WOMAD

Orishas

From Cuba

The iconic Cuban threesome
With just four albums to their name, Orishas have become a touchstone of 21st century new music. Roldán González, Hiram Riverí "Ruzzo" and Yotuel Romero were born in Havana and in Cuba they are an institution, though their music first caught on in Europe, where their revolutionary blend of hip hop and Cuban son are regarded as one of the great artistic novelties of recent years. With three discs released, Orishas have also won respect in the US and Latin America thanks to their potent, inventive music with roots, which has given us songs that have become anthems, such as Represent, ¿Qué pasa? or Nací Orishas. A music that is now condensed in the album Antidiótico, released in two different editions and encapsulating an exciting career and music that began to take shape at the end of the last century, when…

Roldán, Ruzzo Yotuel and, back then, Liván, met in Paris. They had come from Cuba by various routes, none of them easy. Ruzzo and Yotuel were rapping in Amenaza, a pioneering Cuban hip hop outfit. Roldán was singing traditional Cuban music in the group Rico Son. Some friends fell by the wayside, but the power of the original idea was their driving force: mixing hip hop with traditional Cuban music.

In May 1999, Orishas ("It's an African word that in the Yoruba language means something like demigods," Ruzzo says) released their first album: A lo cubano. "We took a risk in the mix - even the musicians said 'You're crazy'", Roldán said in those years. "We wanted to keep the hip hop side without losing what is the essence of that great range of Cuban rhythms, including instruments from our culture, such as the percussion." A lo cubano became the first hip hop album to earn a platinum disc in Spain, with more than 100,000 copies sold (it also got gold discs in France and Switzerland), and Orishas played at the Paris Olympia, the Royal Festival Hall in the UK, at Festimad, at Pop Kom... The band's offering (at that time it was a foursome, which Liván soon left) was also appreciated in the US, and magazines such as Time and Rolling Stone gave rave reviews as Orishas toured the States, Canada, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico, playing with Manu Chao, Iggy Pop, Cypress Hill and Deftones. In Cuba, Orishas had an audience of 50,000 at their first gig in Havana.

After more than 200 concerts all over the world, in August 2001 Orishas went into the studio to work on songs for its new album. Of the 25 composed, 15 appear on Emigrante, released in April 2002. With the experience of success and the discrimination acquired in tougher, more awkward times, Emigrante contains songs that are more profound, more international. "It's a more musical, much more tuneful, vocally harder and better worked-out album that deals with universal themes - sexual abuse, women, missing persons," says Ruzzo. The album was launched on a tour of ten countries, and in 2003 Orishas became an undisputed member of the musical elite. They played at the best festivals, they were voted by Time Magazine as one of the top foreign groups along with U2, Radiohead, Pulp and others; they won the Latin Grammy for best Hip Hop/Rap disc, and they were nominated for a Grammy in the Best Latin Rock/Alternative category and also for Best International Hip Hop Album, according to The Source, the bible in the field... In just four years, Orishas had made it with their "Cuban rap, 50% tradition and 50% hip hop," as they called it then.

In February 2005 Orishas released El Kilo, their third album. With a name taken from the slang term in Cuba for a cent of the Cuban currency, El Kilo is a mix of A lo cubano, with the percussive elements and brass, and the more melodic side of Emigrante", Roldán says. The disc won the Premio de la Música in Spain for best hip hop disc, won "gold" status in Switzerland, Portugal and Spain, and was nominated for the Grammys and the Latin Grammys, definitively establishing Orishas's music worldwide. "We've gone back to the golden age in Havana, the age of the glamour of white suits and American cars, to the 30s and 40s," Orishas said of El Kilo. "At the production level we've achieved a simpler but more powerful sound, with fewer strings and less pop. We've tried to simplify things and make everything more direct." This is a mature album, the solid product of six years' work. Orishas became a group of reference.

Antidiótico, is the first collection of their hits and most popular and iconic songs. Antidiótico was released in two different editions (Standard and Special). The album includes three unreleased tracks - "Silencio", "Una página" and the anthem "Hay un son" - and two new versions of "Represent" (with Heather Headley, from the soundtrack of "Dirty Dancing: Havana night") and "Quién te dijo", with a cameo appearance by Pitbull, a young talent with Cuban ancestors that Dirty South rap has turned into a reality. The Standard Edition also has 10 more songs from the albums A lo Cubano (A lo cubano, 573 C.U.B.A., Connexión), Emigrante (¿Qué pasa?, ¿Qué bola?, Emigrants, Habana) and El kilo (Nací Orishas, Elegante, El Kilo). The Special Edition also has a second CD with the tracks Mística, Desaparecidos and Bombo (from the three albums), as well as remixes (by Malou and Niko) and joint numbers with Beny Moré, Kalliah, Da Weasel and Carlos Jean. And to ensure that nothing is lacking, it also includes a DVD with the videos of A lo cubano, 537 C.U.B.A., Represent, ¿Qué pasa?, Mujer, Habana, Nací Orishas and El kilo. Antidiótico is the product of a perfectly oiled musical machine fuelled by popular tradition and the urban cutting edge. Songs that usher in a new age, that introduce us to a new global village and that open up paths of hope. Such is Orishas's music.

In 2008 Orishas released their eagerly awaited fourth studio album, Cosita Buena. The album was recorded in February 2008, and was composed, produced and arranged by the emblematic Cuban trio. Cosita Buena contains twelve hit tracks and "Hip Hop Conga", was the official song of the 2008 Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival.
(Biography supplied by artist management-2009)
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