Just over a year after J Balvin first hinted at a collaborative album with Bad Bunny, the reggaeton and Latin trap titans have finally released their eight-track opus, Oasis. Not long after putting out their respective 2018 masterworks Bad Bunnys X 100Pre and J Balvins Vibras the two began easing their joint venture via a slow drip of clues, from their Complex cover story to their appearance together in Jhay Cortezs top ten Latin hit No Me Conoce, in which they alluded to the project. Now, just in time for summer, theyve delivered.
Oasis opens with a chipper greeting from Balvin: Welcome to the oasis, the Colombian superstar spits on Mojaita, over a muscular Jamaican dembow riddim and trickling water droplets weaved together by go-to producer Sky Rompiendo. Before they can catch their breath, Balvin and Benito take off in a breakneck sprint, quickly transitioning into Yo Le Llego, a tough-talk declaration of the duos global eminence. Balvin and Benito ride over propulsive congas and a meandering salsa-adjacent loop as they list off all the Latin American countries theyve conquered with their music.
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But Balvin and Bad Bunny also include space for reflection; the pair slows down on La Cancin and Qu Pretendes, a one-two punch of somber dancehall that functions as a salve for your baboso-inspired heartache. And to burnish their credentials as seasoned internationalists, they recruit Marciano Cantero from the Argentine rock trio Enanitos Verdes and Nigerian-born luminary Mr. Eazi. Its these collaborations that showcase Balvin and Bad Bunnys versatility, riding a ukulele beat with a rock en espaol icon just as effortlessly as an effervescent Afrobeats tune.
Indeed, Como Un Beb is a snapshot of the crumbling boundaries of cultural production in a globalized era. Mr. Eazi, whose prescient blend of Ghanian highlife and Nigerian music have made him the godfather of Banku music, supplies trilingual raps as Balvin and Bad Bunny lament the perils of an immature relationship in Spanish. As reggaeton drifts further and further from its black history, its refreshing to see an Afro-diasporic exchange like this; at the very least, its a probably unintentional reminder of how many of the conversations happening in global pop can be traced back to these genres African roots.
Lyrically, Bad Bunny sidesteps some of the artful wordplay and razor-sharp cultural references that have characterized his earlier work, instead opting for the breeziness of his radio and club hits, as on the breakup send-off Odio. For his part, Balvin shines when he embraces the melodic, reggaeton suave textures that have catapulted him to fame; but his limited vocal range often takes a backseat to his partner-in-crimes theatrical baritone. (A noteworthy exception being the lead single, Qu Pretendes, which sees Balvins voice scaling new heights.)
Ultimately, Oasis is a document of how far Balvin and Benito have come, and a blueprint of where they are headed. Hip-hop has long embraced the joint album format, and Oasis echoes the intentions of that genres earlier ventures into this territory take Jay-Z and Kanye Wests Watch the Throneand Drake and Futures What a Time to Be Alive effectively reinforcing these peers domination of their respective genres. With Oasis, Balvin and Bad Bunny issue a reminder that 2017s steal-your-girl anthem Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola, their first collaboration, was just the first of the many spoils theyd collect in the years to come.