Short answers, pulled from the story.
Reggaeton originated in Panama during the late 1980s, where Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants brought reggae music during the construction of the Panama Canal. The genre was later popularized in Puerto Rico from the early 1990s onward, where it evolved through an informal cassette-tape underground culture.
Dembow is the core rhythmic pattern of reggaeton, created by Jamaican dancehall producers Steely and Clevie. It is built on a 3+3+2 tresillo rhythm with a bass drum in 4/4 time, and was first highlighted by Shabba Ranks in "Dem Bow" from his 1991 album Just Reality. Elements of that track appear in over 80 percent of all reggaeton productions.
In February 1995, Puerto Rican police raided six record stores in San Juan, confiscating hundreds of cassettes and imposing fines under Laws 112 and 117 against obscenity. The Department of Education banned baggy clothing and underground music from schools, and Senator Velda González of the Popular Democratic Party led public hearings in 2002 to regulate reggaeton's sexual content.
"Despacito" by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee reached one billion YouTube views in under three months in 2017 and held the record as the most viewed YouTube video of all time from January 2018 through November 2020. With 3.3 million certified sales plus streaming equivalents, it became one of the best-selling Latin singles in United States history and drove renewed interest in the Latin music market from major recording labels.
Villano Antillano, a trans-femme rapper from Puerto Rico, set that record in 2022 with Villano Antillano: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 51, a collaboration with producer Bizarrap. She now identifies as non-binary and goes by the legal name Villana.
El Cartel III: The Big Boss, released in June 2007, sold 88,000 copies in its first week, setting a record for a reggaeton album at the time. It became the first reggaeton album to top the Top Rap Albums chart and peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200.