BAD BUNNY 'WHAT'S THE POINT? TO SHOW THE WORLD WHO I AM'

When you’re Bad Bunny, elevators are a careful maneuver.

- JULYSSA LOPEZ

At any point, as the bell dings, you might be recognized, and when you happen to be the most-list ened-to Latin artist on planet Earth, the statistical probability of running into any kind of fan — hardcore followers, casual listeners, excited tourists — is pretty high.

It’s not that he minds, it just makes things slightly more complicated when the Puerto Rican superstar is trying to get from Point A to Point B. ● So that explains why one bone-cold morning in New York, just two days after Christmas, Bad Bunny is facing the wall in an elevator heading to Rolling Stone’s offices. He’s head to toe in a simple pewter-gray sweatsuit, and as an extra precaution, the drawstrings of his hoodie are pulled so tight that you can see only a tiny sliver of his forehead, looking more like a faceless Pan’s Labyrinth creature than a sought-after, history-making, megawatt celebrity. The visual here — his team of about seven people standing next to a silent six-foot figure with his back to everyone — is almost comically weird, but it’s a smooth ride up without interruptions.

Ten floors later, the hoodie comes off, and there’s Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, bearded with his hair slightly grown out, bouncing around, looking through the past few issues of the magazine. He has thoughts: Looking at the October 2024 edition with Chappell Roan, he explains that a hairdresser on a movie set recently turned him on to the rising pop phenom. “She has, like, a Lady Gaga, Lana, Sia vibe,” he says. “She’s cool.” Turning to the January 2025 issue with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, he jokes, “I’ve always said he reminds me of a dolphin, and this cover in the water confirms that Rolling Stone and I are connected.”