (1995), at age 18 but little came from the album's issue.Daddy Yankee closed the decade as a duo with Nicky Jam (appearing on 1998's One Tough Cop soundtrack on ""Posición"",) but it was his solo efforts, 2000's El Cartel, 2001's El Cartel, Vol. 2 and finally 2002's El Cangri.com that allowed him to surpass Puerto Rico. Daddy Yankee's single ""Latigazo"" received radio airplay in New York and Miami and El Cangri.com made its way to Billboard's Latin charts despite no major label backing. Reggaeton was on the verge at this point and after a few other releases Daddy Yankee hit the big time with 2004's Barrio Fino, which would remain atop the Latin charts for nearly a year thanks to the popularity of smash single ""Gasolina"" (although ""Lo Que Pasó, Pasó"" was the winner in his native country.) Daddy Yankee was courted by Interscope president Jimmy Iovine and the two formed a partnership with Yankee's own label, El Cartel Records. Daddy Yankee then released popular single ""Rompe"" as well as 2007's El Cartel-The Big Boss and 2008's Talento de Barrio. "