Back in August, Stereogum’s Rachel Brodsky called Bad Bunny’s Una Verano Sin Ti the biggest album of 2022. A few months later, Billboard made it official: Bad Bunny’s LP was the most popular album of last year — the first time a Spanish-language album has ever earned that distinction. For the past three years running, Bad Bunny has also been the most-streamed artist on Spotify. He is a full-blown superstar, and he now has to deal with the drawbacks that come with superstardom — drawbacks that include yahoos shoving phones in your face when you’re trying to party.

Yesterday, a short video went viral. It’s Bad Bunny, reportedly in the Dominican Republic, walking with a group of people alongside the ocean. A female fan, walking with Bad Bunny, screams and holds her phone out for a selfie. Bad Bunny smiles, then wordlessly grabs the phone and hucks it toward the water. (The video’s popularity probably owes something to the woman’s shocked reaction.)

On Twitter, Bad Bunny posted an explanation for the phone-throwing. In Spanish, Bad Bunny wrote that he would always give “attention and respect” to fans who speak to him on a genuine level but that people who put phones in his face show “a lack of respect.” So: The vibes were off, and Bad Bunny is not a zoo animal who exists to build up your social-media clout. Here’s the translation of his tweet:

The person who comes up to me to say hello, to tell me something, or just to meet me, will always receive my attention and respect. Those who come to put a phone bastard in my face I will consider it for what it is, a lack of respect and I will treat it likewise.

https://twitter.com/sanbenito/status/1610024270406483972

That explanation makes sense, though it’s probably worth noting that Bad Bunny’s most popular song right now is a party anthem with a hook about taking selfies. It’s not too hard to see how that lady might’ve got the wrong idea.