Puerto Rican hip hop band Calle 13 is immensely popular throughout Latin America, having won 19 Latin Grammy Awards. Despite the initial reaction to label Calle 13 as hip hop, although this genre is a large part of what they do, the band incorporates other styles of music such as reggaeton, cumbia, merengue, and ska, and is not afraid to experiment. While its members grew up in a middle-class setting, Calle 13 uses Puerto Rican slang as well as political lyrics at times in order to appeal to a wide range of people, thus having fans from many different backgrounds.

In Baile de los pobres, there are elements of hip hop, reggaeton, and even music from India. The song is sung from the perspective of a poor male who is in love with a rich woman, in the age old story of love made difficult because of class separation. Many of the lyrics contrast the lower-class and upper-class lifestyles in Puerto Rico, aiming to illustrate the wide gap between rich and poor. Many lines in the song also serve to celebrate the party lifestyle, saying that poverty doesn’t matter as long as you can dance, drink, and get with women.