The scholar who helped Bad Bunny deal a Puerto Rican history lesson

It was Christmas Eve when multiple new Instagram followers slid into Jorell Melendez-Badillo's DMs, all with the same question — would the historian be interested in collaborating with Bad Bunny?

- MAGGY DONALDSON

"My heart dropped," he said. "I immediately said yes."

Bad Bunny, one of the globe's biggest stars, was preparing to release his sixth studio album, Debi Tirar Mas Fotos — I Should've Taken More Photos — a love letter to his home Puerto Rico.

And the reggaeton artist born Benito Martinez Ocasio wanted Melendez-Badillo — who had recently published the book Puerto Rico: A National History, a study of the island's colonial history and its political movements — to consult on the visualisers the megastar would release with his new tracks.

The release date was Jan 5 - less than two weeks after Melendez-Badillo was brought in.

"I had promised my partner, my kid, my therapist, that I was going to leave my computer behind," he laughed, saying at the time they were vacationing in Portugal. But when Bad Bunny calls, you answer.

Melendez-Badillo said he first spoke with a producer who explained the album's concept - an affirmation of Puerto Rican identity and culture in relation to continued colonialism and displacement. (The Caribbean archipelago has been a US territory since 1898, following centuries of Spanish colonial rule.)