Several of reggaeton’s biggest streaming stars, including Ozuna, who told El Pais, “The genre was born in Puerto Rico and has had a complete evolution.”
That assessment reduces the genre’s history to one island’s success. At the same time, the ongoing lawsuit filed by Jamaican production duo Steely & Clevie over approximately 1,800 reggaeton songs alleged to infringe upon their 1989 “Fish Market” riddim has reignited debate surrounding the genre’s true origins.
In response to the lawsuit, lawyers representing all the major record labels and publishers, have enlisted forensic musicologist to argue that reggaeton’s roots lie broadly within Caribbean folk traditions rather than specifically within Jamaican dancehall.
However, through sound system clashes, migration, dancehall innovation, and street culture, early pioneers laid the foundation for reggaeton long before it evolved into a billion-dollar global industry.
Speaking with World Music Views, Shaggy reflected on an early contributor connected to the movement’s development in Panama.
“Before El General, you’d have a El Gringo, another youth, did have the place first before El General. But El Gringo, did go to jail,” Shaggy said.
Renewed attention focused on the enigmatic “El Gringo” referenced by Shaggy following that interview. The reggaeton pioneer originally known as “Gringo Man” or “Gringo El Original” is Jaime Alexander Davidson. In his first term prior to leaving office, in January 2021, U.S. President Donald Trump commuted Davidson’s triple life sentence after he had served 29 years in prison in connection with a 1990 robbery and murder case in upstate New York.
Davidson represents one of several overlooked connections between Jamaican dancehall culture and Panama’s Spanish-language adaptation of it known as Reggae En Español, La Plena panameña” and early Reggaeton.
The origins of that culture can be traced to Jamaica’s sound system era in New York, during which selectors, deejays, and crews established reputations through intense competition. In this exclusive interview, Davidson reflected on his own introduction to music culture through the legendary Earthquake sound system.
He started out as Baby Quake. “But I start in 83 with Earthquake. I started in 81. But in 83, I was with Earthquake. And Earthquake paved the way for me.”
He described the mentorship he received from Flya, owner of the Earthquake sound system, before Fly’s incarceration in 1984.
“So when Flya, the owner, got jailed in 84, I had a meeting in my prison. And he said, ‘People, they will try to kill you, forget the sound system.’”
Davidson recalled the symbolic gathering during which senior members of the crew decided to entrust the sound system to the younger generation.
“The whole Earthquake man them go to the prison, sit down. And they say, ‘Yo, you can’t give to him because him too young.’ And Ruth and Miller say, ‘Yo, a Earthquake, what are you talking about? We all give to him.’”
According to Davidson, Fly personally instructed him in the mechanics and discipline associated with sound system culture.
“Fly was breaking me in, showing me how to select, how to do everything in that sound system.”
Among his most vivid memories was a legendary clash at Starlight Ballroom in 1991 between Baby Quake and Atomic Nuclear which had an emerging Shaggy on the mic.
“Starlight Ballroom, 91 Baby Quake versus Atomic Nuclear. Shaggy did a mash up the place. And I said, ‘Bl**dcl**t, we have to come good enuh,’” he said he told Selecta Slick Finga.
Davidson, who speaks fluent patois, Spanish and English recalled meticulously preparing his set with assistance from selector Slick Finger of Rebel Next Level before Fly Ranks unexpectedly appeared during the clash.
“So when I throw it, then say, ‘Yo, Fly say him ready.’ So I said, ‘Baby Quake, we lick the chopper.’ Who Fly come in? Fly Earthquake, you know. The father.”
With artists including Louis Ranking, Typewriter, Screechy Don and James Bond participating, Davidson stated that the sound system overwhelmingly defeated the competition that evening.
“Earthquake mash up the place. And we end up shut down down Atomic Nuclear.”
For Davidson, however, one performer distinguished himself above all others.
“Shaggy, I want to show you something. At that day, people realize, ‘Yo, Shaggy ago someplace.’ Because back then everybody a Deejay,” he said. Adding that, Shaggy was the one who took him to Sting International.”
Our conversation continued on a drive From Fort Lauderdale to Miami. We stopped at a party as I showed Gringo Man what the new era of parties look like in Miami. We saw selecta Jazzy T from Renaissance sound system and the two immediately connected.
The relationship between Jamaican dancehall culture and the emerging Spanish-language movement in Panama and Puerto Rico is deeper than many proclaim Davidson maintains. That the history of reggaeton, he says, should be understood as a transnational collaboration rather than the invention of a single country.
“Everybody a fight about reggaeton. But the mother Panamanian. The father Jamaican. She gets pregnant at New York.”
Laughing at the metaphor, Davidson continued the story of an immigrant baby. “You see? Get pregnant at New York, then go to Puerto Rico and born there. Then they named it reggaeton.”
In his view, Puerto Rico deserves substantial recognition for investing in and commercializing the genre on a global scale.
“Puerto Rico invest money inna reggaeton, make it grow up. Take reggaeton to a whole different level.”
Nevertheless, Davidson argues that Puerto Rico’s evolution of the sound should not overshadow the Jamaican and Panamanian pioneers who established its foundation.
“When reggaeton reach over there, what it do? It evolve. If you have a movement and you don’t evolve, that’s something you do wrong. But you can’t say, ‘We create reggaeton,’ because all the fusions was already there.”
According to Davidson, those musical fusions existed long before the term reggaeton achieved commercial recognition.
“That’s why I said in one of my songs: first hip hop and dancehall. Ringo and Magic One first dance song and hip hop.”
Davidson also referenced early experiments that blended merengue, house music, and dancehall rhythms.
“Merengue House with dancehall — never heard of before.”
He credits both Jamaican and Panamanian artists with shaping the movement’s hybrid identity.
“Mr. Doom, Dennis the Menace, Orlando Lee — Panamanian, Jamaican — and Dennis the Menace another Jamaican. Good future for the people.”
Davidson additionally recalled the significant role Jamaican performers played in Puerto Rico during the genre’s formative years, including appearances alongside emerging local artists.
“Who open up there? Daddy Yankee. What year? 1993, 94, 95.”
According to Davidson, Jamaican artists regularly performed within Puerto Rico’s underground club circuit before reggaeton achieved international prominence.
“That’s when DJ Negro club, where everybody goes to DJ over there.”
For Davidson and others of his generation, the true history of reggaeton is not defined by ownership, but by migration, cultural exchange, and artistic evolution. Jamaican sound system culture traveled to Panama through Caribbean migration, merged with hip-hop influences in New York, and experienced commercial rebirth in Puerto Rico.
The music became global because it reflected the contributions of everyone who helped shape it.
And for pioneers such as Gringo Man, the historical narrative remains incomplete unless every chapter is properly acknowledged.
Watch interview on YouTube.
