Luny Tunes, the Real Kings of the Beat

Quinée Butler, Reggaetonline.net - April 17, 2006 - Some say that Francisco Saldana, Luny, and Victor Cabrera, Tunes, are the undisputed Kings of Reggaeton. Together Luny Tunes revolutionized the world of Reggaeton with their unique style and foresight to combine the beats they made with other music genres. This combination enhanced Reggaeton’s sound while celebrating the differences of other music genres at the same time. Luny and Tunes began their career and continue to this day to work with an open heart and an open mind. It was their intuition to produce a different sound for Reggaeton helped the genre migrate from the borders of Puerto Rico and surrounding Caribbean islands to Latinos and Reggaeton fans all over the world.

Luny was born in the Dominican Republic and at the age of seven he and his family relocated to Puerto Rico. “From there we moved to New York and then to Massachusetts,” recalls Luny. “We moved around a lot because of family issues, but finally settled down in Boston and I went to school there. I used to be a chef at Harvard.” Tunes jokingly added “I used to wash his dirty dishes.”

Luny and Tunes a actually met before their time at Harvard, through a mutual friend. “I threw away his telephone number several times,” said Luny. “Yeah, we exchanged numbers a few times and we would never call each other, “stated Tunes. Luny continues, “He gave me his number in Salem and when I moved to a new house I found his number on the floor and just through it away. When I was cleaning my room after I moved I found his number again and finally decided to call him. We finally met when we were both around 18.”

Now that Luny Tunes have paved the way for young producers, more and more Reggaeton fans are trying their hand at making beats. You can go into any forum, including the one on Reggaetonline.net and find young men and women posting beats that they have made for others to listen to and critique. “When I was younger I knew I always wanted top be a producer or something,” recalled Luny. “We saved up our money to buy equipment and stuff so that we could move to Puerto Rico and work as producers. When I felt I was ready that was when I thought I could [make a move] to Puerto Rico.”

They first started working on the beats in Boston. “We came to Puerto Rico to get some new sounds so we could be up to date in Boston,” stated Tunes. “DJ Nelson, one of the famous producers here in P.R., heard one of our beats, and invented us to come to Puerto Rico and work on it. That’s when I told Luny, ‘I don’t have any family in P.R.,’ and he offered me a chance to stay at his mom’s house.”

Many people are under the impression that Luny Tunes were taught everything they know by DJ Nelson, that story is far from the truth. Meeting DJ Nelson was more like networking and the working relationship they formed turned into musical collaborations. “DJ Nelson was one of the people we really look up to,” stated the duo. Producing is something that you need to work on and know for yourself. He gave of some tools that we needed at the time when we arrived here. It’s not like he grabbed two little kids that didn’t know anything about music and said hey do this and do that. It. wasn’t like that.” They didn’t most of the learning on their own, and their hard work paid off.

© 2006, Reggaetonline.net