X 100pre (2018)

X 100pre (an abbreviation of "Por siempre", Spanish: [poɾ sjempre], meaning "Forever" and stylized in all caps) is the debut studio album by Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny. It was released on December 24, 2018 by Rimas Entertainment. It features guest appearances from Diplo, El Alfa and Drake. It was ranked number 41 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Debuts Albums of All Time and number 447 on the list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Background

Bad Bunny embarked on his La Nueva Religión Tour Part I and Part II in 2018, which concluded in September. The tour grossed more than $16 million worldwide.

After releasing various singles during 2018, on December 23 he announced via social media that his debut album would be released at midnight on Christmas Eve.

Following the release of the album, Bad Bunny revealed in an Instagram live video that he was not working under his first label Hear this Music and his previous manager DJ Luian because he was not able to release albums under his previous management.

The album cover design was created by Sergio Vazquez and "inadvertently" gave Bad Bunny the idea for using the "third eye" in many of his future shows.

Composition

X 100pre is primarily a Latin trap and reggaeton album, which also incorporates elements of pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, bachata, dembow, ballad, acoustic, electronic, house, reggae, dancehall, Andean, tropical, synth-pop, pop-punk, chillwave, and synthwave.

Singles

"Estamos Bien" was the first single to be released, accompanied by a music video on June 28, 2018. On October 18, 2018, he released the single "Mía" featuring Drake, marking Drake's second song in Spanish.

Following the success of "Mía", Bad Bunny released "Solo de Mí" on December 15, 2018. On January 18, 2019, he released the video of "Caro". Ricky Martin sings backing vocals on the track.

The video of "Si Estuviésemos Juntos" followed on February 14, 2019, and the video of "La Romana", featuring Dominican dembow artist El Alfa, was released on April 6, 2019.

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, X 100pre received an average score of 84 based on five reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian praised Bad Bunny's "off-kilter creativity", opining that Bad Bunny "feels less like part of the current pop landscape than an artist operating slightly adjacent to it. He is separated from the pack as much by a desire to take risks as by his roots." He noted that the record contains a variety of musical genres, including pop punk, Andean music, Dominican dembow and "windswept 80s stadium rock".

Commercial performance

X 100pre debuted at number 29 on the US Billboard 200, and number 1 on both the Top Latin Albums and Latin Rhythm Albums charts with 30,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. In its second week, the album peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200 with 36,000 album-equivalent units.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.

Noah "40" Shebib – mixing (track 15)

Noel "Gadget" Campbell – mixing (track 15)

Greg Moffett – mixing assistance (track 15)

Chris Athens – mastering (track 15)

David "D.C." Castro – engineering (track 15)

Lindsay Warner – engineering (track 15)

Les "Bates" Bateman – engineering (track 15)