ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMEBACKS IN Puerto Rico’s rich musical history began in an unlikely place: more than 1,000 miles away, in Colombia. That’s where rapper-singer Nicky Jam, a star in reggaeton’s explosion in the 1990s and early 2000s, exiled himself after torpedoing his career through drugs, alcohol and an ill-advised beef with his own mentor, Daddy Yankee. He was depressed, overweight, struggling with addiction and, most of all, broke; the only job he could find in Puerto Rico was singing cheesy pop covers in a hotel lobby. “I didn’t go looking to Colombia for a dream — if I tell you that, I’m lying,” says Jam. “I went to Colombia because I needed the work!”
Today, the 34-year-old has the opposite problem. On this October evening he’s in Zarazoga,…
