In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, Tainy (real name: Marco Masís) and Luny (real name: Francisco Saldaña) from Luny Tunes brought the party home, connecting on Instagram Live for a historic beat battle.
The two urban producers jumped on Instagram Live, presented by Rapeton, at 9 p.m. ET on Friday night, going head-to-head with their best reggaeton hits throughout the years.
Luny kicked off the beat battle with the 2006 “Royal Rumble,” which included various artists such as Daddy Yankee, Don Omar and Wisin. Tainy then hit him up with Yankee’s “Gangsta Zone (Remix).”
From the Luny-produced old-school classics such as Wisin & Yandel’s “Rakata,” Don Omar’s “Dale Don Dale” and Plan B’s “Candy” to the newer Tainy hits such as J Balvin’s “Reggaeton,” Cardi B’s “I Like It” and Anuel AA’s “China,” the beat battle lasted three hours and peaked at 65,000 fans, artists and industry leaders connected.
In the comments, Balvin joked that he was selling popcorn and soda, Bad Bunny said he was singing all the songs out loud, Cazzu said she was transported to her adolescence, as Anuel AA, Karol G, Yankee, Justin Quiles, Sech and Rauw Alejandro joined the fun too. Meanwhile, Ozuna was in charge of keeping the score, starting off with Luny winning the battle and then Tainy taking the crown — and ultimately both producers tying.
In what seemed to be the grand finale, Luny dropped the ever-timeless “Gasolina” by Daddy Yankee, which Tainy followed up with Bad Bunny’s viral perreo track “Safaera.” The two producers, however, continued dropping songs from their respective catalogs, even giving fans a sneak peek of new music.
Luny shared a snippet of an upcoming Zion & Lennox song, where they revamp their 2003 hit “Hay Algo En Ti,” and Tainy shared an unedited Bad Bunny track in collaboration with Zion & Lennox. Both producers mentioned they have new Daddy Yankee music on their plates but did not share more.
“Thank you for what you’re doing with all of those global hits,” Luny told Tainy. “It’s a good moment in music,” Tainy agreed. “Thank you for giving me an opportunity to create a beat when we first met. That’s what really opened the doors for me.”
Before producing hits for Bad Bunny and J Balvin, Tainy first stepped into the spotlight in 2005, when he was one of the producers on Luny Tunes’ Mas Flow 2 reggaeton compilation album.
“Last night was one for the books!” Tainy told Billboard on Saturday (April 18). “When Luny proposed this I accepted and knew it would be be a great moment for our culture, but I really was blown away by the amazing reception we got from fans and colleagues! We went for 3 hours plus and we battled with some of our classics and most influential hit songs that we’ve produced. It was great to see so many people stick around for the entire live and just having fun. The best part of this was being able to let the music and moment take over and for those 3 hours, that we forgot about everything going on. Thankful to Luny and El Guru for putting it together!”
Friday night’s beat battle was indeed one for the books, showcasing the evolution of the urbano movement. Listen to the complete song selection below:
