You guys up for some reggaeton tonight?
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[5.17]
Katherine St Asaph: Like “Case of the Ex” from the dude’s point of view and also reggaeton. Tepid reggaeton.
[4]
Iain Mew: The silvery guitar is a great base for the explosions of brass and vocal anger, but the structure draws all the sting out of them through over repetition. I prefer Rachel Stevens’s “LA Ex.”
[4]
Brad Shoup: Songs slagging exes usually puzzle me. It’s the sour-grapes aspect of putting someone you were clearly into for a long while on blast. Here, there’s the narrative convenience of King Daddy fending off solicitation; the reggaeton stomps and the guitar needles, and his howls turn this into some kind of final showdown.
[6]
Rebecca A. Gowns: Two roads diverged into a yellow wood, and Daddy Yankee took both so we can all be more informed. One girlfriend, La Nueva, is sure of herself, and the other one, La Ex, is a “star without charisma.” One girlfriend gets worked up over jealousies only when they’re confirmed, and the other one celebrates each one “as if it’s Christmas” (Daddy Yankee admires women for only getting mad about the real cheating, not the imagined; he’s quite the pragmatist). One of them dances with him, the other one tags him in photos throwing around gossip. Which will he choose? Daddy Yankee is a step ahead of Frost in his pondering — for him, it’s not even a choice. He doesn’t consider them rivals, nor equals, so the question answers itself. La Nueva wins, no contest! And yet, I have to wonder: if the question was rhetorical to begin with, why write a song about it? Perhaps Daddy Yankee is more bothered by La Ex than his carefree lyrics suggest.
[4]
Anthony Easton: The track seems less aggressive, with the production more complicated than the pure ratcheted up push of other Yankee work I have heard. I especially like how how he sings os, how they float over the rest of the track.
[8]
Alfred Soto: The singer settles for a whine, the arrangement nothing special, the lyrics sidestep misogynist clichés with humor. In short, a draw.
[5]