"Safaera"
Song by Bad Bunny, Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow
from the album YHLQMDLG
LanguageSpanish
ReleasedFebruary 29, 2020 (2020-02-29)
Genre
Length4:55
LabelRimas
Songwriter(s)
  • Missy Elliott
  • Benito Martínez
  • Joel Muñoz
  • Randy Ortiz
  • Edwin Vázquez
Producer(s)
Audio video
"Safaera" on YouTube

"Safaera" (a Puerto Rican expression for "promiscuity, debauchery or substance abuse")[1] is a song by Puerto Rican rappers and singers Bad Bunny and Ñengo Flow, and Puerto Rican duo Jowell & Randy. It was released on February 29, 2020, as the 14th track of Bad Bunny's second studio album, YHLQMDLG.[2]

The song reached number one in Spain in its fifth week, becoming Bad Bunny's seventh song, as well as Jowell & Randy's and Ñengo Flow's first song to peak atop the charts.[3]

Background

Bad Bunny and Jowell had previously talked about a collaboration in the past, in a time when Bad Bunny was recording mostly trap songs, a genre that Jowell dislikes.[4] They said to each other that they would work together if one of them was willing to make either a trap or a reggaeton track.[4] A year later, after listening to Bad Bunny's "Mía" featuring Canadian singer Drake, Jowell liked the single's style and called Rimas Music to arrange a recording session with him, but he was very busy at the time.[4] Three weeks before the release of YHLQMDLG, Bad Bunny called Jowell & Randy, who were in Puerto Rico, in order to work together for the album.[4] "Safaera" was produced by Latin Grammy Award-winner Tainy and Bad Bunny's disc jockey DJ Orma.

In March 2020, the song inspired the "SafaeraChallenge" and the "#AbuelaChallenge", both of which went viral on the app TikTok. The latter saw especially elderly people dancing to the song while being placed in quarantine due to COVID-19.[5]

Composition

Due to its structural complexity, the song was described as a "reggaetón symphony and perreo megamix". During its course, the song "ventures through at least eight beat changes, five different rap flows, and 10+ years of references". The track makes use of numerous samples throughout its runtime, which include a guitar riff from "Get Ur Freak On" by Missy Elliott, the rhythm tracks from "Big Up" by Shaggy & Rayvon, "Santa Barbara" by Chaka Demus & Pliers, synths from DJ Nelson's and DJ Goldy's Xtassy Reggae, an opening line from Cosculluela's "Pa' La Pared" and a sample from Alexis & Fido's "El Tiburón", among others.[6]

Critical reception

The song received widespread acclaim from music critics. In a review for Pitchfork, Isabelia Herrera awarded the song the accolade "Best New Track" and went on to describe the track as "a technical masterpiece" in which the artist "harnesses this musical nostalgia and transforms it into an antidote for the most formulaic tendencies of the pop-reggaetón panorama".[6] Griselda Flores of Billboard picked the song as one of the album's essential tracks, saying that the rapper "takes it way back with this old-school reggaetón song" and praised it for "its contagious beats", as well as "Missy Elliott's famous riff from "Get Your Freak On"".[7] Rolling Stone's Suzy Exposito referred to the song as "five-minutes of unadulterated chaos" and opined that Bad Bunny "gets to ride a wave of reggaeton he was much too young to participate in the first time around".[8]

NPR ranked it as the 5th best song of 2020,[9] and Rolling Stone ranked it as the 15th best of the year.[10]

In 2021, Rolling Stone added "Safaera" to their list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time," ranking it at #329.[11]

On May 14, 2020, "Safaera" was removed from Spotify. Bad Bunny claimed on a live video with Residente that he knew the reason behind the removal but preferred not to talk about it to avoid controversy.[12] It was added back to the platform on May 15, the following day. Spotify then stated that it was due to a sample clearance.[13] In an interview uploaded on YouTube on March 9, 2022 on Jorge A. Pabón Ocasio's channel "MoluscoTV" in which he interviews Jowell, he recounts that Missy Elliott asked for millions of dollars for copyright in the song. In the end, Noah Assad, founder of the record label Rimas Entertainment, had to intervene, who managed to reach an agreement with Elliott where Bad Bunny, Jowell, Randy and Ñengo Flow would only receive 1% of the total profits.[14] However, despite this, Elliott later called out Jowell for misrepresenting what the actual song splits look like, writing to him on Twitter and saying, “Sadly you mislead all these people to make them think I have 99%. Now I don’t talk business online because that’s messy, but now we are here I have 25% and there is 6 other samples & 15 other writers on this one song. They got [a] percentage also…".[15]

Charts

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[30] 3× Platinum 120,000‡
United States (RIAA)[31] 21× Platinum (Latin) 1,260,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of Safaera". que-quiere-decir.com. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  2. ↑ Suarez, Gary (February 29, 2020). "Bad Bunny Drops New Album YHLQMDLG". Forbes. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Top 100 Canciones: Semana 14". Productores de Música de España. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Jowell Confiesa Que Bad Bunny Escribió Safaera Completa y Narra Su Trayectoria". April 18, 2020. Retrieved April 23, 2020 – via YouTube. From minute 52.
  5. ↑ Thompson, Desire (March 18, 2020). "Bad Bunny's "Safaera" Inspires Hilarious #AbuelaChallenge". Vibe. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  6. 1 2 Herrera, Isabelia (March 4, 2020). "Bad Bunny: "Safaera" [ft. Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow]". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  7. ↑ Flores, Griselda (March 18, 2020). "6 Essential Tracks on Bad Bunny's YHLQMDLG: Editors' Picks". Billboard. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  8. ↑ Exposito, Suzy (March 2, 2020). "Bad Bunny Demands the World Crossover to Him on YHLQMDLG". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  9. ↑ "NPR's 100 Best Songs Of 2020". NPR. December 3, 2020.
  10. ↑ "The 50 Best Songs of 2020". Rolling Stone. December 7, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 15, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Spotify retira de sus listas el tema "Safaera" de Bad Bunny". May 14, 2020.
  13. ↑ "'Safaera' ya regresó a Spotify, pero, ¿por qué habían eliminado la canción de Bad Bunny?". Telehit (in Spanish). May 18, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Jowell revela que perdió la mayoría de las ganancias de "Safaera" por Missy Elliott: "Se quedó con todo"". La República (in Spanish). March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  15. ↑ Lopez, Julyssa (March 18, 2022). "Missy Elliott Jumps Into the Bad Bunny 'Safaera' Conversation and Clarifies Royalty Details". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Bad Bunny – Chart History (Argentina Hot 100)" Billboard Argentina Hot 100 Singles for Bad Bunny. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Title".
  18. ↑ "Las más sonadas - SodinPro". July 6, 2020. Archived from the original on July 6, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  19. ↑ http://charts.monitorlatino.com/top20/Print/el%20salvador/general/20200406
  20. ↑ "Billboard Global 200 Chart". Billboard. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Title".
  22. ↑ "AMPROFON". archive.vn. March 24, 2020. Archived from the original on March 24, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  23. ↑ "A".
  24. ↑ S.R.L, NLW. "SGP". www.sgp.com.py (in Spanish). Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Title".
  26. ↑ "Bad Bunny Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  27. ↑ "Bad Bunny Chart History (Hot Latin Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  28. ↑ "Top 100 Songs". Rolling Stone. March 10, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  29. ↑ "Hot Latin Songs – Year-End 2020". Billboard. January 2, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  30. ↑ "Spanish single certifications – Bad Bunny / Jowell / Randy / Ñengo Flow – Safaera". El portal de Música. Productores de Música de España. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  31. ↑ "American single certifications – Bad Bunny, Jowell & Randy, Ñengo Flow – Safaera". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
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