6ix9ine Drops Surprise Reggaeton Album, "Leyenda Viva"

6ix9ine has temporarily shifted away from rap. Today, he surprised fans with the release of his third studio album, Leyenda Viva. The album is reggaeton and entirely in Spanish. It consists of 11 tracks and features minimal collaborations. However, Latin Grammy-winning artist Lenier appears on seven of them. For those who don't speak Spanish, the title translates to "Living Legend." One of the songs included on the album is "Y Ahora." It was previously released as a single and draws inspiration from regional Mexican music. This track was a collaboration with the Mexican band Guapo Firme.

Leyenda Viva marks 6ix9ine's first full studio album in three years. It follows his sophomore release, TattleTales, released in 2020. That project debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, with 53,000 album-equivalent units sold in its first week. However, Billboard's rules have since changed. This has unsurprisingly prompting 6ix9ine to express grievances against the publication. He criticized the rule that excludes merch bundles from counting towards chart placements. The rapper claims that it was implemented after he sold over three million dollars' worth of merchandise for his single "Gooba." Whether or not that is true is not clear.

In addition to releasing a full album, 6ix9ine also dropped a video for his new single, "Pa Ti." The song features a female artist named Yailin la Mas Viral. The video features the two mostly performing to camera in front of a lavish looking house in a tropical setting. While this new direction of 6ix9ine's has been in the works for a while, many have criticized it. Some accused him of being a culture vulture, doing rap when it suited him and then moving on to something else. 6ix9ine, as always, had a strong response to the criticism.

“You know how many Spanish n*ggas is born and raised… in the whole of New York City? What ya’ll trying to say, Spanish n*ggas can’t eat? When you Spanish, you can only make Reggaeton?” 6ix9ine said in an Instagram video. “It’s our culture, too, n*gga…” 6ix9ine sounds angry in the clip as he makes his feelings clear. He went on to talk about his accomplishments as a Spanish-speaking rapper. “Name one Spanish rapper other than me… that can enter the top 10 on Billboard… Y’all just mad because I can enter a whole different demographic in the Spanish market. I dominated the English, and I’m gonna dominate the Spanish.” 

Tracklist: