Arcángel

Arcángel is a reggaetón vocalist from Puerto Rico who began his career as a member of the duo Arcángel y De la Ghetto in the mid-2000s before embarking on a solo career. Born Austin Santos on December 23, 1986, in New York City, Arcángel first established himself in tandem with De la Ghetto with the song "Ven y Pegate" on the popular Hector el Father-hosted compilation album Sangre Nueva. Throughout 2005 and 2006, Arcángel y De la Ghetto were featured on a variety of reggaetón albums, including Luny Tunes' Mas Flow: Los Benjamins, and were associated with Baby Records, the label of Zion (of the duo Zion & Lennox). However, Arcángel announced in December 2006 that he was embarking on a solo career and founding a label of his own. In the wake of Arcángel's announcement, De la Ghetto embarked on a solo career of his own and made his major-label full-length album debut with Masacre Musical (2008). Meanwhile, the solo career of Arcángel sputtered at first. While his guest feature on the DJ Nelson album Flow la Discoteka, Vol. 2 (2007), "Chica Virtual," was a minor hit, his planned full-length solo album debut, La Maravilla, went unreleased after being leaked on the Internet in spring 2008. At the end of the year Arcángel finally made his solo album debut with El Fenómeno (2008), a full-length album produced by some of reggaetón's top beatmakers, including Luny Tunes, Mambo Kingz, Tainy, and Noriega, among others. The album featured mostly new material, though a handful of songs originally planned for release on La Maravilla, including the hit single "Paque la Pases Bien," were included. The lead single for El Fenómeno, "Por Amar a Ciegas," became another hit for Arcángel and helped the album break into the Top 20 of Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All...