Bad Bunny’s world has always belonged to Puerto Rico, even when the rest of the globe insisted otherwise. For i-D’s fall-winter 2025 Beta Issue, photographed by Ryan McGinley and styled by Thom Bettridge, the artist stays firmly rooted at home.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio appears across McGinley’s saturated frames in denim, shirting, and sports caps. It is the portrait of a man staging history on his own terms.
Bad Bunny for i-D
Bad Bunny’s i-D cover arrives on the heels of his 30-show residency No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí in San Juan. “I’ve done a lot of shows here in Puerto Rico, and I don’t think I’ve felt so much energy [before],” he tells i-D. “The pride, the sense of homeland that unites generations.”
The concerts, set against a countryside stage design, pulled local tradition into spectacle: bomba, plena, salsa, and reggaeton fused into a live archive of Puerto Rican identity. “It’s a party, it’s nostalgia, it’s struggle… it’s romance,” he explains. “I wanted to combine all those elements into one single event. And I love it. The energy is beautiful.”
Bad Bunny’s decision to concentrate the tour in Puerto Rico rather than the United States was deliberate. “There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate,” he says.
“But there was the issue of—like, f**king ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.” That stance reflects the residency’s impact: hundreds of thousands of visitors, an economic boost to San Juan, and a cultural signal of sovereignty through sound.
Comedy also runs through the profile. Bad Bunny speaks of Saturday Night Live appearances and his upcoming role in Happy Gilmore 2 with Adam Sandler. “That’s the type of movie that I always watched since I was a kid,” he says. “Especially Adam Sandler movies, [he’s] my favorite actor of all time… It was a dream come true. He’s so nice, funny. It wasn’t work, it wasn’t a job to me.”
The mix of levity and defiance shapes Bad Bunny’s broader trajectory, from chart records and fashion campaigns to global cinema, and still, a deep pull toward Puerto Rico’s rhythms. His images for i-D capture the balance. The magazine’s Beta Issue asks what comes next. Bad Bunny answers with something both old and new: Puerto Rico as center, stage, and future.
