Cimafunk with Raul y su ClaveAché

Cimafunk is an Afro-Cuban Rockstar. His name refers to his heritage as a ‘cimarrón,’ Cubans of African descent who resisted and escaped slavery, as well as to the essence of his music that aims to subvert conventional sounds with rhythmic innovation. By bringing out the best in Cuban rhythms and traditions and infusing sounds and styles from Africa and the U.S., Cimafunk has created something unique and special, not only in terms of music but also with the values he stands for. He is redefining contemporary Cuban music as well as Afro-Latin identity and the fusion of black cultures.

Cimafunk’s monumental second album El Alimento was released in October 2021, receiving overwhelming praise. Rolling Stone ranked it #3 of the Best Spanish-Language and Bilingual Albums of 2021 and #23 of the 50 Best Albums of 2021. El Alimento was also among NPR’s Best Latin Music of 2021and #1 of Le Monde’s Latin Music favorites. Singles also made their way through2021 lists: Rómpe loft. Lupe Fiasco was among NPR Alt. Latino’s best singles of 2021 and Funk Aspirin ft. George Clintonin Remezcla’s 10 Best Indie Pop, Rock, & Chill Songs of 2021.

Co-produced by Cimafunk and Grammy-award winning producer Jack Splash (CeeLo Green, Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys), the sonically dynamic collection masterfully blends Afro-Cuban sounds and rhythms with global funk, hip hop and soul—resulting in a progressive, head-bopping celebration of black music’s power to eclipse borders and cross-pollinate across cultures. Written and recorded over 2020, the album served as an aliment of or the soul, a motivation to persevere through the pandemic, as Cimafunk spent countless hours studying decades of musical influences to help understand who he is musically and culturally, and thus, where he wanted this album to take him.

As innovative funk forefather George Clinton (Parliament-Funkadelic), who sings alongside Cimafunk on the opening track "Funk Aspirin," says: “Cimafunk takes it back there while keeping it in the now. It’s what we do, always reinventing the Funk to keep it fresh.”

Along with Clinton, El Alimento also includes collaborations with US hip hop stars Lupe Fiasco and CeeLo Green; Jamaican dancehall singer Stylo Gand Afro-Colombian hip hop group ChocQuibTown; as well as Cuban musicians Chucho Valdés, an Afro Cuban jazz icon and '70s funk pioneer, Los Papines, a Cuban Rumba group whose career spans six decades, and Afro-Cuban rapper and Reggaetonero El Micha.

George Clinton says “he is the one, the next one,” Chucho Valdés credits him with “uniting Afro-Cuban and African American,” and Fito Páezcalls him “the future.” According to The New York Times, Cimafunk is on “Quest to Create One Nation Under a Groove,” NPR assert she’s on his way to “world domination by way of the funk and clave,” and Rolling Stone describes his music as “an electrifying combination of funk and soul, layered over the five-beat clave, or the heartbeat of Cuban music, brought to Cuba by enslaved people from West Africa.”