Hitmaker of the Month: Producer Tainy Shares Bad Bunny's Dominant Glory of 2022 While Preparing for His Own Solo Debut

The afternoon Variety interviewed Tainy in honor of being named Variety Hitmaker of the Month, the producer and songwriter of Puerto Rican origin has learned that 's "Un Verano Sin Ti" has returned to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart for its eighth non-consecutive week. The record heads into the fall with a top album of the year status that will be hard for any other artist to top by the end of 2022.

If the news that 'Un Verano Sin Ti' had moved Beyonce's 'Renaissance' from the top of the US chart made Tainy - aka Marcos Efraín Masís Fernández - feel sunny, it would be totally in line with the design they had for this unexpected blockbuster.

"Coming into 'Un Verano Sin Ti', Bad Bunny wanted to do something completely different from what he had done in the past. He wanted happiness, from start to finish - light .His past albums that we have worked on had ups and downs, as well as dark and sweet moments, this time he wanted to enjoy all the happy moments he had during the Porto summers Rico, traveling and being with loved ones. Even when we were working with Bomba Estéreo, everyone had total freedom, with only one suggestion: to make it a cute, happy and sunny song. And all that put me in the mood. ambiance and space to imagine beaches, imagine the sun, and imagine real and less real places where we could have a good time."

Tainy also holds significant real estate with production and songwriting credits on Bad Bunny's previous solo albums, such as the artist's 2018 debut "X 100pre", his 2020 duet "YHLQMDLG and "El Último Tour Del Mundo," and his 2019 joint album with J Balvin, "Oasis." This includes the lead single from "Un Verano Sin Ti," Bad Bunny's duet with Bomba Estéreo, "Ojitos Lindos." , as well as the recently released track "Me Fui de Vacaciones".

Tainy laughs as he acknowledges the shared accomplishment with Bad Bunny ("It's an amazing feeling"), but he's not resting too much on the laurels. He has his own debut album which he would like to release before the end of 2022, which will be called "Data", as hinted by his atmospheric new single "Sci-Fi", featuring singer Rauw Alejandro. In this and his other projects, he seeks to continue to explode the reggaeton genre in new and adventurous ways.

The evolution of reggaeton is how Tainy began in the first place, when he presented tracks he created himself "at 14 or 15" to Francisco Saldaña and Víctor Cabrera, who form together the production team of Luny Tunes, makes it the Jam & Lewis of Latin music at the height of the 2000s.

"They were the most established producers in Puerto Rico, and they allowed me to thrive under their umbrella," says Tainy de Saldaña (Luny) and Cabrera (Tunes).

"I practiced my production techniques every day after school, and I clearly remember giving my piece to Luny, something he made me do from scratch, and getting the golden ticket to enter that world. In fact, they had me do the music to the top of their album, "Mas Flow 2." My introduction to that world was the literal intro to that record. was everything to me… I didn't even consider it a job, more like an adventure, seeing and learning how to produce a track with an artist from start to finish and not just giving it a beat.

Tainy goes on to credit the Luny Tunes team and producer Nely "El Arma Secreta" for his top-down production and writing style, which he uses on current loads such as Rosalia, Balvin and Bad Bunny, not to mention his own new music.

“I was an art-loving kid who always thought I would do something closer to graphic design or drawing for a living before music,” says Tainy. "I didn't have a big brother, so I paid attention to what the older kids who made music were doing. I paid attention to how a producer might create an instrument and then have a singer , and I was blown away, especially doing it on the computer where I could do whatever I wanted…create without limits.

Creating without limits also meant listening without limits, beyond Latin music - a genreless vibe that helps make a Tainy track like no other, and transformed reggaeton to his ear. “Growing up in Puerto Rico, reggaeton was that movement….but I was also heavily influenced by hip-hop producers like the Neptunes, Kanye West and Timbaland. nu-metal like System of a Down, Blink 182, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit.”

These metal and hip-hop influences are what give a Tainy track its wild, aggressive abandon and frenetic feel, beyond the rush of reggaeton. "I'm grateful to have been a part of reggaeton...