Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
My name's Kumar...
My pseudonym or artistic name is 'Sublevao Beat'
I've spent most of my life in the neighbourhood known as Mantilla.
Here we are in La Palma, cars usually stop here,
when I come from Vedado and stuff.
And over there's Mantilla...
To spend your adolescence and youth in a neighbourhood like Mantilla
has filled me, shall we say, with the identity of that neighbourhood
which was born with the folklore, of listening to hip-hop.
Somehow you get out of the neighbourhood and go off into the World.
In 2008 I had the chance to produce my first solo record,
which was called 'Películas de barrio'.
With this record I had the chance to tour around Europe, meet other musicians, see other countries,
connect to different musical vibes
and other musicians who somehow enriched the concept of my music.
After launching the album in Cuba, I went back to Europe to work on a second album.
This one was called 'Patakin'
To work with a percussionist, Dreiser, who also worked on the first record, Sublevao
And another percussionist called Erik Ibar
who between them enriched hip-hop, urban music.
We integrated the Yoruba perspective, not just through percussion but also through songs.
On this record, I also have collaborations with other musicians...
Talented jazz artists or creative musicians, such as Ariel Bringuez.
I collaborated with him on something called 'Acompáñanos', by him and Harol López-Nussa.
This disc is the affirmation of my experimentation
with hip-hop, hard rock, World music...
with the connections between Jazz, with African music.
From a thought and some verses which reflect a broad vision,
of what is happening day after day.
The collaboration with Machete Horns came out of a project called Afrikun...
we had the chance to go to Kenya.
It's a project inspired by the different parts of Africa, its cultures, tribes and influences.
I do the beats, they do the metal arrangements.
Then I do the production...
And we were also able to work with Omar Sosa,
M.anifest, an incredible Ghanan rapper.
So on the latest Havana Cultura record, is a track called 'Kimbiseros'
which is part of the 'Afrikun' project.
With these projects, and above all Afrikun,
I have also developed my production.
And I have found a tool called 'MPC',
which is an instrument which you can also use live.
So it gets you out of the studio, the programming and you go live...
with a musical show.
Alongside this, I also developed different types of projects
born out of this type of production
such as Mandinga Sessions, which is a project I am involved in,
with a saxophonist called Julio Carbonell, whom I have named 'Mandinga Sax'.
We made a production which will be released on vinyl
called 'Sub-Elevation'.
The vinyl release will also feature collaborations with international artists.
There's a rapper from Washington called BluRum 13
and a rapper from New York
With these artists, we could say that it's a projection...
of hip-hop from a more musical point of view,
from whence you can see the colours of a project like Patakin, Afrikun...
but at the same time it has a more comtemporary feel.
Hip-hop is global...
I charecterise it, package it with my identity as a Cuban,
as a musicion committed to my sound, as a musicion committed to my roots.
I think that in some way all this investigative work I'm doing
will show the extent of the influence that Cuban contemporary urban music can have.
My name is Kumar and we're connected...
transmitting the signal.
Ashe.