A video posted on Monday on TikTok by the account @yannys_real sparked nostalgia among thousands of Cubans with a phrase that many have been repeating for some time: "Everything is fine with the distribution, but there was a time when Cuba sounded like this."
In less than two days, the one-minute and 54-second clip garnered over 45,000 views, more than 6,200 likes, and 424 shares, along with 230 comments that turned into a collective journey through the island's musical past.
The video mixes fragments of songs that defined an era: "Miss, this time you really missed the bus, the girl from two thousand," can be heard in the first few seconds, followed by lines like "Lying down, lying down, lying down, mama lying down, wait, I see you smoking, what a bold move where you are."
Behind those letters are names that made an entire generation dance: Los 4, Yomil y El Dany, La Charanga Habanera, Los Desiguales, El Chacal, Yakarta, and Chocolate MC, among others, were key figures in Cuban reggaeton before the rise of the distribution.
Cuban reggaeton began to gain ground in the late 1990s with artists like Candyman, Marca Registrada, and El Médico, and during the following decade, it notably expanded its presence in parties, nightclubs, and other venues across the island.
La Charanga Habanera, founded in 1988 and led by David Calzado, became one of the most popular Cuban groups of its time and received a Latin Grammy nomination in 2003. Randy Malcom passed through its ranks before achieving international fame with Gente de Zona.
Los 4, led by Jorge Junior, released songs such as "Hazte el Gangsta," "Quisiera Volver," and "Prisionero," and in 2019, they joined forces with La Charanga Habanera on "Chaleco antibalas."
But perhaps no name evokes as much emotion as that of Yomil and El Dany, the duo that popularized "traptón" — a fusion of trap and reggaeton — with songs like "Tengo," "Rikaperry," and "Estamos pa' to'."
The death of El Dany —Daniel Muñoz Borrego— on July 18, 2020 in Havana, at the age of 31, adds a special emotional weight to that nostalgia. His absence turned Yomil and El Dany into symbols of a stage in Cuban urban music, and each anniversary of his death continues to generate numerous messages of remembrance among his fans.
Reparto, a branch of Cuban urban music incorporating elements of reguetón and other rhythms, gained momentum in popular neighborhoods of Havana and during the 2020s became one of the most prominent sounds among urban artists on the island, even generating debates in official media such as Mesa Redonda.
The comparison between the sound of yesterday and today is not new on social media, but the video by @yannys_real summarized it with a simple formula that evoked nostalgia: it's not necessarily about rejecting the new, but about remembering the music that accompanied an entire generation.
Now the question remains open: from that era of Cuban reggaeton, what was your favorite song?
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