J Balvin certainly held his own long enough when talking to host Sean Evans on Hot Ones. The show where guests answer a series of questions while eating wings dipped in hot sauces that gradually get hotter. The five-time Latin Grammy Award winner remained unfazed with a majority of the hot sauces presented before him.
Not crying or even flinching, and at times was even going back for second dippings. That was until he met sauce number eight, DA’ BOMB, with a scoville level of 135,600. “This is toxic bro!” shouted the Reggeaton artist as he struggled to answer questions. “My blood pressure…wait wait..Ma G!. I can’t talk…I want to cry bro!”
Before he was experiencing chills and was in tears. Balvin talked about the 10-year climb it took for him to reach this moment in his career. Telling Evans that he used to be his own manager, using his full legal name when making calls and referring to “J Balvin” as a third person. “I would answer calls and say ‘oh yeah yeah you want J Balvin…let me talk to him, if the schedule is good let’s see what J Balvin thinks,’ but it was me.”
It was his hustle during the early years of his career that inspired ‘El Negocio Socio,’ which is also a common catch phrase heard in his music.
“People used to be like ‘woah man you do everything’ and so someone one day called me and said ‘your el negocio socio man’ and I liked that quote.” Known for his colorful and expressive take on street style, Balvin is also a “watch purest”. When asked his opinion on which is the better Swiss watch maker, AP or Patek. Balvin said Patek for their classic look, but that he also appreciates the evolutionary designs that AP puts in their watches as well. However, don’t go thinking that you will ever see him take an original watch and “ice it down.” “No! No.” shouted Balvin when discussing the trend of adding diamonds to original watches.
That to me…you know I love to see my boys growing in the game; artists that I have been supporting since day one. So when they start to make money and start icing and busting first Rolex’s and first AP’s and first whatever’s. Add a million diamonds if you want – the value of that watch is going down because it’s not original. Every time I see someone with a watch that is beautiful and they add diamonds I’m like ‘No bro! You did not touch that.’” His advice to anyone thinking of adding diamond to a watch, is to just not.
“Please keep your watches original and respect the art.” says Balvin. With only three months into the new year, Balvin is already a very busy man. He recently released an exclusive playlist on Pandora, that is a list of songs personally picked by him to help get gamers in the zone when playing and was on “60+ Minutes” with Enrique Acevedo, now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.
He is also gearing up to headline NEON, a three-day music event, in Las Vegas later this Fall. For more on J Balvin’s sit down with Sean Evans, where he discussed his friendship with Canelo Alvarez, music collaborations, merchandise, his shoe collection, personas and much more. Checkout Hot Ones now streaming on YouTube.
