The reggaeton feuds keep coming. Over the weekend, the rapper Jhayco launched into a lengthy tirade on Instagram Live and went after Puerto Rican artist/songwriter Mora and Colombian singer J Balvin, accusing both of them of being fake friends.
Jhayco appeared in his Instagram Live video in sunglasses with music blaring in the background. As he spoke to his fans, he dove into his feud with the artists, starting with Mora, who he has collaborated with in the past. (The two of them teamed up for “Pégate (Remix)” a few years back and have written together on other tracks.) In the clip, Jhayco accuses Mora of being a gossip and sharing secrets he’d told him confidentially. “The cabron says he’s your friend and you tell him things, and then he goes and tells the other guy and the other guy,” Jhayco explained. “You’re not my friend, and you’re not anyone’s friend… Don’t call me, don’t send me Voice notes, because I’m not answering you. You know what you did.”
He alluded to past conflict between Mora and the rapper Anuel AA, saying Anuel AA removed himself from Mora’s “Memorias (Remix).” “No one gets along with you in this genre… Last time, when Anuel AA got off ‘Memorias’ over bullshit, the only one who was there for you was me.”
Balvin became the target next. “Balvin is another mamabicho [dicksucker]. Balvin pretends to be the good one, the most friendly of everyone.” He then accused Balvin of copying parts of his creative image and artistic concepts, namely a bat symbol Jhayco has been using to promote his upcoming album era. “You go over to Warner, you tattoo the bat on your chest, you know the bat is me. Then you call me to asks concepts. ‘What are you doing?’ I tell you, ‘I’m doing this and this, Bruce Wayne, this thing, dressed in black,'” he said.
Recognizing that some fans make reggaeton beefs about pitting countries and territories against each other, Jhayco quickly clarified his issue is with Balvin. “I don’t have anything against Colombians. But some of your artist are assholes. Balvin, you’re an insect and I’m saying it clearly so people know how these artists are in real life,” he said.
It’s not Jhayco’s first time getting in a massive public feud: In 2021, he and the Puerto Rican star Rauw Alejandro traded several diss tracks; Rauw Alejandro released “Hunter” while Jhayco dropped a seven-minute song called “Enterrauw” where he took a swipe at Rauw for collaborating with Chris Brown.
Balvin has also seen his fair of bad blood in the industry. In 2022, after he proposed a boycott of the Latin Grammy awards for failing to recognize reggaeton, the Puerto Rican rapper Residente went after him and likened the commerciality of his music to making hot dogs. Later, Residente intensified the feud by teaming up with the Argentine producer for the scathing freestyle “BZRP Music Sessions #49.”
