Jesús Manuel Nieves Cortés (born April 9, 1993), known professionally as Jhayco (; formerly Jhay Cortez), is a Puerto Rican singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. After releasing multiple EPs, his debut studio album, '' Famouz,'' was released in 2019.

Early life

Cortés was born in

Río Piedras Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Flo ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. Later, he moved to Camden,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, where he learned English. Cortés began songwriting at the age of 15, gaining the interest of producer Eddie Dee. Cortés wrote music with Lele el Arma Secreta and Eliel, who introduced Cortés to the duo Zion & Lennox. Cortés composed three songs that featured on Zion & Lennox's 2011 album '' Los Verdaderos'': "Como curar," "Detective de tu amor," and "Soltera" (under the pseudonym Jay el Superdotado). Cortés wrote five singles for Tito El Bambino, including " Llama al Sol," featured on his 2011 album ''Invencible'', which won a

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards (stylized as Latin GRAMMYs) are awards presented by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from any ...

for ''Best Tropical Album''.

Career

In 2013, Cortés began as a singer for the

Latin pop Latin pop () is a pop music subgenre that is a fusion of US–style music production with Latin music genres from anywhere in Latin America and Spain. It originates with List of countries where Spanish is an official language, Spanish-speaking ...

group Stereo 4, composed of four Puerto Rican singers: Jafet Cortes, Eduardo Esteras, Rubén Chinea, and Jesús M. Nieves. Cortés later launched his career as a soloist. He collaborated with Stereo 4 for the last time in 2016 with the song "Te quiero ver." On August 22, 2017, Cortés was the first artist signed under House of Haze, a partnership established between

Universal Music Latino Universal Music Latin Entertainment, a division of Universal Music Group, is a record company specialized in producing and distributing Latin music in Mexico, the United States, and Puerto Rico. UMLE includes famous Latin music labels such as Uni ...

and producer Fino como el Haze. He released his first single, "Donde no se vea," under this label, collaborating with Jory Boy and Pusho. On March 16, 2018, Cortés performed at

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

's Sounds from Puerto Rico showcase. Cortés helped in the composition of the songs "

Criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

" by

Natti Natasha Natalia Alexandra Gutiérrez Batista (born December 10, 1986), better known by her stage name Natti Natasha (stylized all caps), is a List of people from the Dominican Republic, Dominican singer, songwriter and composer. She was signed to Don Om ...

with

Ozuna Juan Carlos Ozuna Rosado (; born March 13, 1992), known simply by his surname Ozuna, is a Puerto Rican singer, born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother. Five of his studio albums have topped ...

and "Mi Religión" by

Yandel Llandel Veguilla Malavé Salazar (born January 14, 1978), best known by his stage name Yandel, is a Puerto Rican singer who is a member of the reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel. He released his first solo album, ''Quien Contra Mí'', in 2003. His s ...

. On May 16, 2018, he released the EP ''Eyez on Me'' under the Universal Music Latino record label. At the end of 2018, he released his single "Costear" with Almighty, which led to the release of two remixes. On February 22, 2019, Cortés released the single "

No Me Conoce "No Me Conoce" () is a song by Puerto Rican rapper and singer Jhayco, released as the third single from his second studio album ''Famouz'' on February 22, 2019. It was later released in a version with J Balvin and Bad Bunny, and charted on the ...

," which reached the top of several Latin American music charts. It was certified triple platinum by PROMUSICAE of Spain; the song also featured a remix with

J Balvin José Álvaro Osorio Balvín (born 7 May 1985), known professionally as J Balvin, is a Colombian singer. He is one of the best-selling Latin artists, with 35 million records sold worldwide. Balvin was born in Medellín. At age 17, he moved to th ...

and

Bad Bunny Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (; born March 10, 1994), better known by his stage name Bad Bunny, is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. Known as the " King of Latin Trap", Bad Bunny is credited with helping Spanish-language rap music achieve m ...

and was certified 20× platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. In that same year, he also released the song "Deseame suerte" with the collaboration of

Karol G Carolina Giraldo Navarro (born February 14, 1991), known professionally as Karol G, is a Colombian singer. Considered as one of the most influential reggaeton and Urban contemporary music, urban pop artists, she has received awards including a ...

. On May 24, 2019, he released his first studio album, '' Famouz'', under the

label. It was ranked 164 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart and was certified triple platinum by the

. In 2020, Cortés published a special edition of his first studio album with unreleased songs under the name ''Famouz Reloaded'' and released a new single, "Dime a Ve," which would be part of his second album, '' Timelezz''. He was also the winner of five

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

awards as a composer and two Tú Música Urbano Awards in the categories of C''omposer of the Year'' and ''New Generation Album'' by ''Famouz''. He received nominations for the Billboard Awards for Latin music,

Premios Juventud Premios Juventud (Youth Awards) is an awards show for Spanish-speaking celebrities in the areas of film, music, sports, fashion, and pop culture, presented by the television network Univision. Winners are determined by online vote at univision.c ...

Lo Nuestro Awards The Lo Nuestro Awards or Premios Lo Nuestro (Spanish language, Spanish for "Ours") is a Spanish-language awards show honoring the best of Latin music (genre), Latin music, presented by TelevisaUnivision, and is carried by its Univision network in ...

, and the Latin Grammys. On October 30, he released the song " Dakiti" in collaboration with

, which reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Global 200 charts; it also reached the top 10 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, reaching number 9. At the end of that year, he collaborated on the remix "La Curiosidad" by

Jay Wheeler José Ángel López Martínez (born April 25, 1994), known by his stage name Jay Wheeler, is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter. Wheeler first became widely known after a video of him singing went viral video, viral in 2016, after which he beg ...

and

Myke Towers Michael Anthony Torres Monge (born January 15, 1994), known professionally as Myke Towers, is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. He was recognized as New Artist of the Year by the ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards in 2021 and has been nominated ...

. It also appeared on Yandel's album '' Quien Contra Mí 2'' in the collaboration of the song "Ponme al día." At the beginning of 2021, Cortés participated in a production of

Los Legendarios Los Legendarios is a duo of reggaeton music producers, originally from Puerto Rico, made up of Marcos Ramírez and Víctor R. Torres. They made their debut as producers in 2008, under the name ''Marc & Jaycob'', a name that, in 2009, would chang ...

with the song "Fiel" with

Wisin Juan Luis Alberto Morera Luna (; born December 19, 1978), known professionally as Wisin (), is a Puerto Rican reggaeton rapper, singer and record producer, best known as a member of the reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel. Wisin is noted for his uniq ...

, which reached number 9 globally on the

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

music platform. On March 14, he appeared with

performing " Dakiti" at the Grammy Awards ceremony. He also received another iHeartRadio Music Awards nomination in the Latin Pop/Reggaeton Song of the Year category for "Dakiti."

Personal life

Cortez was in a relationship with pornographic film actress and webcam model Mia Khalifa.

Controversies

In 2020, Cortez had a public spat with fellow rapper Bryant Myers on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. The two rappers published diss tracks.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other charted and certified songs

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 1993 births Living people People from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican hip-hop musicians Puerto Rican male rappers Puerto Rican reggaeton musicians Spanish-language singers of the United States Puerto Rican trap musicians Universal Music Latino artists Latin music songwriters Machete Music artists Singers from San Juan, Puerto Rico