Ramtin Arablui

The song came out in 2022 and directly addresses the ongoing blackouts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

Blackouts that continue to this day.

But it's also a party song.

It's a protest song and it's a party song.

And it says in the beginning, Puerto Rico, está bien cabrón, right?

Which is...

Bien cabrón can mean it's the shit, it's awesome.

It also can mean it's messed up, it's fucked up.

We're fucked, right?

In the music video for El Apagón, Bad Bunny takes this political critique a step further.

Right in the middle of the music video, he and his team insert an entire short documentary called Aquí Vive Gente, or People Live Here.

With the reporting of Bianca Gralau, it's sort of talking about the reality of displacement of people that don't want to leave.

The documentary looks at how laws touted as good economic policies for Puerto Rico that seek to attract millionaires are actually pushing Puerto Ricans out as investors buy properties, raise rents, and block off access to treasured beaches, which are, according to Puerto Rican law, public land.

These are conversations that are happening in Puerto Rico and Benito is using his platform to amplify it.

And then of course, right at the end of that song where we have the chorus that he wrote.

I don't want to leave here.

They should leave.

These people want to take from me what's mine, but they should be the ones to go.

Que se vayan ellos.

And this is a direct reference to gentrification and to the influx of mostly, you know, wealthy American business people.