Puerto Rican origin Nicky Jam celebrates 40 years of a life that has not always smiled at him, while looking to a future with an increasingly successful professional career.
Puerto Rican father and Dominican mother, Nick Rivera, first name of the artist, was born in Boston (Massachusetts, USA), where he felt the first sounds of American rap, a genre which then adopted and followed in his footsteps. However, when Nicky was 10 years old, his family and he moved to Cataño, a municipality near San Juan on the north coast of Puerto Rico.
By then, Latin rap in Puerto Rico was gaining momentum, led by Vico C, known as ‘El filósofo del rap’, Rubén DJ and Brewley MC.
Nicky, influenced by American rap and taking advantage of his time off he had when he worked in a supermarket, improvised and rapped to change his daily routine, according to the artist’s biography on his official website.
On one of those occasions, a woman who worked at a record label heard him and asked him to sign to make a record. Nicky’s father agreed to sign the contract and that’s how his first album, ‘Distinto A Los Demás’, was born at the age of 11.
The album, however, did not achieve any success, although that led some of the pioneering music producers of reggaeton – formerly known as “underground” – such as DJ Playero, DJ Joe and DJ Chiclín were interested in Nicky Jam’s style.
The artist went through a series of addictions, including the opioid drug “Percocet”, from which he ingested up to 30 pills a day. His problems led him to move from Puerto Rico to Medellín, to face a depression and to continue working in reggaeton in performances on small stages until he was once again among the most sought-after in the urban genre, especially for the theme ‘I’m going to drink’. the first that brought him international fame.
“In Colombia they made me a legend of the genre. My goal was to be successful in Medellín and later at the national level, and that served as a platform for me, ”Nicky Jam said at the time.