The music of Cuba, including its instruments, performance, and dance, comprises a large set of unique traditions influenced mostly by west African and European music. Due to the syncretic nature of most of its genres, Cuban music is often considered one of the richest and most influential regional music in the world. For instance, the son cubano merges an adapted Spanish guitar (tres), melody, harmony, and lyrical traditions with Afro-Cuban percussion and rhythms. Almost nothing remains of the original native traditions, since the native population was exterminated in the 16th century.
The Music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources of Puerto Rico have primarily included African, Taino Indigenous, and European influences. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from essentially native genres such as bomba, jíbaro, seis, danza, and plena to more recent hybrid genres such as salsa, Latin trap and reggaeton. Broadly conceived, the realm of "Puerto Rican music" should naturally comprise the music culture of the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent who have lived in the United States, especially in New York City. Their music, from salsa to the boleros of Rafael Hernández, cannot be separated from the music culture of Puerto Rico itself.
Reggaeton is a modern style of popular and electronic music that originated in Panama during the late 1980s, and which rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s through a plethora of Puerto Rican musicians. It has evolved from dancehall, with elements of hip hop, Latin American, and Caribbean music. Vocals include toasting/rapping and singing, typically in Spanish.
The culture of Cuba is a complex mixture of different, often contradicting, factors and influences. The Cuban people and their customs are based on European, African and Amerindian influences.
Orishas are a Cuban hip hop group from Havana, Cuba, founded in 1999. The group was first called "Amenaza", "threat" or "menace" in Spanish, and appealed to the Cuban youth. The choice of this name for the hip hop group is a way of creating a direct link between this band and the African diaspora. The group is based in France where they made a deal with a record company, although they visit Cuba frequently. In 1999 Fidel Castro threw a party for them and had a meeting with all the musicians. It was the first time the Cuban government showed support for hip hop music. The group was and still is popular in Europe and Latin America. Yotuel Romero and Ruzzo Medina, who moved from Havana to Paris as part of an international studies program, joined Roldán González and Flaco-Pro to form the band in 1999. Their work is influenced by the hip hop movement as well as Cuban and other Latin rhythms. As of November 2024, they had produced a total of five studio albums and a greatest hits album; their latest album is Gourmet. In 2009 they participated in the concert Paz Sin Fronteras II in Plaza de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba. Orishas reunited to record new material in 2016.
Hip hop music arrived in Cuba via radio and TV broadcasts from Miami. During the 1980s, hip hop culture in Cuba was mainly centered on breakdancing. By the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the onset of the Special Period, young rappers, exposed to foreign tourists whose wealth highlighted their struggle, turned to rapping to affirm their heritage and advocate for further revolutionary reforms.
Nueva Trova is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967-1968 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes.
Yotuel Omar Romero Manzanares, mononymously known as Yotuel, is a Cuban singer, actor, and current lead singer and co-writer of the 2003 Latin Grammy Award-winning Platinum album-selling rap group Orishas. Among other recordings, Emigrante won the 2003 Latin Grammy Award for Best Rap/Hip-Hop Album. This same album was also nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.
Bachatón is a fusion genre of reggaeton from Panama and Puerto Rico as well as bachata from the Dominican Republic. Bachaton combines bachata melodies and reggaeton style beats, lyrics, rapping, and disc jockeying. The word "bachatón" is a portmanteau of "bachata" and "reggaeton". "Bachatón" was coined and widely accepted in 2005. It is a subgenre of reggaeton and bachata.
The Boatlift is the third studio album by Cuban-American rapper Pitbull. It was released on November 27, 2007 through TVT and Poe Boy. The album features production by Lil Jon, Mr. Collipark, Nitti, Diaz Brothers and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs who served as executive producer with Pitbull. It also features guest appearances by Trick Daddy, Lil Jon, Twista, Jim Jones, Jason Derulo and Don Omar among others.
For the film see Alamar (film)
Cubanito, also known by the former name Cubanito 20.02, is a Cuban reggaeton/cubaton band. The band is credited, along with the band Máxima Alerta, with popularizing cubaton, though Cubanito is influenced more by Jamaican music, whereas Máxima Alerta is influenced more by traditional Cuban music.
Anónimo Consejo was a Cuban rap duo whose name translates into English as Anonymous Advice. The group consisted of Maigel "MC Kokino" Entenza Jaramillo and Yosmel "MC Sekou" Sarrias, and was known for the social and political themes in their music. It was one of the most popular hip hop groups in Cuba during its prime. In 2011, the duo split to pursue individual interests.
The early/initial visible roots of hip hop in Cuba are believed to have emerged through break dance competitions or battles that were seen on the streets of Cuba. The continuous repetition of break dance battles were one of the strong channels or pioneers of the hip hop culture in Cuba. Some sources state that hip hop in Cuba strongly emerged in the early nineties as a way out due to the termination of the numerous subsidies that were received by the country through the Soviet. All the above-mentioned pertaining to Cuban hip hop is vital - however, none of it would have been successful without the presence of one of the two Cuban Institutions, namely Asociacion Hermanos Saiz and Agencia Cubana de Rap. Asociacion Hermanos Saiz and the latter are the two initial Institutions that were funded by the Cuban Government with the major motive of promoting Rap/hip hop in Cuba more.
Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda, known as Rita Montaner, was a Cuban singer, pianist and actress. In Cuban parlance, she was a vedette, and was well known in Mexico City, Paris, Miami and New York, where she performed, filmed and recorded on numerous occasions. She was one of Cuba's most popular artists between the late 1920s and 1950s, renowned as Rita de Cuba. Though classically trained as a soprano for zarzuelas, her mark was made as a singer of Afro-Cuban salon songs including "The Peanut Vendor" and "Siboney".
Battle rap is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults, wordplay and disses originating in the African-American community. Battle rap is often performed spontaneously, or freestyled, in live battles known as rap battles, where participants will compete on the same stage to see who has the better verses.
Telmary Díaz, better known as simply Telmary, is a Cuban rapper, musician, and spoken-word artist.
Máxima Alerta is a Cuban-American fusion music band known for its merging of Cuban reggaeton, or Cubaton, with traditional Cuban music and other Latin musical genres.
Urbano music or Latin urban is a transnational umbrella category including many different genres and styles. As an umbrella term it includes a wide and diverse set of genres and styles such as dancehall, dembow, urban champeta, funk carioca, Latin hip hop and reggaeton. The commercial breakthrough of this music took place in 2017 with artists from Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico, the United States, Venezuela and even non-Spanish-speaking nations, such as Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken.
