[3][4][5] The album's music style is heavily influenced by "old-school" reggaeton,[6] and features guest appearances from Daddy Yankee, Nesi, Yaviah, Ñengo Flow, Sech, Mora, Jowell & Randy, Anuel AA, Myke Towers, Kendo Kaponi, Arcángel, Duki and Pablo Chill-E.

[13] YHLQMDLG is a primarily a Latin trap and reggaeton album that also incorporates elements of pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, reggae, dancehall, ballad, acoustic, electronic, lo-fi, bachata, dembow, and sandungueo.

[26] It is a departure from Bad Bunny's Latin trap style showcased on his very beginnings and focuses more on fun, bouncy, and aggressive reggaeton beats, and lyrics.

The album also features Latin trap sounds, incorporating the widely known 808 drum patterns, and both fun and aggressive melodies, such as in “Si Veo A Tu Mama”, which samples the bossa-nova classic "The Girl from Ipanema",[27] featuring a sweet, Nintendo-ish keyboard sound, while the song “25/8” is an example of the dark, hard-hitting melodies that some of the trap songs in the record share.

[29] Writing for AllMusic, Thom Jurek stated Bad Bunny "turns the notion of the cohesive urban statement into a sprawling 20-track mix of styles, production techniques, and completely accessible hooks in a work of peerless musical invention," and described YHLQMDLG as "a transformative fever dream of an album that accents freedom by breaking all the rules without writing new ones.

"[20] In Rolling Stone, Suzy Exposito gave YHLQMDLG 4.5 stars, writing that Bad Bunny "convenes a family reunion of his favorite rappers and reggaetoneros to produce a genre-promiscuous work of reggaeton a la marquesina.

"[30] For Consequence of Sound, Lucas Villa wrote that Bad Bunny "is emerging as a rarity in the game like the mythical Mew.

"[15] Matthew Ismael Ruiz in Pitchfork deemed the album "outstanding" and described it as "a big party record that pushes boundaries and pays homage to reggaetón's past and future, all made by a swaggering star with absolutely nothing to prove.

"[14] YHLQMDLG debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 dated March 14, 2020, earning 179,000 album-equivalent units, including 35,000 pure album sales in its first week.