After uniting hip-hop’s biggest names for a Verzuz battle (Eve vs. Trina, Ludacris vs. Nelly, Method Mad vs. Redman, among others), the webcast series presented its first-ever Latin battle with reggaeton hitmakers DJ Nelson and Luny Tunes on Sunday (July 17).
Mixing live from MLB’s All-Star House (a poolside hub in Hollywood Hills), the genre’s pioneers delivered over 40 back-to-back classics to an intimate in-person crowd and over 5,000 virtual fans via Triller, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Verzuztv.com.
“People think Nelson and I are enemies but that happened a long time ago,” Luny Tunes said during the one-hour event. “Nelson deserves to be where he is today and I am where I am because of him.”
Sharing a stage and rocking Dodgers jerseys, the DJs went all-out in the first three rounds. Luny kicked off the battle with “Baila Morena” by Hector y Tito, “the duo that started the movement,” he said. Nelson quickly jabbed back with Hector y Tito’s “Pegate.” Luny then continued with Daddy Yankee’s “Metele Con Candela” and Nelson with Zion y Lennox’s “Yo Voy A Llegar.”
“All of these hits were created in Flow Music. We have a really big history,” Nelson told the energetic audience after Luny spun “Ven Bailalo” by Angel y Khriz and Nelson spun “Vengao Acabando,” his collab with Alberto Stylee.
The producers battled it out in 22 rounds that included reggaeton bangers such as Tego Calderon’s “Wasa Wasa” (Luny), Wisin y Yandel’s “Rakata” (Luny), DJ Nelson’s “En La Disco” (Nelson), and Dalmata’s “Pasarela” (Nelson), to name a few. “DJ Nelson and Luny have the best trajectory in reggaeton,” Luny said in the midst of battle.
In one of the notable moments of the evening, Luny dedicated his battle to Daddy Yankee, “an artist who recently announced his retirement but is important in my history,” he noted, spinning some of the DY hits he produced such as “Limbo,” “Lo Que Paso, Paso,” “Machucando,” “Llamado de Emergencia,” and a never-released version of “Mirame” featuring Wisin y Yandel.
Nelson, on the other hand, paid tribute to the late producer Flow La Movie by playing the 2018 hit “Te Boté” (originally recorded by Nío García, Casper Mágico, and Darell, and later remixed with Bad Bunny, Ozuna, and Nicky Jim), which spent 14 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart and its video was the most-viewed of the year on YouTube. “He left us this banger for the rest of our life,” he expressed.
While Luny mainly focused his battle on his old-school bangers (Plan B’s “Candy,” Hector El Father’s “Dame Calor”), Nelson did not shy away from presenting some of his recent hits (Rosalia and Travis Scott’s “TKN,” Jay Wheeler and Myke Towers’ “La Curiosidad”), as well as unreleased songs from his upcoming album De Camino a Palomino, due out July 22.
Luny ultimately wrapped the Verzuz with “two of reggaeton’s international anthems,” “Mayor Que Yo” and “Noche de Travesuras,” which is why Billboard thinks that Luny takes the crown for the inaugural Latin Verzuz.
Dubbed “A salute to Latin Music Producers,” the Verzuz by Triller was in partnership with MLB and presented by Corona and TMobile. Watch it below: