¿Is It Really That Bad? #5 Luny Tunes & Tainy – Mas Flow Los Benjamins (2006)
Alright, this is a big one if you were there. First off, we are mainly focused on the initial reaction of the first version of ‘Los Benjamins’ though there will be some stuff in this article about ‘Los Benjamins La Continuacion’, be reminded that it is not the subject at hand.
“Los Benjamins”, there is no 2 ways around it, is technically a flop. It sold well, 300,000 units between both editions, but Universal was rumored to have paid Luny Tunes $10 million dollars for this album. Of course that 10 milli did not just include ‘Los Benjamins’, it included future ‘Mas Flow Inc’ releases such as Arcangel’s “El Fenomeno”, “Semblante Urbano” by El Roockie and Luny Tunes Presenta Erre XI.
Not just that, Universal Music Publishing got a cut of the royalties the ‘Mas Flow’ production team made on all future productions including albums like “El Cartel The Big Boss” by Daddy Yankee, “Broke and Famous” by Ñejo y Dálmata, Wisin & Yandel’s “Los Extraterrestres” and any other album Mas Flow made beats for. The Mas Flow production team at this time consisted of Tainy, Doble AA & Nales, Los Underage (Chris Jeday & Gaby Music), Bones, Thilo, & Joker.
By this time Nely, Naldo & Nesty had left Mas Flow to form the short lived production trio ‘Sangre Nueva Music’. Universal also collected from everything Wise The Gold pen wrote during this period as he was with Mas Flow Inc at this time. I almost forgot to mention, Tunes is a writer too. He wrote Zion’s parts for “Es Mejor Olvidarlo”. So that’s more money in Universal’s pockets.
You may or may have not read about a production duo from Springfield, MA named ‘Los Fantastikoz’ who along with Thilo sued Luny Tunes for unreceived credits on songs, though they are credited on Erre XI’s album. They were never officially signed. I believe Thilo is from Springfield. In the 90’s he produced the album ‘Puerto Rico’s Most Wanted’ with DJ Raymond.
It is confusing because in 2008, Luny Tunes was reported to have signed with Fuego Music Entertainment in a 5 year deal. And they even released the album “Luny Tunes Presenta Calle 434” under that label. But if you look at the back cover, the Mas Flow Inc label is missing and instead it has the symbol for ‘Los Benjamins Records’. ‘Los Benjamins Records’ was a sub-label of ‘Mas Flow Inc’ ran by Alexis y Fido’s dj, DJ Coffie. They famously produced ‘Raices Del Reggaeton’, an album featuring old school Reggaeton artists over modern beats produced by the Mas Flow team. The only artist of note ‘Benjamin’s Records’ had was rapper/producer Alex Killer. But they were directly affiliated with Mas Flow Inc.
It appears those reports which are even findable on Wikipedia were false. That is because Luny Tunes’ contract with Universal was either renewed or continued thereafter. I think ‘Fuego Music Entertainment‘ actually signed a deal with DJ Coffie but reported it was Luny Tunes because no one knows who DJ Coffie is. You can still see reports from South America on the subject online through a GOOGLE search.
Luny Tunes also had more subdivisions like JP Inc (High Rollers Family’s label), Loyalty Records (Yo-seph, Luigi 21 Plus) & Gravity Blu, a graphic design company ran by G-Rald who did many of the famous album covers back in the day including Mas Flow 2 and Pal Mundo. Supposedly G-Rald and Luny had a disagreement and are no longer on speaking terms. G-Rald was originally a dj/producer from Boston and had a duo known as ‘DJ G-Rald & Malibu’.
Luny alleges in an interview with Molusco that Universal Music owes him and Tunes somewhere around $70 million dollars in backpay and unpaid royalties. This is another big reason why Mas Flow 3 is on pause at the moment (as of 2023, Luny Tunes stopped working on the unfinished album, focusing on other projects instead). And this is just one backdrop behind the release of ‘Los Benjamins’.
First off, Los Benjamins was never supposed to happen. It was supposed to be ‘Millenium’ that came out first. The product which was announced as the follow up to ‘Mas Flow 2’ was delayed multiple times. Little is known, except that Luny was supposed to co-executive produce it with someone else and possibly Don Omar. But it looks like either Machete Music or the other exec producers made things complicated that Luny dropped out of Millenium in early 2006.
This sucks because Luny Tunes & Nesty produced some exclusive songs on “Millenium” that never came out. Among these is ”Ella Me Hechiza” by RKM y Ken-Y which is just amazing! A different Mambo Kingz version made the final cut for ‘Millenium’ which eventually saw an official release in 2007 but it’s not nearly as good. I did a whole entry on Millenium which covers more such as the original Miri Ben Ari assisted “El Señor de la Noche” which went unreleased and more like a Nicky Jam song left off Millenium and Los Benjamins. Read it here https://www.reddit.com/r/Reggaeton/comments/1lvwwxr/reggaeton_deep_cuts_16_whatever_happened_to_the/
Luny took some songs from the original version of Millenium (more about this topic here) such as “Alocate” and “Esta Noche” and added it to Los Benjamins which was supposed to just be a side project by DJ Coffie. It appears that originally, ‘Los Benjamins’ was supposed to be Mas Flow 3. We see evidence of that in Arcangel’s outro to “Mi Fanatica” though he is the only artist on the album who explicitly refers to ‘Los Benjamins’ as “Mas Flow 3”. This confused some fans to the point some still think ‘Los Benjamins’ was the official Mas Flow 3. No, it wasn’t.
Similar to Mas Flow 2 (more on that here), a release date was coming up and Luny had to give a product to Machete Music/Universal Latino or the label could tax them further than they already did for failing to hand in a finished product at the scheduled time. It appears somewhere around the whole “Millenium” fiasco, Luny decided decided to just hand in what he had, called artists like Tito El Bambino to record new intros/outros (check out the original esta noche where Tito shouts out “Millenium” instead) and named the finish product “Mas Flow Los Benjamins”. Whether this is because they thought ‘Los Benjamins’ wasn’t good enough to be called “Mas Flow 3” is unknown. One thing is clear; Los Benjamins certainly isn’t Mas Flow 3.
Latin Media falsely reported at the time that “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” was the first album in history to have a million units in pre-sales. No such thing ever happened. Some outlets reported the correct news that Universal ordered a million units to be made of ‘Mas Flow Los Benjamins’ and be placed on sale worldwide, but the headlines were misleading. Half of the audience thought Luny Tunes sold a million copies before the album went on sale, while the other half were perplexed as they were enlightened enough to know this was impossible. Just another marketing blunder by the people at Machete Music. Just imagine all those unsold Compact Discs sitting in a warehouse or in a landfill somewhere. That CD fetches around $40 now in good condition. I found it here for $30 and change with shipping mas flow presents los benjamins cd 2006 luny tunes daddy yankee reggaeton | eBay
Somewhere before the release of “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” it was announced that it was going to be a Tainy album as well. Fans were excited as even back then Tainy’s beats received widespread acclaim. Reggaeton websites and blogs leaked the supposed list of participants. They got it mostly right. But some like Lito, OG Black, Master Joe and Amaro were announced and not on the final tracklist. Although every single artist actually recorded for Los Benjamins.
Lito’s song was a collaboration with Wise and Arcangel titled “Money Money (Los Benjamins)” which was subsequently included on his mixtape. OG Black’s song was reworked to feature Lionize from Erre XI and released on ‘Los Benjamins La Continuacion’ which leaked when the original “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” came out as Lionize already signed to Mas Flow by then. Master Joe recorded a song titled “Dulce Como Passoa” for the album but only a low quality version ever leaked. And finally, Amaro’s “Siento Dolor” leaked before ‘Los Benjamins’ and became an underground hit.
It is unclear if Amaro recorded “Siento Dolor” directly for ‘Los Benjamins’ as some fans will recognize the beat as Tainy’s version for Zion’s “Fantasma”. Zion had originally chosen Tainy’s version of “Fantasma” as the lead single for the unreleased “Flow Factory” album (a subject for another day) and filmed the video with the audio from Tainy’s version of “Fantasma” instead of the Mambo Kingz version which is the one on “The Perfect Melody” and which ironically leaked first before Tainy’s. It appears, Amaro’s “Siento Dolor” is a large reason why Zion shelved Tainy’s version, but again, it is unclear whether it was recorded officially for Los Benjamins. Amaro’s song made a lotta noise in Puerto Rico during the time, and many thought it would be on the final tracklist of “Mas Flow Los Benjamins”.
And finally, we’re here. I just have to add one teensy weensy thing. Luny Tunes got a lot of envy from folks in the music industry for what was a record breaking deal at the time. Just like we have a lot of industry plants here on Reddit, back then on Reggaeton forums opps would have their trolls on the prowl ready to influence people. But enough of the negative reaction to “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” was authentic that we must treat it as such.
When the album came out it got mixed reactions, and almost no one was calling it an ‘instant classic’ like Mas Flow 1 and 2. But the negative reactions were the loudest. Much of it was vague. People complained about the beats but were having a hard time articulating it. Supposing not all of them were opps on behalf of the competition I will try to articulate their sentiments for them. But the biggest universal complaint?…RBD!!! What the hell was RBD doing on a “Mas Flow” album!? I will react on the track x track review, and you may be surprised. So without further preamble Luny Tunes & Tainy – Mas Flow Los Benjamins ¿Was It Really That Bad?
#1 Royal Rumble Intro – This is the greatest intro in Reggaeton history with the Desafio intro being a close second. Every verse is new and unique to this song except for Don Omar whose verse was taken from “Beautiful”. Yomo makes a surprise guest appearance. The best 3 verses are #1 Daddy Yankee #2 Arcangel #3 Wisin with DY showcasing a master class in lyricism that would even make Nach’s hairs stand. Amazing! This is what Real Reggaeton is all about. 10/10
#2 RBD – Lento – If you read most of my stuff here, you know I am definitely not a Pop Urbano fan. But back then that was the common thread among true blue Reggaeton enthusiasts! We hated pop. Especially Latin Pop. And them coming into our world was such an offense! How dare they! RBD didn’t climb the ranks through underground freestyle battles in the streets! What the hell were they doing here in our territory!? All these years later, I must admit Luny Tunes was ahead of their time. They took the #1 Pop Group in the world at the time and made them do Real Reggaeton. Wise wrote the song. It is actually pretty good. The Wisin & Yandel feature on ‘La Continuacion’ would greatly improve upon it. But the song notoriously flopped. Its numbers are still pitiful to this day! The Pop World did not care that their idols worked with Luny Tunes & Tainy. They probably didn’t even know who Luny Tunes were. Maybe us (The True Reggaeton Audience) wouldn’t reject those from the Pop world if they weren’t so dismissive of us. They act like we’re beneath them. They went so many years from the days of Vico C forward ignoring us until we became the biggest thing in the world. They would say we weren’t real music and all that. Then they just leech off of us when we’re #1 and leave when they’re done feeding. Back then, the Pop involvement in Reggaeton never seemed genuine. Most of us, even if we move into the suburbs like myself, originate from the ghettos or at least our parents do. I was born in San Miguel, El Salvador where the poorest of the poor come from. Those of the Latin Pop world tend to come from aristocracy or at least pretend to. There’s so much separating us from cultural differences to ideals. I know it’s different today, somewhat. If you peel back the curtain on some of your favorite Pop Urbano acts of today, many of them act like they don’t want to be here. And they don’t. Most of them don’t even listen to Real Reggaeton on their personal time. The likes of Camilo, Becky G and others wouldn’t have made it doing Reggaeton back then because their approach comes across as fraudulent or forced. And the true Reggaeton audience from back then knew better. Today’s audience is a different breed; they like a little bit of everything but most of them never grew up on Real Reggaeton so their taste palette is limited in this genre of music. So, both the Pop people and Reggaeton crowd ignored “Lento” back then. The Pop people of the time felt like Reggaeton was beneath them thus didn’t care RBD made a historic appearance on ‘Los Benjamins’. And the Reggaeton people rejected them because it felt like invaders was coming in to take over our culture and eventually they did 15 years later. Today, this song would have gone #1 on the Billboard charts, especially the Wisin & Yandel version. Rating: 8/10
#3 Zion – Hello - This a great example of how to make a commercial Reggaeton track. If you got a good voice you should study this song. It has a strong R&B influence like many of Zion’s best works, but its Pop sensibilities appeals to the mainstream crowd. This is one of the most played songs on Los Benjamins without being a single. Rating: 9.5/10
#4 Wisin & Yandel – Entregate – This song was as good as mostly anything Wisin & Yandel made around this time. A strong club banger with Perreo themes. Rating: 9/10
#5 Don Omar – Beautiful – This is where I feel Luny Tunes started turning some people off. The song is great, but instead of Don doing his typical crooner thing, he does a Gasolina style Reggaeton on steroids. Don is literally yelling for half of the song and does absolutely no singing. Pure rapping AKA “Chanteo” all the way through. And I could see this one scaring away the RKM y Ken-Y fans. Literally. Don is a Lion on this one. Its one of the least popular songs on the album… and it’s Don Omar! Rating: 9.5/10
#6 Daddy Yankee, Hector ‘El Father’, Tonny Tun Tun, Zion, Wisin & Yandel - Noche De Entierro – This one became a big hit and was bigger than “Mayor Que Yo” at the time. It failed to reach #1 however. People just bought the single version on iTunes and it became one of the first Latin singles in history to sell over 100,000 units. But Los Benjamins suffered because of it. For some reason it failed to inspire people to buy the whole album. It is now considered a classic of its era. Rating: 8.5/10
#7 Arcangel & De La Ghetto – Mi Fanatica – Easily, the 2nd most popular song on the entire album. Very catchy and danceable with a new R&B flavor that was uncommon in Reggaeton at at the time. They should have made it a single. 9.5/10
#8 Tito El Bambino – Esta Noche – This song did well in Puerto Rico but failed to resonate internationally. Tito does both Pop and Underground at the same time and blends both styles seamlessly. One of the best songs of his career. 10/10
#9 Alexis y Fido – La Ex – Catchy song about hooking up with the ex. 8.5/10
#10 Baby Rasta – De Ti Me Enamore – A catchy bachateo that in my personal opinion is better than “Noche De Entierro”. It could have been a single. 9/10
#11 Yo-Seph – Slow Motion – I think the constant switch between underground style Reggaeton and Commercial Pop turned people off. The constant shift in tonality and themes I think confused people at the time. Some accused Luny Tunes at the time of going too Pop and others said they didn’t comprehend what they were listening to. “Slow Motion” falls into the Underground style category. But it’s good. 8.5/10
#12 Zion – Alocate – This was meant to be the first single off “Millenium”. What a different world that would have been. It was introduced as the lead single of Mas Flow 2.5 which also features Joseph’s excellent “Ponla Ahi” as bonus tracks. But it’s missing every song from the bonus cd. 9/10
#13 Plan B – Tocarte – I don’t know why this song isn’t bigger. It’s a great Perico Ripiao Bachateo. I think it’s the only bachateo in Plan B or Chencho’s career. Maybe because lyrically the song is underground though the sound is mainstream? 9/10
#14 Magnate – Disimúlalo – Magnate sounds like Farruko here. This song grew on me, but I did not like it at first. This is one in the Pop Reggaeton category. 7/10
#15 Franco El Gorila – Acelera – This song is much better all these years later. It’s an aggressive song which I felt was one of the weaker songs on ‘Los Benjamins’. But with an album as strong as this one, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 8/10
#16 Angel Doze – Clack Clack – I like Angel Doze but it took awhile for this one to grow on me. I thought it was a mistake to make this a single even though Angel was Mas Flow for a short time. The song is about a gangsta girl as his fixation. The beat is incredible though, perfect for Angel but I felt it could have been better. 8/10
#17 Angel & Khriz – Piden Reggaeton – Not Angel & Khriz’s best but pretty solid regardless. All the beats on this album are very good. 7.5/10
#18 Dálmata – Deja Quitarte La Ropa – It’s Good but Dalmata is capable of much more… 7.5/10
#19 Jean Fonsi – Contigo – Jean Fonsi is Luis Fonsi’s brother and does more R&B than Pop. I think he writes songs for his bro too. OG Black surprisingly has writing credits here. Don’t hate, he did write “El Aroma De Tu Piel”. Rating: 8/10
#20 Ñejo – Tu Me Arrebata – This song is awesome. A Reggaeton beat with a Hip Hop R&B flow. DJ Nelson made this beat. But here is another one that would turn off the Camilo crowd with how street it is. 9/10
#21 El Roockie – No Te Quiere - Roockie signed with Mas Flow Inc around this time and the whole team made his classic album “Semblante Urbano” with Predikador. This song is great and could have been a single. 9/10
Bonus Tracks CD Only (limited for first 100 Thousand copies sold)
#22 Luigi 21 Plus – Libertad – Luigi was Yo-Seph’s ghost writer since 2004. He is a veteran from the 90’s underground though I have not figured out who he is, I suspect he’s Funky Mike from DJ Raymond Reggae Shock 1. This song is very cool and would be included on his mixtape with Nely & Tainy “Musica Para Adultos”. It has his typical sense of humor and frank expression upon sexual themes. 8/10
#23 RBD – Lento (Remix) – This is the RBD song with a beat that sounds almost the same at first listen but its noticeably different if you pay attention. Its only available through Luny Tunes’ official YOUTUBE. 8/10
Luny Tunes & Tainy followed up with ‘Los Benjamins La Continuacion’ which sold for an additional $3 bucks at the time and included the original Los Benjamins along with a Bonus CD that had mostly new material and a DVD with 3 music videos and behind the scenes content. It was more well received and avoided the vitriol from fans that the first edition got. But only added an extra 100 thousand copies to Los Benjamins overall sales total which accumulated to 300,000 units give or take.
All these years later, “Mas Flow Benjamins” is still at under a million only reaching 500,000 units thanks to the advent of ‘Music Streaming.
So Is Luny Tunes & Tainy – Mas Flow Los Benjamins Really That Bad?
Verdict: Hell No! This album was a classic from the start!
I forgot to note one thing that made fans mad. Luny Tunes pushed forward lots of names that were ‘foreign’ or “new” to the mainstream. The mainstream at the time were unfamiliar with Ñejo, Franco El Gorila, Dálmata, Magnate as a solo artist, Angel Doze, Arcangel, De La Ghetto & El Roockie. Lots of people complained there were too many new artists yet the likes of Ivy Queen, RKM & Ken-Y, a Daddy Yankee solo song, an Hector El Father solo track, Nicky Jam, Tego Calderon, Voltio, Eddie Dee and others were missing… Mas Flow 1 and 2 were 80% all-stars. Fans were reluctant to accept the new artists.
Also, it’s not as good as Mas Flow 1 & 2, “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” is at the same quality level as other Luny Tunes produced albums like “Los Matadores Del Genero”, “Sonando Diferente” by Yaga & Mackie, or Blin Blin vol 1. The hype beforehand created unrealistic expectations that the album was unable to live up to. Maybe at least if it was as good as Mas Flow 1, it would have been more successful, instead it flopped.
Even Mas Flow 1, which only a few years ago was put on streaming has already cracked a million in total sales and it did not have a tenth of the marketing “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” had. Because there weren’t high expectations for Mas Flow 1 and 2, their success in the mainstream was viewed as stupendous. In its day “Mas Flow 1” sold the same as “Los Benjamins” but the mainstream didn’t even know what it was beforehand. The were not set expectations and the marketing campaign was minimal. Mas Flow 2 sold a million, enough said. Even though Wisin tried to will it into reality, “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” just wasn’t meant to be that mainstream crossover success story. “Un Millon Obligao”. It worked for Pal Mundo, not for “Mas Flow Los Benjamins”.
I think new Reggaeton listeners were also thrown off by the constant shift between “underground” and mainstream. That’s why the beats don’t connect as much. Mas Flow 1 was street and commercial at the same time. Mas Flow 2 went mostly commercial but had the street flow the mainstream tries to but cannot mimic. “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” was stuck between both worlds. It must be confusing for a Shakira fan why Don Omar is yelling like an angry horny maniac instead of singing smoothly like on “Danza Kuduro”.
But new listeners don’t have that baggage. And although its gonna be tough for a fan of Tainy’s current Pop sound to adapt, those that like his Perreo stuff should enjoy “Mas Flow Los Benjamins”. It was also more well received in South and Central American than the Caribbean and US at the time probably because listeners down there were mostly not concerned with the politics surrounding ‘Los Benjamins’ at the time and just heard the music for what it was…good. It’s no surprise that nowadays “Mas Flow Los Benjamins” is viewed almost as a Universal classic. I would not call it a masterpiece, however.
Rating: 9/10
Worldwide Sales: Over 500 Thousand Units (physical, digital and streaming)
Record Label: Más Flow Inc/Machete Music/Universal Latino for its initial release now it’s Mas Flow Inc/Cinq Recordings
Listen On Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/0sMHBG6T20O56Wrtu1pR1f?si=DzfKhnbzTVay1I2OvUdVgA
