Lost in the Club

A joint effort from two hitmakers that hits only half the time.

- CRAIG JENKINS

Anuel AA and Ozuna.

LOS DIOSES OZUNA ANDANUEL AA. REAL HASTA LA MUERTE/AURA MUSIC CORP.

BORN A FEW MONTHS apart in the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the 28-year-old urbano stars Ozuna and Anuel AA took very different paths to international success. As the mixed-race child of an Afro-Latino father and a white Puerto Rican mother, Anuel felt the striations and dualities of his hometown’s culture firsthand; then, in 2007, his father, the veteran producer José Gazmey, lost his job as a Sony records executive, crushing the family’s financial stability. Anuel found music and trouble in equal measure as he searched for an end to his struggles. Meanwhile, Ozuna steered clear of the streets, singing and working at a bar. He was trying to help his grandmother, who had taken him in after his father was shot to death. Ozuna’s grandmother taught him spirituality, and his uncle aided his musical education, giving him a microphone and exposing him to reggaeton as the music leaped from local to international acclaim in the aughts.

The differences in Ozuna’s and Anuel’s stories manifest in their music. Ozuna sells yearning, romantic tunes in a high, lonesome croon; Anuel’s gruff tone hints at, and sometimes revels in, a palpable darkness. Ozuna’s 2017 debut album, Odisea, was the culmination of a long series of increasingly successful singles typifying the minting of a new commercial star; Anuel’s