NICKY JAM

Nicky Jam — Nick Rivera Caminero — was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1981, and spent his childhood there. According to NPR, he was already rapping for fun in Lawrence at age 10, and kept freestyling and rapping after his family moved to Puerto Rico. NBC Boston describes him as a Lawrence native who moved to Puerto Rico as a child.

In Puerto Rico he learned Spanish and built an audience in the emerging hip-hop and dancehall scene; NPR reports that he released his first album at 14. He formed the duo Los Cangris with Daddy Yankee, and his discography from those years includes Vida Escante (2004) and The Black Carpet (2007).

In 2007 he accepted an offer to perform in Colombia and decided to stay; NPR later places him in Medellín. From there he rebuilt his career, with singles including “Voy a Beber” and “Travesuras” (2014).

“El Perdón,” with Enrique Iglesias (2015), spent 30 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart and earned him the 2015 Latin Grammy for Best Urban Performance. “Hasta el Amanecer” (2016) added 18 weeks at No. 1 on that same chart. Fénix (January 20, 2017) was nominated for Album of the Year at the Latin Grammys, and “X,” with J Balvin (2018), for Record of the Year. He released Íntimo (2019) and Infinity (2021); in 2020 he reunited with Daddy Yankee — the same artist with whom he'd formed Los Cangris years earlier — on “Muévelo.” In 2022 he received the Billboard Hall of Fame honor at the Billboard Latin Music Awards.

He released INSOMNIO (2024) with Jorgie Milliano on production — having already worked with him as producer on “Celular” (2023) and as a featured artist on “Revuelto” (2025), a collaboration documented across three consecutive years — and Bohemio, on January 30, 2026. His most recent video, “La Foto,” with El Shadow, came out on August 12, 2026.