Los De La Nazza

Los de la Nazza are a Puerto Rican urban/reggaeton music and production duo comprised of Eliezer “Musicólogo” García and Eduardo “Menes” López. The duo are best known as the team behind Daddy Yankee between 2007 and 2014, helming a slew of singles and four high-charting albums. They are also celebrated for their compilation mixtape series El Imperio Nazza by El Cartel Music. García was born on December 21, 1981 in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico; the product of a musical family, it wasn’t long before their collective talent rubbed off. He graduated from the Gabriela Mistral Public School and ventured into university. Menes was born Eduardo López on August 29, 1980 in Caguas, Puerto Rico; his family moved to Florida when he was 11, and he began making music as a teen. Musicólogo and Menes met at a recording studio in the Nemesio Canales Residential projects in 2005, Menes working with Puerto Rican producer Echo and Musicólogo pursuing a solo recording career and running his own studio. Two years later, Musicólogo gave Daddy Yankee a demo of his production work. Impressed, the Puerto Rican rapper signed the duo to his El Cartel Records label. That same year, as Los de la Nazza, they produced one track on El Cartel: The Big Boss and were the main producers behind Talento de Barrio (2008), Mundial (2010), Prestige (2012), and King Daddy (2013). In January 2012, the duo released the first volume in their compilation mixtape series El Imperio Nazza. Some of the acts whose work appeared on these compilations included reggaeton acts such as J Álvarez, Jowell & Randy, Farruko, Ñengo Flow, Zion & Lennox, and many others. The last Imperio Nazza mixtape released under El Cartel Records was Top Secret Edition in January 2014, just before the duo’s contract expired. They continued the mixtape series for another two years. After their contract with El Cartel expired, Musicólogo and Menes decided to start an independent production company. Their first studio album was the two-part Orión, whose first installment, Orion: Ride of the Universe, was released digitally in March of 2015 on their own Nazza Records label. The album reached number eight on the U.S. Latin Rhythm Albums chart. Their second installation, Orion: The Lost Constellation, was issued in May and featured the charting single “Lonely,” performed by Farruko. In 2016, Imperio Nazza issued a Justin Quiles Edition. Its single, “Si el Mundo Se Acabara,” hit the top spot on the U.S. Tropical Songs chart. The 11th and final volume also appeared in 2016 and featured Kendo Kaponi. The duo focused on work for other artists through most of the following year while working on a new album in off hours. In March 2018, they released Reggaeton New 2017-2018, billed to Reggaetones & Los de la Nazza. ~ Thom Jurek