r/Reggaeton • u/ReggaetonPartyManeP • 3h ago
¿What Happened To The Luny Tunes Mas Flow Empire? Top 5 Reasons Why Mas Flow Inc Was Possibly Derailed and Now Exists In Name Only...
The Inside cover of Mas Flow 2 showcasing all promised albums from Mas Flow Inc and associated companies.
I was cooking up some new product for y'all which hopefully you will see soon. And I just finished an exclusive entry on my other blog that reviews Reggaeton, Spanish Rap, Video Games and Movies; but in the back of my mind lurked a thought... ¿What the hell happened to Mas Flow Inc? And I honestly came up with some possible reasons that I'd like to share. Though I mainly specialize in truth, this is mostly speculatory but grounded on facts.
Top 5 Reasons Mas Flow Inc Was Derailed
#5 Low Album Sales - People think after Los Benjamins, Luny Tunes were finished. Not exactly. Mas Flow Inc still put out El Roockie's "Semblante Urbano", Erre XI and Arcangel's "El Fenomeno" album. All 3 albums were universally acclaimed, but all 3 had low sales. This was during a time when music was transitioning from physical to digital, the economy was bad, and album sales plummeted across the board. This is probably a large reason why Universal Latino/Machete Music stopped approving releases for Mas Flow Inc. It was so bad they had to take Dyland & Lenny to Sony Music who were managed by Mas Flow but Luny Tunes' deal was with Universal, so Dyland & Lenny signed a separate deal. "El Fenomeno" and "Semblante Urbano" now boast impressive numbers on streaming though the Erre XI and Los Benjamins numbers remain comparatively low except for "Noche De Entierro", "Mi Fanatica" and "Alocate". For more on Los Benjamins read here: ¿Is It Really That Bad? #5 Luny Tunes & Tainy – Mas Flow Los Benjamins (2006) : r/Reggaeton
#4 Luny tried to put on too many of his homeboys - I failed to mention this on the article listed above but the whole purpose of renaming "Millenium" to "Mas Flow 3" then finally "Los Benjamins" was to promote a new subdivision label being headed by DJ Coffie (Alexis' y Fido's dj) who supposedly has a great mind for the Reggaeton business. What was the name of the label? Los Benjamins Records. They only ever put out 2 albums, Calle 434 and Raices Del Reggaeton. They are actually the ones that signed to Fuego Entertainment, not Luny Tunes. The rebranding caused "Mas Flow Los Benjamins" to be a failure of epic proportions. At least if it was called Mas Flow 3 people would relate it to their previous entries and it would bring much more intrigue from audiences in the future. Instead, "Los Benjamins" is at only 500,000 units sold 20 years later. "Mas Flow 1" barely came out on streaming 2 years ago and it is already at over 1 million units.
And there were other failed ventures. Luny Tunes had brilliant plans which in today's climate would triumph. He was gonna sign Lapiz Conciente and bring him to the United States but the failure of 'Los Benjamins' stopped that. He also supported a little known Boston-Dominican based label known as 'JP Inc.'. High Rollers Family (Calapeso and Manuelito DH) were the artists of that label becoming a big deal and even had their street album re-released by Machete Music. That was derailed by Calapeso being arrested (read here). Luny wanted JP Inc to be his foothold on the ground floor of the Dominican movement with Calapeso running things. Calapeso is a pretty official dude in Boston and very respected locally. Instead it was Manuelito DH that was doing things over there on their behalf. Had 'Los Benjamins' not failed, there probably would have been more involvement from Luny Tunes on the Dominican movement.
Angel Doze was also arrested and went to jail for 11 years thus making that venture with Luny Tunes a bust. They also had another subdivision called 'Loyalty Records' that was supposed to release an album called 'About Time' that would have highlighted local New England talents and producers like High Rollers Family, Doble AA, Bones, Nan2; along with big names like Daddy Yankee, Yaga & Mackie among others. I heard that 'About Time' had the original OG version of "Con Calma" by Daddy Yankee that was originally made in 2004 but never came out cuz Snow ain't signed off on it. Then they recorded "Oh Man" ft Sean Paul for it but the album got shelved. Loyalty Records only had 'Yo-seph The One' and 'Luigi 21 Plus' on their roster.
#3 All their top producers left but... - Luny still retained top level producers. They had 'Madd Music', Chris Jeday, Gaby Music, Rome La Mano Negra b4 he joined Urba, Predikador and Luny Tunes themselves. People think that once 'Mas Flow Inc' lost Tainy, Nesty, Naldo and Nely, they lost it all. Nothing could be further from the truth! Luny Tunes went on to produce some of their biggest records such as "Limbo", "El Baño", and "Mayor Que Yo 3" long after Tainy left. They still had plenty of juice left. The real reason that Mas Flow derailed is further below.
#2 Luny Tunes' $10 million Dollar Deal Made Them Too Many Enemies Over Jealousy - I think this is the main culprit behind Mas Flow Inc's demised. According to the aristocrats of the music industry, how could two lowly Reggaeton producers achieve such a high end level music deals? Easy. They had become the most successful producers in the history of Latin Music, so they deserved to be compensated justly as if they were 'The Neptunes' or 'Dr. Dre'. But it bothered so many people in the industry that Luny Tunes had such a lofty deal that included ownership of their masters, and publishing. So, these industry types sabotaged them. They got the whole genre of Reggaeton kicked out of Radio, even in Puerto Rico, remember 'Reggaeton 94'? And when Luny Tunes' artists would put a single out, they purposely underpromoted them so the grand expense seemed unjustified.
That's why they took Dyland & Lenny to Sony. How do you reject 3 completed versions of 'Mas Flow 3' and claim that you are being fair. Especially when one of your reasons is that it has as many artists from Sony as Universal; that's the excuse the last Universal Latino President made when Luny handed him a 3rd completed version of 'Mas Flow 3' in 2018. It's pure sabotage. I think that's also why Mas Flow 2 is kept off of streaming services. If DJ Nelson didn't own 'Mas Flow 1' we wouldn't get that either. Knock on wood cuz they might try to find an excuse to take that one down too. Luckily it's licensed to a Colombian label in Cinq, and the Colombians are the most powerful people in the Latin Music Business nowadays. So Mas Flow 1 is probably safe for now.
#1 Times Have Changed? - This isn't the main reason 'Mas Flow Inc' exists in name only. But this is the main reason 'Mas Flow 3' never came out. Luny Tunes built a brand based off various artist compilation albums and you know how the majors like Universal, Sony, Warner all hate those. It's because they have to give up too many percentage points and those greedy labels get less of the profits. The logistics of a tour promoting 'Mas Flow 3' is far less complicated than the major label execs lead you to believe, but it is a little more complicated albeit doable. Luny Tunes saw this and tried to build their brand around solo works like Erre XI, but failed. It was so bad, they struggled to get Dyland & Lenny off the ground floor though that was a major success for them, sadly their name isn't attached to that success; neither is Mas Flow Inc. Sony alone gets the credit for Dyland & Lenny and also Lenny Tavarez down the line, not Luny Tunes. It's a different time. Tainy proved you can still make a successful various artists compilation album with "Data" but it's really difficult and Tainy waited over a decade to finally put that album out.
Thank you for reading!
Coming Soon, I found Luny Tunes "New Soldiers" the lost album, except for two tracks. I am working on an entry. Hopefully they don't take the songs down while I'm completing it.
