Before Annual would become one of the leaders of the latin trap movement.
Before he would go to jail for 30 months and drop an album the day he was released
Before that album would top the Latin iTunes charts
Before Anuel would collab with some of the biggest artists in the latin industry like
Ozuna, Farrruko, Nengo Flow, Karol G and American artists like Tekashi 69 and Nicki Minaj.
His song with Nicki was even included on the soundtrack for “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse”
Before he would share a passionate kiss with fellow superstar Karol G confirming what many
had already believed about their relationship status
Before Anual would have over 16.5 million followers on Instagram and more than 22 million
listeners on Spotify MONTHLY
Anuel grew up the son of a big music A&R, but that doesn’t mean that he had it easy.
He served 30 months in jail on a weapons charge where he would record songs through the phone.
He’s quickly become one of the leaders of the latin trap music and I have a feeling
he’s just getting started.
But how did he make it to the top of the game?
Well you clicked on the right video.
What's going on good people in the comment section, my name is Jeremy Hecht, I hope you’re
having one Hecht of a Day and today I’ll be your host taking you through the life and
career of Anuel AA prior to fame.
We’ve covered other artists recently like Lil Nas X and Paulo Londra so be sure to check
those out after you finished watching this one.
Also let us know who we have to cover next and be sure to share this video with the biggest
Anuel fan that you know.
There are a lot of Spanish pronunciations in this video and as you can probably tell
already I do not Speak Spanish so hopefully I do a decent job but if I say anything wrong
feel free to let me know how to pronounce them in the comments down below.
I’ve also got a trivia question for you that I’ll answer at the end of the video:
“What did Anuel say about Karol the first time he met her?”
Stick around until closer to the end of the video for the answer.
Alright, let’s get into it:
Alright here goes my first attempt, Anuel AA was born Emmanuel Gazmey Santiago on November
27, 1992 in Carolina.
How was that on a scale of 1 to 10?
But of course, it wasn’t the Carolina my American viewers are thinking of, Carolina,
Puerto Rico.
Anuel’s father is Jose Gazmey.
He was also a musician, playing bass and producing some prominent latin hits.
According to a blog post I found, he was considered to be one of the best studio musicians in
Puerto Rico ever to do it.
He ended up becoming the Vice President of A&R at Sony Music in Puerto Rico and this
allowed Anual to meet a lot of Spanish singers and celebrities from a young age.
Legend has it that rapper Tempo carried a young Anual in his arms when he was just a
child.
Jose signed Tempo and producer Buddha to the first million-dollar contract in the genre’s
history.
Growing up, Anuel studied at the Catholic school Colegio Maria Auxiliadora in his hometown.
Am I getting any better?
Ever since a young age, Anuel showed an interest in music but it was in 2009 that he decided
to start rapping and worked on his craft until he felt ready to release music into the world
a year later.
His early songs were published through his father’s company.
He was able to secure collabs with some big artists like Nengo Flow and Ozuna to gain
new fans and people fell in love with his musical style.
He started posting his music to his YouTube channel and his music made it all the way
to America and caught the attention of one of the hottest rappers in the game at the
time, the Boss, Ricky Rozay.
In 2012 Anuel secured a deal with Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group.
It’s wild that he was signed to Maybach and I had no clue.
When Ross was posting up pics in 2012 it should have been him, Meek, Wale, Gunplay and Anuel.
They could have been the international rap Avengers.
It was through Maybach that he was able to secure the permission to use some Rihanna
vocals for a hook.
In September of 2015, Anuel appeared on a remix of Byrant Meyers’ song “Esclava”
with a standout verse.
This put his name into the spotlight of the latin trap world.
The song currently has over 100 million views on YouTube for the audio alone.
In 2016, he released the mixtape Real Hasta La Muerte, which is the same name as his album
that he would later release.
While his songs were considered too risky to play on the radio with lyrics about sex
drugs and guns, he quickly started to gain an online following.
While I would have thought that because of how he grew up that those lyrics weren’t
all true or that he wasn’t about that life, I was proven wrong.
Because it was that same year that he got caught up with the law, being hit with gun
possession after leaving a nightclub in Puerto Rico.
In his car, officers found three guns, a dozen clips and 152 rounds of ammunition.
He said in an interview that the moment he was arrested by police, he knew he was going
to jail.
And he was unfortunately right.
He told Billboard:
They arrested me for my songs.
For what I said, which is real, what people see and live in the streets.
It was during his time in jail that he began to build his audience and before long he had
himself massive online following posting hit after hit to his YouTube page.
Five of his songs that were released since the time of his original arrest reached Billboard’s
Hot Latin Songs chart.
During the time he had collabs released with Ozuna, Bad Bunny, Farruko and more.
Anuel was involved in an incident in jail with another inmate that lead to him spending
90 days in solitary confinement and Anuel spent time in 4 different prisons over the
course of his 30-month sentence.
The prisons varied in location from Puerto Rico, and Atlanta to Miami with a brief stint
in a halfway house before finishing his release in a Miami prison.
It was at the halfway house that he reunited with his collaborator and friend, Ozuna.
And it was also there that he was able to record in a studio.
After a huge Free Anuel campaign from his fans that went viral and took his fame to
a new level, he was released from prison in May of 2018 after a little over two years
behind bars.
He released his album the same day that he got free as a surprise release for his fans.
Much of the album was written while he served his sentence.
I guess you have nothing but time to think and write down your thoughts.
Well that and do push-ups.
Anuel says some of the songs were finished before he went in but when he went to the
halfway house in Miami, he had the ability to record the rest of them in a studio.
And as for the other songs, he recorded some of them while on the phone with his producers.
They would play the beats on their end and record his vocals on the other.
The album was released through GLAD Empire records with distribution via The Orchard
and it seems like Maybach Music didn’t play a role in the release at all.
It appears he has since cut ties with the label.
But Anuel’s release from prison was timed perfectly with the rise of Latin Trap in the
US.
At the time, Cardi B had the number 2 song in the world with “I Like It” which featured
two of the biggest latin trap artists Bad Bunny and J Balvin.
And that song was only topped by Bad Bunny himself who had the number one song.
Anuel’s album landed at the top of the iTunes Latin charts and at number 4 on the overall
chart.
He says the first thing he did when he walked out from behind bars, was hug his son.
Anuel collabed with Tekashi 6ix9ine that same year for the song “BEBE” which has nearly
a billion views on YouTube.
Anual and Karol G were set to work on a remix together but when he got locked up he wasn’t
able to send her over the verse.
But when he was released from jail, the two allegedly started talking constantly over
the phone, even having never met in person.
Then the two dropped the song “Culpables” together.
It was about a couple who falls in love while dating other people.
The two met in person officially on the set of the music video.
Apparently Anuel told his manager that Karol would become his wife one day.
And there you have the answer to the question from the beginning of the video.
See kids, the power of the mind is not a joke.
You can manifest anything that you want in this life just say it out loud or right it
down and I promise you it will happen.
I manifested working on this show back when I said I wanted to work on a show where I
got to talk about music to millions of people and look where we are now.
Karol told Billboard:
We became friends and we are very close.
He is a human being completely different from the character he is.
He has a huge heart, and I wish everyone could know him as I know him.
As usual in Hollywood, the two kept saying that they were just friends and denying any
rumors of romantic involvement.
That is until one night on stage, they confirmed otherwise:
And you can tell by her nod that they had discussed this happening before the show.
They then confirmed on Instagram that this was not just a fling but a full blown relationship
with Karol posting the caption stating:
26 years of experiences, of living, of struggles, of learning.
It's not a lot what I'm going to write to you here, you more than anyone know what I
think
hopefully other people could see what I see in you.
All I can say is I've had the honor to know your heart and fall in love.
I'm so proud of you—you're a giant.
Happy birthday and cheers to many more.
I love you Emmanuel
The two even got matching tattoos of each other’s real names, so it’s clearly real
love.
As Drake once so eloquently put it, tat my name on it so I know it’s real.
Anuel stated:
"This tattoo is worth more than all of this jewelry I have
And based on how frozen his wrist is usually looking, it’s worth a lot.
And if you thought that tattoo was intense, then just wait until you see the next one
he got of them:
That was based on this picture
Recently, Karol showed up to the 2019 Billboard Latin Music awards rocking a massive ring
on her finger.
So it seems like Anual manifested that into existence.
The two even toured together, performing in front of massive audiences.
Most recently in terms of the music, Anuel dropped his single “Cambio” with Ozuna
and the official video already has more than 50 million views.
But as for the rest of the story, well you know it because this, is before they were
famous.
As always, my name is Jeremy Hecht, be sure to check out some of my other videos and let
me know who you want me to cover next.
Dream Good, Live Better and I hope you have one Hecht of a Day.
If no one has told you yet today, I love you.
I’ll see you in the next one.