The Caribbean is often celebrated for vibrant music scenes that revolve around dancehall, reggaeton, dembow, and soca, among other genres. In the Dominican Republic, specifically, the dembow scene continues to conquer global airwaves and blast up the charts. At the same time, however,a glowing indie scene has been flourishing, reflecting …
Read More »Pedro Locura and Venezuela's Gravity-Defying World of Motopiruetas
Pedro Aldana began riding motorcycles as a baby. His father would sit him on his lap and they’d cruise through the barrio of Propatria in Caracas together. When he got older, he began careening around on BMX bikes, learning to do wheelies through the chaotic and near-vertical hills of the …
Read More »Farruko on God, Fame, and Life After 'Pepas'
PARTWAY THROUGH FARRUKO‘S set, the stage at Miami’s FTX Arena turned into a pulpit. On a mild night in February, the Puerto Rican artist had been standing at the center of the nearly 20,000-person venue, a tangle of flashing lights and smoke-cannon explosions blaring behind him. Fans screamed along as …
Read More »How the 'Crazy, Creative Minds' Behind 'Los Espookys' Made Season 2 Even Weirder
To enter the carefully crafted upside-down world of Los Espookys, you need to suspend your disbelief. That the one-of-a-kind, predominantly Spanish-language HBO series isn’t quite concerned with rules or even logic is what makes it so wonderfully unpredictable. One of Los Espookys’ main characters, for example, has an ethereal water …
Read More »Smash Hits and 'Puro Desmadre': After Taking Over Música Mexicana, Grupo Firme Is Ready for More
Still dressed in their work uniforms after an arduous day under the desert sun in mid-April, seven men tasked with building the tents at Coachella wait anxiously to watch Mexican band Grupo Firme take the very stage the men helped build. Among the construction workers is Jose, a Coachella Valley …
Read More »A Model for Justice: How Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez's Superhero La Borinqueña Is Fighting for Puerto Rico
Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez cares a lot — about his family, his homeland, and yes, about superheroes, too. Born in New Jersey but raised between the Bronx and Puerto Rico, Miranda-Rodríguez saw firsthand the discrimination that Nuyoricans were subjected to in the Seventies and Eighties. He often turned to the escapism of …
Read More »Daddy Yankee Forever: A Reggaeton Legend Goes Out on Top
T he August sun knows no bounds one sweltering afternoon in Las Vegas as it beats down over the slick, steaming asphalt roads of the Strip. At 6 p.m., it’s still a merciless 102 degrees outside, and there’s little hope that nightfall will cool down the neon-lit city. Yet outside …
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