Safaera

Bad Bunny and Jowell had previously talked about a collaboration in the past, in a time when Bad Bunny was recording mostly trap songs, a genre that Jowell dislikes.[4] They said to each other that they would work together if one of them was willing to make either a trap or a reggaeton track.[4] A year later, after listening to Bad Bunny's "Mía" featuring Drake, Jowell liked the single's style and called Rimas Music to arrange a recording session with him, but he was very busy at the time.[4] Three weeks before the release of YHLQMDLG, Bad Bunny called Jowell & Randy, who were in Puerto Rico, in order to work together for the album.[4] "Safaera" was produced by Latin Grammy Award-winner Tainy and Bad Bunny's disc jockey DJ Orma.

In March 2020, the song inspired the "SafaeraChallenge" and the "#AbuelaChallenge", both of which went viral on the app TikTok. The latter saw especially elderly people dancing to the song while being placed in quarantine due to COVID-19.[5]

Due to its structural complexity, the song was described as a "reggaetón symphony and perreo megamix". During its course, the song "ventures through at least eight beat changes, five different rap flows, and 10+ years of references". The track makes use of numerous samples throughout its runtime, which include a guitar riff from "Get Ur Freak On" by Missy Elliott, the rhythm tracks from "Big Up" by Shaggy & Rayvon, "Santa Barbara" by Chaka Demus & Pliers, synths from DJ Nelson's and DJ Goldy's Xtassy Reggae, an opening line from Cosculluela's "Pa' La Pared" and a sample from Alexis & Fido's "El Tiburón", among others.[6]

The song received widespread acclaim from music critics. In a review for bad bunny Pitchfork, Isabelia Herrera awarded the song the accolade "Best New Track" and went on to describe the track as "a technical masterpiece" in which the artist "harnesses this musical nostalgia and transforms it into an antidote for the most formulaic tendencies of the pop-reggaetón panorama".[6] Griselda Flores of Billboard picked the song as one of the album's essential tracks, saying that the rapper "takes it way back with this old-school reggaetón song" and praised it for "its contagious beats", as well as "Missy Elliott's famous riff from "Get Your Freak On"".[7] Rolling Stone's Suzy Exposito referred to the song as "five-minutes of unadulterated chaos" and opined that Bad Bunny "gets to ride a wave of reggaeton he was much too young to participate in the first time around".[8]

NPR ranked it as the 5th best song of 2020,[9] and Rolling Stone ranked it as the 15th best of the year.[10]

On May 14, 2020, "Safaera" was removed from Spotify. Bad Bunny claimed on a live video with Residente that he knew the reason behind the removal but preferred not to talk about it to avoid controversy.[11] It was added back to the platform on May 15, the following day. Spotify then stated that it was due to a sample clearance.[12]