“When I'm telling you I have three albums ready, they're ready,” J Balvin tells Apple Music. “Maybe I’ll go crazy and start dropping a new song every Thursday.” The Colombian superstar’s claims of a surplus of some 200 songs make sense, especially given how little music he’s shared with the world in recent years. After paving a path for the next generation of reggaetoneros with his explosive mid-2010s albums Energía and Vibras, not to mention the artful Colores in 2020, his activity noticeably decreased following 2021’s personal yet poppy JOSE. Of course, he’d hardly vanished from the scene, dropping singles and features with everyone from Maluma and Ryan Castro to Imagine Dragons and USHER. Yet after keeping up an exhaustive schedule for the better part of a decade, his relative absence on the release front and principled retreat from social media suggested a greater focus on family and fatherhood, along with a publicly stated commitment to his mental health. “You will never see me blasting someone on IG,” he says, citing his young son as a reason for avoiding the negative gossip and tiraera bait common in the genre. “I just respect you or I don't respect you, but that's personal.” Three years after his last album, Rayo represents Balvin the way he sees himself right now. Clearly disinterested in resigning himself to legacy status, he devotes himself once more to music with a keen interest in the contemporary coupled with deep reverence for what came before. To this end, he reunites with some of the producers from across his discography, from hitmaking mainstays like Sky Rompiendo (“I wouldn't be J Balvin without Sky,” he quips) to still-rising talents like fellow Colombian L.E.X.V.Z. Even as he links with ascendant artists like SAIKO and Luar La L, he reconnects here with erstwhile collaborators whose own careers have taken off exponentially, not the least of which being Feid. “I have so much respect for him,” he says of the Medellín-bred star who co-wrote Balvin’s early hits “Sigo Extrañándote” and “Ginza” before coming into his own. Reggaetón plays prominently throughout Rayo, though it’s not the sole sonic expression on offer here. Vibrant tracks like “3 Noches” and the surprising Carín León team-up “Stoker” reflect Balvin’s role as a pioneer of fusing Afrobeats with Spanish-language music, a practice now employed by an increasing number of reggaetoneros and Latin pop acts. “To me, it's like the new reggae,” he says. “It just sounds good everywhere you are at any time.” Having previously collaborated with genre leaders like Burna Boy and Wizkid, he comfortably and passionately operates within the style without fear of losing fans. “I'm in a really beautiful position where I don't have to prove myself to the world,” he says. Read on to learn about some of J Balvin’s favorite songs from Rayo—in his own words. “Cosa De Locos” “Normally when it comes to reggaetón, they do more the hard intro, more street, like, ‘I’m the man with the biggest balls’—which is dope. I respect that, and it’s part of our culture, but it’s just not what I wanted to do. My energy on this album was just so full of happiness and joy. When the beat starts, it creates an ambience. This is how my energy is right now to share with you, and this is the way I want to start it. I call it happy reggaetón. I love that that’s the first one on the album.” “Polvo de tu Vida” (feat. Chencho Corleone) “Me and Chencho, we do great things, and we haven't had the opportunity to work together solo. I never made these songs thinking about someone. When I finished the album, I was like, let’s see if there's any song that is screaming for a feature. This is a good thing of doing music, just not thinking about the features, about what's going to happen. It's better just to focus on the song, and then it's not premeditated. We flew to Dubai together to shoot the video. We had, of course, a long flight, so we went to the bar. He taught me a lot of reggaetón history. It’s priceless to share with a legend like him.” “Swat” (feat. Luar La L) “Luar La L’s song is one of my favorites. I love the way he raps, I love the way he flows on the beat. It's those types of features that you don't see it coming. He's definitely running the streets. The vibe was amazing.” “Doblexxó” (feat. Feid) “It gives me nostalgia, because I remember us back in time. I'm really grateful for him, and I knew he was going to make it. You can get lost a little bit when you start writing songs for everyone, and then you might lose your ID or DNA. I think what he did was discover himself. It's also beautiful how patient he was, because you got to understand, we—Maluma, KAROL G—blew up way before him. We went together to the studio in LA, just me and him. We just wanted to make it so intimate. This song is definitely a Medellín song. That's Medellín reggaetón, and it makes me so proud.” “3 Noches” “Afrobeats is one of my biggest passions. From me starting working with Mr Eazi, we both invest in the new artists from Africa; we’re partners in a company where we find who's going to be the next one. ‘3 Noches,’ man, it's a lot of people's favorite on the album, let me tell you. I did it with Michaël Brun from Haiti. It just comes so easy to make the melodies, because I listen to these guys all the time. I just try to be the most respectful I can be with their genre.” “Gaga” (feat. SAIKO) “This kid, he came like he knows us forever and he was giving us what to do, which we loved it because we knew that he knows and he is a great artist. We were so impressed. He definitely knows what he wants and his taste is top-tier, man. I see this kid humble, enjoying the process, which definitely makes me think about there were some moments that I didn't enjoy my success growing up. Maybe I was so caught up in the business that I didn't have the time to digest so many things and enjoy it to the fullest.” “La Noche” (feat. Dei V) “Dei V is the reason why I started the album, and he doesn't even know! I just went to the studio to have fun; I never thought about making an album. I remember being in Miami with Jeremy Ayala, a producer that I love and a close friend, and O’Neill, a great artist and songwriter/producer. We went to the studio, we invite Dei V. I remember me having fun as the way when I started doing music. We did this song so fast, but it was because we were so connected. It's a pure reggaetón, man.” “Stoker” (feat. Carín León) “This guy Carín impressed me of his vision of music. It reminds me of Vibras—so open to try different sounds. He listens to every type of genre, which is not normally what you see in these artists, because I understand that they're so into the regional and they're so into the corridos. When I start talking with this guy, he knew about vallenato from Colombia, he knew about salsa, he knew a lot of Ed Sheeran. This guy is so open-minded, I think I can do something that is going to take him out of the comfort zone. He sent us the song, but it was totally his sound. I’m like, wait, we can make a twist here. No one has heard [him] in an Afrobeats drum pattern. On respect, I called him before we made the surgery. He was just like, 'Yes, that's what I was looking for!'”