Great Expectations
Time|April 10 - 17, 2023 (Double Issue)
How Bad Bunny bent global pop culture to his will-by refusing to compromise on anything
Andrew R. Chow and Mariah Espada. Photographs by Elliot and Erick Jimenez
Great Expectations

In 40 minutes, the former grocery bagger from Puerto Rico will try on outfits worth thousands for the cover of this magazine.

In 12 hours, he will be photographed embracing the world’s highest-paid supermodel. In one month, he will be staring out onto a sea of 125,000 superfans from the heights of Coachella’s main stage.

But right now, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who also goes by Bad Bunny, is slouched almost completely horizontally on a green-room couch in downtown Los Angeles, thinking about being with his parents back home in Puerto Rico.

“Outside of that house, perhaps the world is listening and talking about me,” he murmurs in Spanish. “But in that house, everything is the same. Nothing has changed. It’s beautiful for me to go there and they still look at me with the eyes of, ‘Come here, Benito Antonio. The baby. The son.’”

This story is from the April 10 - 17, 2023 (Double Issue) edition of Time.

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This story is from the April 10 - 17, 2023 (Double Issue) edition of Time.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

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