Don Omar
Da Hit Man Presents Reggaeton Latino
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Fusions of hip-hop and reggaeton -- its dancehall-inflected Latin cousin -- are becoming more common as reggaeton invades rap radio and pushes boundaries, with brassy Spanglish rhymes increasingly surrounded by boomy hooks, merengue and gunshot sound effects. This compilation finds Don Omar -- a Puerto Rican singer who sometimes comes off like reggaeton's Nate Dogg -- dropping soulful hooks, while some famous Americans and Latin MCs, such as Tego Calderon, bob, weave and provide sultry, popwise crooning over slicked-up islander beats. On the title track and the girl-sick "Scandalous," Omar's passionate, vaguely melancholy singing enriches the action-packed party of string stabs, shouted "hey!"s
Read More and hot rhymes from N.O.R.E., Fat Joe and Cuban Link. Some of the straighter love songs are snoozers but not Jennifer Lopez's Omar-penned "Hold You Down," a buzzy, deftly syncopated slice of dance-pop romance that makes J. Lo's sunshiny platitudes sound surprisingly sweet.
For a "new" album, Da Hit Man retreads some old territory, but we can't complain: Don Omar's had a lot of hits, and he's got the right to get a bit more mileage out of 'em -- especially when the results are so fun. Swizz Beatz give "Dale Don Dale" a future-forward remix, and it's hard not to start shaking when the bachata-ton of "Dile" and "Pobre Diabla" kick off.
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