Daddy Yankee defends music piracy in Peru

LIMA, Peru - Music piracy is unstoppable, and justified for poor fans, Puerto Rican reggaeton sensation Daddy Yankee said Saturday in the Peruvian capital of Lima.

Daddy Yankee spoke before a one-night appearance to promote his "Barrio Fino en Directo" album, which features live and remixed versions of 2004 hits like "Gasolina" and "Lo Que Paso Paso."

"You can't control (piracy). They gonna keep on doing it," said the Latin Grammy-winning Yankee, who was born Raymond Ayala.

"Sometimes, economically speaking, in different countries ... it's hard for a kid to buy your record," he said. Even if it means he makes less money, Yankee said, if a fan can only afford a pirated copy of his album, "nothing matters because the kid is poor."

Yankee added that if a consumer has the money to buy the record, "why not, you know, buy it?"

Music and software piracy are widespread in Peru — as is poverty, with more than half the population surviving on less than $2 a day.

Reggaeton — an infectious tangle of Spanish rap, Jamaican dance hall reggae and the pulsating tropical rhythms of bachata, salsa and merengue — is a fixture on urban radio stations and dance clubs.

The genre has even become popular in the form of tinny, downloadable cell phone ring tones. Two Daddy Yankee songs were nominated for the 2006 Billboard Latin Music Award for Latin ring tone of the year.

Daddy Yankee has become the face and force behind reggaeton, with some 2 million copies of "Barrio Fino" selling in the United States alone.

Dozens of fans, many of them teenage girls, mobbed his Lima hotel on Saturday hoping to catch a glimpse of the star.

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