(CNN) "Despacito" is breaking records as one of the summer's hottest songs, but for the singer-songwriter behind the track, it's also a love letter to his home island of Puerto Rico.

"I wanted to pay homage to where I'm from," Luis Fonsi told CNN. "Throughout my career, I have never really sang a song that had to do with Puerto Rico because my songs were always a little bit more on the romantic side. 'Despacito' just lent itself to just kind of play around with that."

Fonsi lived in Puerto Rico until age 11, and still owns a home there, he said. The music video was filmed in La Perla, a shanty town on the Atlantic coast just outside of Old San Juan. The area, known for its high crime and poverty rates, is separated from the capital city by a wall.

"I probably would have never written a melody like that if I wasn't raised there," Fonsi said. "That's just in my blood. I grew up listening to my dad's salsa records."

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