The Puerto Rican star is back with La Voz Favorita, an album that traces his roots across trap and reggaeton
For nearly a decade, Jay Wheeler’s fans have playfully referred to him as “La Voz Favorita” (or “the favorite voice”), thanks to his romantic, soulful vocal delivery. Now the Puerto Rican star is embracing that moniker with an album of the same name. La Voz Favorita, out Thursday, is made up of a staggering 24 tracks, where Wheeler revisits his roots while pushing urbano forward.
Wheeler first broke through as a Latin trap artist in the mid-2010s and later made his mark in reggaeton with his R&B-infused edge. With La Voz Favorita, he returns to his trap roots on bedroom bangers like “She Like 2 F**k” featuring Luar La L, Torrres, and Remers. “I don’t know why I always do trap so well,” Wheeler admits. “I don’t like explicit music too much, but at the same time, I know Puerto Rico loves trap, so I know it’s a brand that I always have to keep there.”
He also delivers on the sentimental reggaeton that sets him apart from his peers with the heartfelt “De Lejitos” and expands his sonic palette with forays into salsa in the fiery “Rubio,” pop-flavored perreo in “Todo Mal” featuring Abraham Mateo, and traptronica in “Tiffany” with Mora.
The album is a testament to how much Wheeler’s profile has grown, a combination of his music and presence as a content creator. He has a massive following on Kick, where he’s known for his funny and personal livestreams, and he also co-stars with his wife Zhamira in the YouTube series Cooking with the Wheelers. “People love how sincere and funny I am,” Wheeler says. “I feel like when you are a real person and not trying to be something that you’re not, it always works out.”
Ahead of his takeover of Puerto Rico’s El Choli on May 29, Wheeler broke down five key songs from La Voz Favorita.
The reason this one is called “Rubio” is because of my abuelo. His name is Angel, but we call him “rubio” because he used to be blonde with blue eyes. Now he has white hair and he’s old, but he’s got blue eyes. He loves salsa a lot. I was like, “If I’m going to do a salsa song, I’m going to put my abuelo’s name in it to appreciate that he inspired me to do salsa.” The song has nothing to do with grandfather or grandson love. It’s just salsa music. I feel like my grandfather would be honored to see his name on a salsa song that his grandson did.
This one is out already and I don’t know how it got so big. I’m not taking credit from it because I know it’s a great song. It’s crazy for me because I’ve been doing music for years and to be able to have a hit by myself is beautiful. I have to say thanks to my little daughter. On a livestream, I was playing songs from my album and this hit popped up. My little daughter loves that song. She was like, “Papa, can you carry me so we can dance to the song together and sing it again?” The video went viral of us just dancing and having fun with the song. It’s like a father and daughter moment. That’s why at the end of the music video, you see my little daughter and I dancing again. It’s like saying thank you to the people that have made this song a success.
I feel like when you have a song with many features, it’s kind of hard to do because you want everyone to be comfortable. The hard part is the technicalities that come with the song, like trying to mix it. This one used to be nine minutes long and I had to obviously shorten it to like five minutes. It was a song that I had from a long time ago. I was going to do it by myself, but then people were like, “You should add this guy and this guy.” Luar was the one that recommended Torrres and I was like, “Let’s try it.” We did it and it was very fun to do, but at the same time, it was crazy because when it comes to having a lot of artists on one song, you all have to like how it turns out.
Mora and I have a very crazy relationship. I feel like I know him from a long time ago, but we haven’t known each other that long. Maybe that helps us when it comes to the chemistry of doing music. People love it when we sing together and do music together. I feel we should do an EP or album or something. Mora produces music for a lot of artists. He’s a genius when it comes to music, so I feel like having him on my project is always an honor for me. I will do my best to always have him on all my projects.
We got to Miami and [Abraham] showed me like three or four songs and I loved them all. This song goes more with my album. I heard it and I was like, “Bro, I got to get you on my album.” He was like, “Bro, I’ll be honored.” He said yes from the get go. When he sent me the song, I remember I was like, “Can I really do this?” It sounds like reggaeton, but at the same time, it sounds like something from Spain. Their style of music is very different from ours. It sounds so good and so fresh. I feel like people from Puerto Rico and any other part of the world should hear how Spain makes music because it sounds so pure. I sent him my part of the song and he loved it. His lyrics are very explicit in the song. I made that happen. I’m the bad influence.
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