J Balvin: “I still feel that I’m an up-and-coming artist every day”

J Balvin is on day eight post-recovery from COVID-19 once we communicate in late January, a interval he refers to as “six months of hell.” There’s a sleepiness in his eyes and a contact of raspiness in his voice. His hair, often cropped shut and dyed in rainbow hues and playful patterns, is now in its pure state, grown out on prime in a tuft of frivolously frosted curls. We meet over Zoom—him in Medellín with tropical foliage within the background, me in New York, a metropolis the thirty-five-year-old reggaeton sensation has additionally referred to as dwelling since he moved there in his twenties and took odd jobs like canine strolling and roofing to make ends meet.

Balvin spent a lot of the lockdown at his serenely minimalist, Japanese-inspired retreat within the mountains outdoors of Medellín, which he calls The Temple: “A home needs to be a spot the place you’ll be able to relaxation your spirit. I’ve tried to create locations that feed my soul, not my ego.” It’s an idyllic antidote to the in any other case hyper-hued warp-speed juggernaut that his profession has change into. “It’s impressed me in quite a lot of other ways,” he says of his time in quarantine, which compelled him to remain put in his native Colombia. “I used to be like, both I am going loopy or I’ve to be extra inventive and attempt to be transferring on a regular basis and serious about music and serious about methods to hook up with the world. That basically helps me rather a lot.”

In pre-pandemic occasions, Balvin, a.ok.a. José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, could possibly be discovered jetting all over the world, taking part in sold-out reveals like he did at Madison Sq. Backyard in 2019, and making historical past as the primary reggaeton act to play Coachella’s foremost stage in addition to the primary Lantinx headliner at Lollapalooza that very same yr. Balvin was the third prime streaming artist of 2020, proper behind Drake and his collaborator and fellow música urbana star Unhealthy Bunny. His is a degree of affluence and stratospheric stardom that entails entrance row seating at vogue week, personal jet transportation, an enviable up to date artwork assortment, collaborations with Pharrell, Rosalía, and Cardi B, and, maybe most emblematic of his breakthrough success within the US, a limited-edition signature J Balvin Meal at McDonald’s.

Irrespective of the state of the world, if Spotify listening knowledge is any barometer of the collective psyche, nearly all of individuals need to escape via the sort of bombastic beats, rousing rhythms, and catchy choruses that Balvin serves up in fast succession. Though his profession has seemingly exploded previously few years, his deep and assorted discography reveals a prolific catalog that dates again to his first single launch in 2006. His music, conventional Puerto Rican rhythms infused with pop, dancehall, hip-hop, and rap influences, is infectious, hip-swinging, head-bopping stuff. The place I dwell, in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Balvin’s songs blare out of automobile stereos and blast from stoop get together boomboxes, and have been a shiny be aware within the soundtrack to a summer season of discontent.

“It’s the sound of the brand new Latino era; the youth,” says Balvin when requested why he thinks his music has so zealously captured individuals’s consideration.

“The youth are like a virus . . . in case you’re a dad and your youngsters are listening to reggaeton on a regular basis, you’re going to catch it, identical along with your grandma. It’s going to continue to grow, and I believe it’s positively just the start of a brand new historical past, and it makes me very glad that we made a part of that historical past.”

Historical past and legacy are of nice significance to Balvin, who bows right down to the style’s pioneers corresponding to Daddy Yankee, Wisin, Don Omar, and Tego Calderón. “There’s quite a lot of OGs on the market, and there’s quite a lot of them which might be nonetheless related and dealing and killing it,” he says. “So, they encourage me rather a lot to only maintain working.” Breaking with custom, Balvin sees himself and Unhealthy Bunny because the misfits of the style. “We have been the bizarre ones, the completely different ones, with completely different colours in my hair each time. It’s the truth that we’re including one thing new to it; we’re doing one thing that wasn’t occurring earlier than within the Latino market.”

Reverential to reggaeton’s roots whereas pushing its boundaries, his era has not solely crossed over into the mainstream however infiltrated—and now dominated—the US music market. Balvin and his compadres corresponding to Unhealthy Bunny are reaching desires that folks thought have been unattainable, he says. “Like, I’ve my very own Jordans, or being on the Tremendous Bowl, or being essentially the most streamed artist on the planet. And, singing in Spanish—we wish to cross over, however we wish individuals to cross over to us, too. That’s the actual factor we’re doing. I’m not doing music in English. I’m not saying I hate it, or I don’t respect it . . . however I simply wish to maintain elevating the Spanish language all over the world and produce one other vibe.”

His relationship with the style and artwork worlds are one other aspect of his bricolage strategy that additional underscores his crossover enchantment. “You understand, rappers did this earlier than, with the collabs with Murakami and issues like that, however by no means within the Latino market . . . I used to be the primary one who began working with KAWS on a sequence, and with grasp Takashi Murakami doing the [Colores] album cowl, and doing quite a lot of jewellery with Ben Baller . . . simply making an attempt to be inventive and present completely different sides of this stereotype that we used to have as Latinos.”

Most lately, he joined the Givenchy household as the proper ambassador for inventive director Matthew Williams’ graphic printed shirts and deconstructed tailoring. “I like to collab,” he says. “Considered one of my mentors is Pharrell Williams, so I believe I received one of many best mentors I might have in terms of cool issues and collabs, and good vibes, and spirituality, too.” I ask him about his spectacular timepiece assortment, which has been frothed over and ranked by followers on-line. “Let’s say I’m one of many few that doesn’t flex on this sport,” he says with fun. “I really like the whole lot that’s this way of life, as a result of I’ve been dreaming of it ever since I used to be a child. However on the finish of the day, that doesn’t give me happiness. If I’m what I’ve, the day I don’t have it, so what? Who am I? I’m nobody? The day I die, I need individuals to be like, ‘He was legit. He was round all this stuff that folks dream of, however he by no means modified, he was simply one thing stunning.’”

His curiosity in garments, in artwork, in cross-pollinating with different artists, belies ostentation and serves to create a tradition past music, one thing Balvin mentions a number of occasions throughout our dialog. “It’s all the time been like that, since I used to be a child,” he says. “I all the time wished to impression and connect with individuals, not simply via music. We will encourage this new era to be extra open-minded.” He cites hip-hop and Nirvana, whose songs have been the primary he discovered on the guitar as a child, as early influences. He even has a tattoo of Nirvana’s smiley face with x’d out eyes on his knee.

“Kurt Cobain was all the time considered one of my greatest inspirations in the whole lot, in vogue—his vogue was the very last thing, but it surely was superb—in music, and the way in which he created a brand new, completely different sort of era in music. And on the time I didn’t even perceive what he was saying, I didn’t know English, however I used to be simply vibing to it,” he says.

In a while, Balvin received closely into hip-hop and began rapping in Spanish. Once more, it was the holistic nature of hip-hop tradition, “as graffiti, as break dance . . .” that grew to become a north star for Balvin.

Quickly after, he found reggaeton, “and it simply blew my thoughts,” he says. “Since then, I’ve been loving various kinds of vibes. Like, I really like reggaeton, however I really like lure music. Or I can do a ballad, a pop tune, I don’t have an issue so long as I really feel snug with what I’m bringing to the desk. And that’s mainly what I’m doing, simply being me.”

Moments earlier than our interview, Balvin’s label despatched over two tracks from his forthcoming as-yet-untitled album, the comply with as much as 2020’s monster hit, Colores. These tracks really feel slightly extra sensual and low-slung, I provide. “My final album was a coloration idea, and I needed to be extra closed creatively, as a result of I used to be simply specializing in a relentless,” he says. “This album that we’re doing, I simply wish to present versatility and that we will surf in numerous waves.”

Certainly, whereas Balvin’s technicolor stylings—which lengthen to his music movies, album art work, and cartoon-esque stage units replete with big bobble heads and kawaii characters—are bursting with the saccharine vitality of a packet of Skittles, there’s a extra somber and contemplative aspect to the artist that he’s begun to disclose currently, particularly in terms of his struggles with psychological well being.

In September final yr, The Boy from Medellín, a documentary about Balvin directed by Matthew Heineman, debuted on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. It adopted the singer in the course of the week main as much as his sold-out homecoming stadium reveals, which occurred to come back at a time of political turmoil with protesters filling the streets in an rebellion towards right-wing Colombian president Iván Duque.

Balvin gave the impression to be the one entertainer not canceling gigs on the time and obtained his first main backlash, most fervently on social media, drawing him to take a political stance in assist of the protests—a daring transfer for a marquee identify. The movie additionally highlights Balvin’s ongoing dance with nervousness and despair. Sitting at a convention desk together with his enterprise supervisor and two assistants, he discusses the approaching sold-out present at Medellín stadium whereas writing his to-do checklist, which incorporates train, meditation (“make that double meditation so I don’t overlook”) and seeing his mother and father.

Within the candid scene, the singer displays on a time earlier than he had these coping mechanisms in place. “All my desires . . .” he says, flipping via his pocket book. “Ninety-nine p.c have been completed.” His supervisor wonders why then, is he so nervous? “In Puerto Rico, I used to be in a foul mind-set,” he says, shaking his head. “Yesterday on the health club, I began to get that sensation once more. And I assumed, fuck, this shit is again.” He describes the sensation as “such as you’re not there. Such as you’re not in your physique. Every little thing outdoors is OK, however not inside your thoughts. It’s hell for actual. It’s a worry of worry. And solely once you deal with the current, are you able to trick the mind.”

Lately, Balvin will get up on the daybreak to meditate for twenty minutes, adopted by an hour of cardio and an hour of weights. He doesn’t drink alcohol. His espresso is decaf. And for all of the panache he put into his rendition of “I’m lovin’ it,” it’s exhausting to think about a Huge Mac (no pickles) with medium fries, ketchup, and an Oreo McFlurry passing his lips. “I’m simply methods I can elevate myself and my world,” he says. “I’ve made quite a lot of errors … like I guess me and also you, being face-to-face, I’ve two million extra errors than you for certain.” I counter that he’d be shocked. “I don’t know, I believe I’ve extra,” he responds with an eyebrows-raised smile. “The truth that I’m open about all this stuff is as a result of I got here to the world to be of service, to point out the youth and train them. Typically individuals assume that despair is being unhappy and it’s not that. One factor is being unhappy, and despair is a chemical imbalance in your mind. One thing that’s extra highly effective than you, even when you have the whole lot. What’s the whole lot? Every little thing’s well being. Every little thing’s internal peace.”

“After I was on my approach up…you already know, I nonetheless really feel that I’m an up-and-coming artist daily,” he continues. “At the moment all these artists had the proper life—nothing [bad] occurred, the whole lot’s stunning, you already know: luxurious, women, guys, live shows, happiness, popping champagne bottles. Yeah, that’s good, however they by no means confirmed that they have been fragile, you already know? I don’t really feel weak once I discuss my weaknesses. That simply makes me human.”

For somebody already on the prime of his sport, evidently chemical imbalance, that glitch within the matrix, has allowed him to foresee what might occur if the balloons burst, the colours fade, the seams begin to fray, and the diamonds lose their luster. And so now, maybe, J Balvin can simply sit again and benefit from the flight.

CR FASHION BOOK Situation 18 can be packaged alongside CR MEN Situation 12 and can be obtainable on newsstands and on-line beginning March 4, 2021. To pre-order a duplicate click on here, and sign up for our e-newsletter for unique tales from the brand new points.

_______________________________________________________________________________

PHOTOGRAPHER: @QUILLEMONS

CREATIVE DIRECTION: @CARINEROITFELD

CREATIVE CONSULTING: @EDOUARDRISSELET