Rubén Blades on Why Independence Became His Only Path

In 2004 Rubén Blades launched Rubén Blades Productions and set a course he calls the only practical option after decades of disputes with record companies. He has released 11 albums on his own imprint and earned 11 Grammys and 11 Latin Grammys for those releases, contributing to career totals of 13 and 12 wins respectively. Twenty-three of his projects have reached Billboardditorharts Top Tropical Albums chart, the fifth-most in the chart
rchive, and his songs have placed on Hot Latin Songs in three different decades.

“After being exploited by record labels, the only path for me was independence.”

Blades
id not follow a conventional route into music. He earned a master
egree in international law from Harvard and then found global prominence as a salsa songwriter and singer whose narratives tackled urban life and inequality. His recording career began in New York. In 1970 he issued his debut, De Panam