J Balvin is the first to admit he was in a dark place a few years ago. In 2022, the Colombian star postponed a major tour, beefed with rapper Residente, and faced intense criticism about his song with Tokischa, “ Perra ,” just to name a few incidents. So he decided to pack his bags and take some time off, opting instead to spend time with his wife Valentina Ferrer, and their now-3-year-old son Río.
“Maybe, that’s what I needed,” he tells Rolling Stone . “After you hit the floor for some reason, you bounce back.” He says he asked himself one question: “Are you going to stay on the floor or are you going to use this as a trampoline?” J Balvin will tell you he’s bounced back.
On Friday, he dropped his seventh studio album, Rayo , which pays homage to the first car he owned in his pre- La Familia days, back when he was a young artist simply excited about being able to make music. “It’s the nostalgia I had of when I was in the studio for the first time. Sometimes you get so caught up in the business that you start just thinking about the business and not the music purely,” he admits.
“So in this case, it was like when I was a kid.” The album hears him tap some promising voices in Spanish-language music, including Spain’s Saiko and Bad Gyal, along with Feid on “Doblexxó” and Dei V on “La Noche.” It’s all part of introducing a “new season” of Balvin, and comes just months after he performed a career-spanning, headline-worthy set at C.