DADDY YANKEE - DADDY YANKEE CREDITS MUSIC CAREER WITH SHOOTING

Reggaeton superstar DADDY YANKEE insists he would have given up music for baseball had he not fallen victim to a series of gun crimes. The ROMPE hitmaker dreamed of becoming a sporting hero for the New York Yankees, but questioned the ambition when his coach was gunned down on the pitch, when Yankee was just six years old. Ten years later, the musician - real name RAYMOND AYALA - became a victim himself when he was caught in a crossfire, shattering his baseball dreams for good. He tells MTV, "I'd tried out for the Seattle Mariners and (then) I got shot. So I went to the hospital and I was thinking, 'How am I going to survive now?' because I was going to get signed. Officially signed! Everybody (saw) the potential in me. "Then all of a sudden: a bullet. Boom. It can turn around your life. "I thank God for that bullet. At that time, I didn't understand it. But right now, I give thanks to that bullet. "That bullet made me be focused in music, because I didn't have any (other) options - it was music or music, you know? I was so determined not to fail, and that attitude got me to this point."