Bad Bunny has been on a winning streak.

The Puerto Rican musician is one of the most streamed artists in the world. He hosted Saturday Night Live, and is appearing in a slew of new movies.

All eyes are now on his 30-concert hometown residency, which runs through mid-September and has made Puerto Rico the center of the universe this summer.

His concerts, long sold out, have drawn hundreds of thousands of residents and fans from abroad to San Juan to revel in the songs from his latest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (“I Should’ve Taken More Photos”).

The songs fuse modern Latin trap and reggaeton sounds with more traditional Caribbean sounds of plena, bomba, and salsa.

Bad Bunny — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — isn’t just celebrating Puerto Rican culture with this album and residency. He’s also using his platform to highlight the archipelago’s long and complicated history. And he’s done so through an unusual collaboration.

Today, Explained co-host Sean Ramewaram spoke with Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, an associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Puerto Rico: A National History.

Meléndez-Badillo explains how their collaboration came about, the aspects of Puerto Rican history that Bad Bunny wanted to spotlight, and how Bad Bunny’s songs and videos are grounded in a history of colonialism and resistance.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.

Did you make it back to Puerto Rico this summer for a certain concert?

Yes, absolutely. I was in Puerto Rico for about a year on a research fellowship, and I got to go to the residency on its opening weekend.

Was it the greatest show you ever saw?

It absolutely was. It was mind blowing. I’ve seen Benito multiple times in different tours supporting different records, and this was by far his best concert of all the ones that I’ve seen.

And unlike every other single person at the Bad Bunny concert, you had a very........

© Vox