Bad Bunny: The music superstar talks hitting 30, Puerto Rico music-making and 10 years in the books

There’s no denying Bad Bunny’s star power in 2025. While he has 10 years in the books, it’s clear these past few have ignited the most stardom he’s ever experienced meaning BB has plenty to dish on with Apple Music 1.

Bad Bunny pulls through to Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe

It’s a signature ‘The Zane Lowe Show’ Q&A for Bad Bunny. Meeting in Puerto Rico, the duo dish on everything from putting out new tunes and reaching the big 3-0 to his work ethic.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music what it was like making his favorite track on the album (third track)

Bad Bunny: I think it's one of my best experience ever creating music, where I have a lot of great moments creating music. But definitely this one is top five best moment of my life creating music because it's a very special… It's a song that I have in my mind for maybe two years. The whole composition, the whole song, it was in my mind way before the song was created. Now that I can listen to it. 

Zane Lowe: You realized it.

Bad Bunny: Realize it is one of the best feelings ever. The whole song is made with new young musicians from Puerto Rico. All of them are 20 years old, 21, 22 they're really young kids, straight from the Escuela Libre de Música it's like the public music school from Puerto Rico.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about discovering his purpose 

Being here was my dream. I always dreamed that my music would be heard all over the world, and that people would appreciate what I do. But I was asking to myself what is the reason for me be here? Like what is the reason for me to be in this position? Number one on this, breaking these records. What's next? A lot of artists, they go crazy thinking about what next because they think the next thing is I don't know, break more records or be bigger. No, now stadiums, no, now we're going to go to the moon. I don't know how, you know? And I realized that there're other things that you need that sometimes are more important than that. And that's the next level.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about being 30 and marking 10 years in the industry

Zane Lowe: Have you been reflecting on your history, on your life, on your family?

Bad Bunny: Yeah, definitely. I'm still young, but I just turned 30. I remember when I turned 20, I was depressed. I thought that I was I was going to die. It was the end of my life. I was, Oh, my God, I'm 20! I'm a fucking old man! I'm about to die! This is the end! I remember.

Zane Lowe: What was going on in your life at the time? What was happening? 

Bad Bunny: I was studying. I was doing...was a normal guy, studying and working on the grocery store. 

Zane Lowe: You were unfulfilled?

Bad Bunny: I'm a very emotional person, and sometimes I overthink everything. I'm just learning not to think too much and just trust in the life and God and the process and everything and enjoy the moment. But now I'm 30, people start to ask you, Are you going to marry? Are you going to have kids? You start to think, am I wrong? 

Zane Lowe: There's a lot of thoughts that start to come to your mind.

Bad Bunny: Yeah, definitely, I've been reflecting on my life, I've been reflecting about my whole life, my history, and also about my career, when I've been doing all these years, I'm about to turn 10 years in the industry. And that's fucking crazy because sometimes I feel that I'm a rookie, this is my first year! This is my first album to me.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about recording the album in Puerto Rico and New York

Zane Lowe: I know environment is important to you. Did you make it in Puerto Rico? 

Bad Bunny: A hundred percent. There's a couple of songs that I recorded in Nueva York. I remember I had to work because I wanted to finish the album, but I said I don't want to record any song out from Puerto Rico. I was working on Happy Gilmore and Caught Stealing in New York, so I stayed for two months in New York. So, I was like, the only place that I'm going to record besides Puerto Rico is going to be New York. I was staying in this house, and they had an office, and we went to a Puerto Rican souvenirs shop. We filled the whole office. There was like 2,000 flags, and coquí, and it was the most new freaking place ever. I record a couple of songs there, I think two, maybe three, but the whole album is made here.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about living in Puerto Rico

There's a lot of artists that when they turn big, they move to other places because they feel that they can't be anymore around. But I don't want to do that. Yeah, I like another place. I like New York, and I want to have a place there. Just to go a couple of weeks, couple of months. I don't know. And also I don't know. Someday I want a house in Switzerland. I don't know. But I want to live here forever. I remember when I was a kid and my mom, she bought a ticket to go to New York and to Connecticut and to visit family. When she told us to the family, You know what? Like a surprise, We are going to USA. I started to cry. I was 12 and I started to cry, but cry because I didn't want to leave. I was, "No, I don't want to go!" I don't want to leave here. I always want to be here in Puerto. And my parents was laughing like, "What the fuck, this guy is crazy! Yo, we're going to come back. It's just for two weeks." Now I'm traveling around the world the whole time and always. So yes, but it's like a feeling that I always been feeling my whole life.

Bad Bunny reflects with Apple Music about his childhood upbringing and his longest-standing friendship

Zane Lowe: You have a lot of friends still here. How old is your oldest friendship?

Bad Bunny: Twenty years. Yomo. 

Zane Lowe: Twenty years?

Bad Bunny: He's my oldest friend. He's one of the guys that are drinking beer with me in the beach. 

Zane Lowe: You met him when you were 10. You've known him that long.

Bad Bunny: Yeah. So he's my... He is the one I've known the longest among my friends. In Spanish we say my longest-standing friendship. 

Zane Lowe: What childhood did you have, man, with your parents? You've created such an amazing creative life for yourself. Was it a creative household? Was it a reaction to a strict upbringing? What upbringing did you have as a kid? 

Bad Bunny: I had a beautiful childhood, I think. I lived with my parents, both of them. Thank God that they're still alive. I went to public school. My mom was very strict with the grades. My dad was always making making us laughing and making jokes. I could say that I had a very happy childhood, very familiar, always shared with my grandparents, with my uncles, aunties, my cousins. If you ask me about my childhood, I remember it as a very beautiful one. I never lacked anything. Obviously my parents, daddy and mommy worked so that we would lack nothing and I saw their effort I saw how they worked so hard to give everything to us, to me and my brother.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about his upbringing influencing his work ethic

Zane Lowe: Did that affect your ambition, coming from a household that, was built on a foundation of hard work? Did that drive you to want to achieve things in your life? 

Bad Bunny: Maybe. I'm sure that I learned a lot of things from my parents. Responsibility, punctuality. I learned that from my mom. My mom was like a psycho. She always wanted to be in places 10 minutes before. I'm always the first one in everywhere. 

Zane Lowe: Yeah, you were on time today. Do you know how rare it is for artists to be on time?

Bad Bunny: Yeah. I really… I like to respect the other time. I know that you came here from far. I know that you really… I don't want to make you wait for me. Artists don't understand that. People are used to artists being like arriving whenever the fuck they want. And I'm always sometimes 10 minutes early, sometimes... If I have a dinner at 8:00, I'm there 7:40 waiting. Then I feel dumb. Fuck, I'm the dumbest artist of all time. My dad was like, he always was helping others and giving to the others in the neighborhood. I remember, if I had sneakers I didn't use he would come and ask me, to give it to a kid who was in need, my dad was always giving and helping the people from the neighborhood. And that part of me, to give to the elders, definitely, I learned from my dad.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about why he started his nonprofit organization 'Good Bunny'

We have many projects and so many beautiful ideas, many good things we want to do for the community for the country, and sometimes the system, the government, seems to work against it. When it's not supposed to be that way, I'm just supposed to be like a badass boost of their efforts. Afterwards, you can read the subtitles and you will understand what I am saying. Those are the things that bother me the most. And sometimes I feel good when they contribute in a positive way. And think, Damn, at least. But it's like... we feel like clapping, but no, damn, don't clap. Because they should do that and much more. That's one of the things that bother me. And not being able to help everyone I would like to help, impact as many lives as possible, but it is impossible.

Bad Bunny shares with Apple Music how Puerto Rico's enduring identity, rich culture, and spirit of freedom continue to thrive across generations

Dude, like 130 years we've been part of the US and we're still Puerto Rican. We remain... having our culture, our way of speaking. There's a lot of things that I could say right now. What I can say is that I really feel proud of my people, about my country, about my culture, and about how they be resistant, people that did it before, people who inspire the new fighting and caring, preserving who we are. What we are as a people, as a culture, as everything.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about the local artists he collaborated with on the album and being shy

Bad Bunny: You know what's my favorite part about to collaborate with all these artists that I'm telling you is no matter how far, big, whatever I could be, obviously, I know a lot of big artists and superstars, and I feel happy that I connect more with these people, that I really feel more connected, and I really feel more… I identify more when I know them, I mean, damn that's the brutal theme. Here... I feel good here. I feel good, I feel comfortable, I feel free, I feel happy in this environment, in this place, with these artists, with these people, with their friend, with the group, there's no… 

Zane Lowe: You don’t have to try! 

Bad Bunny: Yeah! And to me... it's hard to make friends no matter what. It was hard in high school. It was always difficult for me to make friends. That's why I've always had the same friends since I was a kid. And I'm not antisocial in a way, I find it hard to step in. I have many very strange habits from childhood, I have like a… It's hard sometimes to even say hi, not because I'm a... Dude, sometimes I don't even say hello. 

Zane Lowe: Because you're shy? 

Bad Bunny: Yeah. 

Zane: Is that what ultimately you are presenting yourself to some degree in a hidden environment when you first came out, you were masked up. Was that out of shyness?

Bad Bunny: Mm-hmm. Most of the time, that's why. It's because I'm a shy person.

Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about his goal for this new album 

That is always the goal to bring happiness and bring joy to people, it doesn't matter. No matter what's going on around the world, no matter how screwed we are. That's one of the reasons why I create and make music. I feel like nothing bad happens in the world and in my life when I'm creating music. I hope people feel the same way when they listen to my music, like, "Fuck, I don't know, I had a bad day today but I'm better now and I feel better." That's the goal. That is always the purpose of my project. The time, and the specific time, and the release is to encourage families to connect with young kids or whoever has played my album and maybe their uncle or their grandparents, they can say: I know that sample I know that stuff. This guy does it terribly. Let me show you. Let me show you. You understand? That's what I want, for families to do the same thing I did this year that I told you about getting to know my family better, knowing the stories. I want families, after listening to this album, to start a conversation that they have never had before to start talking in a good way about music, for sure it will come up, "music before, no today's is better." And they can start listening to other things and the elders can start showing what they used to listen to. And that carries them to a journey that brings them closer together as a family. That is without a doubt one of my purposes for this album.

Bad Bunny talks to Apple Music about plans to tour in Europe

Bad Bunny: We’re making plans to go, but it's not going to be this year. 

Zane Lowe: Can I ask you why it's taking you some time to get past the Americas? 

Bad Bunny: Really my times with the times over there. With my project, it's a combination of many things. That led me to say, well we can't go, let's go later. Let's go later. And it didn't happen. But definitely, I wanted to go. It's crazy when you think that I haven't performed any of my songs. Like, Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana (2020 album), Un Verano Sin Ti (2022 album), El Último Tour [Del Mundo] (2020 album).

Zane Lowe: I feel this album is so beautifully created to present this deep and rich musical history that you've put through this beautiful, modern filter, so tastefully done and so ready to put on the bigger stages around the world. 

Bad Bunny: I agree. And we're going to do it. I promise that I'm going very soon.We're trying to finally go to Europe and... And other parts of the world.