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Creativity Quote by J Balvin

"I see myself like what Drake did in the game. I came with melodies and different lyrics, from a different place - reggaeton is from Puerto Rico; Drake is from Canada"

About this Quote

Balvin is doing two things at once: staking a claim and pre-empting the backlash that comes with it. By comparing himself to Drake, he’s invoking a very specific kind of pop power - the artist who didn’t just succeed inside a genre, but rewired the mainstream by treating genre as a toolkit. “In the game” frames music as competition, but also as strategy: you don’t win by being the purest, you win by arriving with a sound people didn’t know they needed.

The subtext is border politics disguised as branding. Balvin positions reggaeton as Puerto Rican in origin, then immediately flags himself as “from a different place” - a Colombian globalizing a Caribbean form. That acknowledgement matters because reggaeton’s rise has been shadowed by debates about ownership, authenticity, and who gets to be the face of a movement once it becomes profitable. He’s not pretending to be the genre’s native son; he’s arguing for the legitimacy of translation.

Drake becomes a useful proxy: Canada as the “outside” that still gets to define the center. The analogy quietly normalizes cross-cultural migration in pop, suggesting that what counts is the contribution - “melodies and different lyrics” - not the passport. At the same time, it reveals the anxiety of the moment: reggaeton’s global boom has made Spanish-language music impossible to ignore, but it’s also made the gatekeeping louder. Balvin’s line is a defense wrapped in a flex: I changed the game, and I know exactly where the game came from.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Balvin, J. (2026, February 4). I see myself like what Drake did in the game. I came with melodies and different lyrics, from a different place - reggaeton is from Puerto Rico; Drake is from Canada. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-see-myself-like-what-drake-did-in-the-game-i-184909/

Chicago Style
Balvin, J. "I see myself like what Drake did in the game. I came with melodies and different lyrics, from a different place - reggaeton is from Puerto Rico; Drake is from Canada." FixQuotes. February 4, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-see-myself-like-what-drake-did-in-the-game-i-184909/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I see myself like what Drake did in the game. I came with melodies and different lyrics, from a different place - reggaeton is from Puerto Rico; Drake is from Canada." FixQuotes, 4 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-see-myself-like-what-drake-did-in-the-game-i-184909/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

J Balvin

J Balvin (born May 7, 1985) is a Musician from Colombia.

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