Don Omar: Da Hit Man Presents Reggaeton Latino : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Fusions of hip-hop and reggaeton -- its dancehall-inflected Latin cousin -- are becoming more common as reggaeton invades rap radio and pushes boundaries, with brassy Spanglish rhymes increasingly surrounded by boomy hooks, merengue and gunshot sound effects. This compilation finds Don Omar -- a Puerto Rican singer who sometimes comes off like reggaeton's Nate Dogg -- dropping soulful hooks, while some famous Americans and Latin MCs, such as Tego Calderon, bob, weave and provide sultry, popwise crooning over slicked-up islander beats. On the title track and the girl-sick "Scandalous," Omar's passionate, vaguely melancholy singing enriches the action-packed party of string stabs, shouted "hey!"s and hot rhymes from N.O.R.E., Fat Joe and Cuban Link. Some of the straighter love songs are snoozers but not Jennifer Lopez's Omar-penned "Hold You Down," a buzzy, deftly syncopated slice of dance-pop romance that makes J. Lo's sunshiny platitudes sound surprisingly sweet.