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Even during hip-hop’s nascent days, the genre had its champions. They would — from sidelines and behind the scenes — make sure that it got the respect it deserved as a culture and the dollars it deserved as a business. It happened with Russell Simmons creating Def Jam Records, Puffy creating Bad Boy Records, and even the contentious Suge Knight creating Death Row Records. Throughout hip-hop’s history, there have been creative and business savvy executives who’ve helped guide the art form on its course. For the fast-growing genre reggaeton, it’s no different and that’s where Queens NY’s Boy Wonder comes in.
Boy Wonder, born Manuel Alejandro Ruiz, is known in the reggaeton circuit as the mastermind behind the successful ‘Chosen Few’ compilation series. An artist himself, he’s served as executive producer and producer of the notable compilations that have been steadily released since the first in 2004. The series is now on it’s sixth edition, ‘Boy Wonder Presents: Chosen Few Urbano Continues.’
In this interview he tells us his name came from “always daydreaming, always wondering” when he was younger. When asked what makes a legend he assuredly answers, “I do whatever it takes to make it happen.”
The producer also shares what inspired the platinum-selling compilation series. After college, an investment in an artist that didn’t fully come to fruition prompted the New Yorker to head to the Dominican Republic. There he was introduced to Latin urban music as we know it. From there he was energized to compile all artists and tracks that highlighted what made the genre so great.
He’s even veered from the ‘Chosen Few’ compilations. In 2005, he co-created the compilation, ‘El Draft,’ which served as a launching pad for popular reggaeton artists RKM y KenY, Jowell y Randy, and his own artist at the time, Fuego.
Get to know the persistent and driven producer/artist and what he thinks makes a legend.
