ChocQuibTown

Flourishing at the intersection of searing raps and beaming Afro-Colombian pride, ChocQuibTown is a hip-hop group fusing ancestral musical traditions of Colombia's Pacific Coast with global rhythms including reggaetón, dancehall and Afrobeats. The group was formed in Cali in 2000, comprising Carlos “Tostao” Valencia and siblings Gloria “Goyo” Martínez and Miguel “Slow” Martínez, who named the project ChocQuibTown in honour of their upbringing in the Columbian department of Chocó, and more specifically the city of Quibdo. Growing up in port cities, they soaked up American hip-hop records brought in by sailors, melding these foreign influences with regional rhythms like currulao and bunde on their acclaimed 2006 debut, Somos Pacífico. Beyond exulting their heritage, ChocQuibTown have become essential narrators of injustices faced by Afro-Colombians, notably denouncing displacements and mineral exploitation on their sophomore LP, Oro (2010). The Latin Grammy-winning group has also enjoyed numerous pop crossover successes, collaborating with Colombian vallenato icon Carlos Vives on “El Mar de Sus Ojos”, as well as Puerto Rican reggaetón trailblazer Tego Calderón on “Calentura”. ChocQuibTown have since veered into Miami-flavoured tropical pop on 2015's El Mismo and fiercely denounced racism with thumping electro and Afrobeats on 2018's Sin Miedo and 2020's ChocQuib House.