Tego Calderon is a very known hip hop artist hailing from Puerto Rico who also found recognition in acting.
His most notable work was his hit album from 2008 called “El Abayarde” but his later work has also gained him positive reviews.
Tego is very popular in his country because he is very socially aware and sings about various themes such as the government and crucial problems of Puerto Rico.
He also gained recognition through his work in Fast & Furious, a very popular movie franchise that earned hundreds of millions all over the world.
Early years
Tego Calderon was born as Tequi Calderon Rosario on February 1, 1972, in a town in Puerto Rico called Santurce. He says that he loves his hometown and he would be very happy if he could go back to his roots more often.
His mother is named Pilar Rosario Parilla and she works as a teacher in school.
His father is named Esteban Calderon Karraza and he works for the Puerto Rican government as an employee in the Department of Health. He was able to provide them with a good life and his son is very thankful for that.
He was very young when his family relocated to Florida, to the town of Miami. It wasn’t such a big change to him because of his age, but he still had to adapt a bit.
Tego was interested in music from an early age which could be seen through his music aspirations during the time he was a student at Miami Beach Senior High School.
He was a good student but his biggest interest was music. He said that he always knew he was going to be a famous musician and therefore he didn’t bother with school, college and stuff like that.
Career development
He learned how to play percussion and was a huge fan of drums. He even became a drummer in a rock band because he perfected his drumming skills to the maximum.
The rock band he was in especially liked to cover Led Zeppelin’s songs and were very big fans of Ozzy Osbourne so their repertoire consisted mostly of their songs.
His parents were also into music so it is not surprising that he also became interested in it. His father was a huge fan of jazz music and her mother was a fan of Ismael Rivera.
That is why he was under the influence of a lot of different genres. His style of music was a mix of a lot of different music elements, from hip-hop to salsa and even plena music. It helped him find his musical expression.
His career began in the 1990s when he joined hip hop contest which took place on television, trying to be noticed by music producers who would give him the chance to record his music. He had a dream that he was gonna be discovered like many other artists.
However, Tego couldn’t find his place in the niche and most of the TV producers didn’t like his performance and style which disappointed him.
But, on the other hand, he was noticed by DJ Adam and Eddie Dee who invited him for a collaboration.
Most of the other DJs thought that he was too eccentric and too far underground but DJ Adam helped him develop his style further so he could finally work with him or Eddie Dee.
He became a close friend of Eddie Dee and continued working on improving his music. In order to support himself he had to work on various jobs, and being a mechanic was just one of them.
In 1999 Eddie Dee, who was known as one of the best Puerto Rican hip hop artists, invited Tego to join his label. He offered to support him in creating his career.
This eventually led to Tego first music hit which put him on the Puerto Rican charts in 2000.
The single in question was a collaboration single called “En Peligro De Extincion” which he did alongside Eddie and which was one of the most listened single that year.
The single was released on Eddie’s new album named El Terrorista De La Lirica.
The album was a huge hit and is today taken as one of the most legendary reggaeton & hip hop music albums.
In the following two years, Tego was invited to perform and participate in various albums and compilations. He became an outstanding performer and was very well-liked by his music colleagues.
Some of the work he made was “The Majestic”, “Kilates” and “La Mision”. One of the biggest hits was Planet Reggae hit song called Cosa Buena.
Yaga y Mackie also featured him on the album named “Sonando Diferente” and Tego appeared as a guest on “The Movie” released by Maestro.
“Cosa Buena” brought many positive reviews for Tego and the music scene anticipated his debut album with much impatience.
It was in 2002 that he finally released the album called “El Abayarde”.
The album could only be bought in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and at someplace in the US.
No matter it’s narrow release the album broke the sales in the first week.
It was sold in over 75 thousand copies although it was released by a little record label called White Lion Records.
The success of the album brought Tego much positive criticism and eventually gained him much positive criticism and eventually gained him a contract with Sony Music Latin, together with White Lion.
In this period Tego also created his own label called Jiggir Records. His record label later inducted a lot of respectable artists such as John Eric and Voltio.
Tego’s popularity was raising very quickly so he decided to go on a tour to promote his album. He promoted reggaeton through Latin countries all through 2003, 2004 and 2005.
He became so popular that he was invited to perform in New York City in the summer of 2003. The concert was visited by thousands of fans.
He released his new album in 2004 and it was named El Enemy de Los Guasibiri.
His work after these albums were mostly focused on releasing mixtapes and being featured in a lot of songs of prominent artists.
He has worked with Usher, Fat Joe, 50 Cent and many more. These names are names of the most prominent artists in America and his work with them meant that he had become a big name in the world of music.
In 2004 and 2005 he visited New York to perform at the Puerto Rican Day Parade where he was very welcomed by his country folks.
He also attended the New York Power – 105 events and was the only Latin artist to do it. It was a big honor for him.
Tego appeared in two big hits at that time. He collaborated with Don Omar on “Bandoleros” which ultimately made it to The Fast and the Furious soundtrack and with Eddie Dee on a single called “12 Discipulos”.
In 2005 his Jiggiri Records began its collaboration with Atlantic Records. He received a huge amount of money at this joint venture and reggaeton became more mainstream.
But Latino reggaeton & hip hop community was not happy with his decision and he knew it.
Atlantic Records released his album “The Underdog” in 2006 and it had many artists featured on it, from Eddie Dee and Don Omar to Zion and Yandel.
“The Underdog” was made as a mixed pop reggaeton album so Tego himself wasn’t happy with its product. The sales of the album were under expectations.
This was the beginning of reggaeton’s “crash” which started in 2007 and lasted more than five years.
A lot of reggaeton artists like Don Omar started making music closer to pop music to stay in the center of attention and it took them away from hip – hop music.
However, Tego stayed popular in Latin countries and has sold out concerts even today.
In 2012 he has released a mixtape named “The Original Gallo Del Pais” and in 2015 an album “El Que Sabe, Sabe”.
As for the rewards he had collected plenty of them. He has won a Latin Music Award for “Ae Natural” which was honored as the song of the year.
He was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007 and 2008, for his albums “The Underdog” and “El Abayarde” who gained accolades.
He was nominated for a lot of Latin Music Awards but the only one he won was in 2015 for “El Que Sabe, Sabe” which became the winner in the category of Best Urban Music album.
As for his work in movies and other media he has done a lot of things. He gave his voice to a character in a video game called “Def Jam: Icon” in 2007. He says it was a very interesting experience for him.
He launched his first movie role in 2007 in a Franc Reyes movie named “Illegal Tender”.
He appeared in a 2007 documentary named “Bling: A Planet Rock”.
In 2009 he had a cameo role in a popular “Fast & Furious” movie which opened him the door for this franchise.
In 2011 he appeared in a supporting role in a heist action movie called “Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist”.
In 2017 he again had a cameo role in the movie called “The Fate of the Furious”, eight years after his first role in the movie.
As for the Fast & Furious franchise he gave his voice to a character in Fast & Furious videogame and it was called “Showdown”.
Personal life
He is very close to his family, to his mother Pilar, father Esteban and sister Hilda. He often visits them and speaks to them.
He was married to Michelle Peterbauer and has two sons and a daughter. They got married in 2006 but the marriage went downwards after several years.
His wife filed for divorce in November 2017 and explained it’s ending is connected to Tego’s violence which lasted for a long period. Now he has to pay for three child supports.
In the summer of 2019, a judge issued a restraining order against him because he has been sending threatening SMS to his former girlfriend Katiria Millan.
He has 1,8 million followers on his Instagram account.
Quick summary
Full name: Tequi Calderon Rosario
Date of birth: February 1, 1972
Birthplace: Santurce, Puerto Rico
Age: 48
Profession: actor, rapper, singer, songwriter
Height: 167 cm
Weight: 67 kg
Net Worth: $3 million