If you haven't already heard Luny Tunes' barrio-fabulous beats on Daddy Yankee's brawling hit "Gasolina" or R. Kelly's newest album, reggaeton's top producers will soon be lighting up a nightclub near you. Since the late Nineties, Francisco Saldana (Luny) and Victor Cabrera (Tunes) have been turning out beats that update reggaeton's pulse with synth hooks, pan-Latin melodies and even Middle Eastern atmospherics.

"We never use samples," says Saldana, taking a cue from one of his idols, Dr. Dre. "We want to create everything new. A few years ago, reggaeton was not very musical, so we began adding more and more melody to it and cranking the beats, and people were like, 'Whoa!'"

Saldana and Cabrera met during the mid-Nineties at high school in Peabody, Massachusetts, where their parents had moved from the Dominican Republic and where the pair fell in love with hip-hop. Having heard plenty of reggaeton before emigrating to America, they began to pump out Casio-based productions after buying all the computer equipment they could afford. Their name stems from Saldana's "luny" demeanor and Cabrera's proficiency with hook-laden tunes.

Moving to Puerto Rico in 2000, they broke out on the strength of the beats they supplied to stars such as Tego Calderon. Nowadays, they're in demand with American pop stars -- upcoming collaborations include Jennifer Lopez, Black Eyed Peas and Ja Rule.

"Reggaeton is here to stay," says Cabrera. "But it's evolving fast. At some point, you'll hear it in almost every American home."