Im very glad that Reggaeton is finally making an impact in the international music industry. Well to start off, before it was called Reggaeton it was called Underground. It well suited its name because of its raw lyrics talking about sex, drugs, shootings,murder, and basically all the **** that was and still is going on in PR.

Early 90's
From the influence of spanish reggae from Panama, from MC's like el General,
Puerto Rico got its first taste of spanish reggae, and spawned artists like Vico C, Kid Power Posse, Wiso G, and many others. Take in mind that during this time, all this music was only available on tapes {No Cds} and was only available through independent music stores. The topics ranged from education, poverty, violence, etc.


Mid 90's
When the music started becoming more popular amongst the PuertoRican youth, and caught the attention of the government, they tried to ban Underground and censor it lyrics. For a while during this time period, if the cops caught you listening to Underground, they would do 1 of 2 things. Take your tape and break it , or consfiscate it from you so they could enjoy at home for their pleasure. [They were supposed to consficate it and discard it but alot of cops in PR are super corrupt and they loved the Underground too.]
Around this time was when Mixtapes like Playero38 were making an impact and sounding all around the barrios in cars and homes with songs like "Puerto Rico Puerto Rico todos quieren fumar, por eso marijuana yo voy a cultivar." it dont rhyme in english but here is what it says,"Puerto Rico Puerto Rico everyone wants to smoke thats why I am going to cultivate Marijuana."
During this time was when the first Underground Cds began to appear and transition from tapes.
As mentioned earlier ,Underground was extremely popular amongst young adults and youth alike. Dj's as myself, started taking up arms and sponsoring Underground parties. These parties were looked at as super raunchy and dangerous. Here is my personal description of my parties to see if you can put a picture to it. A community center filled with people from wall to wall , dark, [almost no lighting at all since I only had a couple of red lights, strobes and a smoke machine.] Everyone perreando, this is the dance they call el perreo which is basically fu#king with your clothes on, Weed smoke all in the air, and "everyone" dancing synchronized to the DemBow beat.
Due to the censorship and all the bul!**** the government was imposing over the Reggaeton artists, live parties was a way for everyone to vent and express themselves accordingly.

Late 90's
Because of this, artist had to basically clean up their lyrics if they wanted their **** to play. This caused for a time period of watered down Underground. At the same time the artists, and producers where trying to find a way of getting around this so they started to take a more professional approach. This was around the time that Underground transitioned into Reggaeton. Reggaeton Cd's began to appear in Sam Goody's in PR malls, etc.
The lyrics at this time were still clean, but the artist seemed to find a way of keeping it borderline to maintain the integrity of the true Underground.
Later on I really dont know what political **** happend, but all of a sudden Reggaeton Music was not being censored at all :]

New Millenium

Reggaeton becomes noticed all around Latin America and becomes a strong music force to be reckoned with.
With artists like Tego Calderon, Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen, Don Omar, OG Black and Master Joe, the music was becoming more evolved and professional sounding therefore gaining the attention of all of us.

PS all the artist above have been around since the beginning of Underground in exception with Don Omar who I dont remember anything before 96