Many believe Danay Suárez leads the way as a symbol of conscious Cuban hip-hop. She can rap lyrics about the struggle of her sisters and brothers without a gangster pose and her intelligent verses run deep with political and social message. Like so many of her counterparts in the Cuban Hiphop scene she fuses hiphop with several other styles, dipping her toes in jazz, reggae, soul and traditional Cuban music. But her vocal reach and versatility has set her apart from similar Havana artists. Always toeing the line between rapping and singing, her style has lead many to compare her to leading hip-hop veterans such as Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill.
Born in Havana’s Cerro District, her career first made ground in 2007 when she arrived unannounced at the house of Cuban fusion king X Alfonso with a collection of demo recordings. Impressed by her sound, it wasn’t long before X Alfonso invited her to record with him at his studio in Havana. This led to her discovery by Gilles Peterson and an introduction to the international stage through several releases on Peterson’s Havana Cultura Series.
Her contribution to this collection of albums championing the cream of Havana’s musical innovation encompasses an EP in 2010 recorded alongside Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca labeled ‘Danay Suárez – Havana Cultura Sessions’ as well as several features and one recorded track on the album ‘Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura: The Search Continues’ the following year. Her work with Peterson and Fonseca opened the door to the world of jazz and compounded her talent for working with a variety of genres.
In 2012 Suárez made new explorations into the realm of dub when she was invited to lend her vocals to the first track of the album ‘Mala in Cuba’; the collaborative project undertaken in Havana in 2012 by British dub virtuoso Mala (one half of Digital Mystikz) in response to a challenge from Gilles Peterson to travel to the Cuban capital and combine his monolithic basslines with Cuban motifs. The dreamy, ethereal tone of this immaculate opening track, Noches Sueños, is symbolised in the duo’s music video recorded in Paris that features Suarez and Mala swirling around in an enormous water capsule. The track was reinvigorated in 2013 with another release on Brownswood Records in the form of a marauding house remix by Zed Bias Aka Maddslinky.
Suárez’ success has led her to headline the famous Hiphop Al Parque festival in Colombia where she performed to an audience of 120,000. She has performed in cities across the world and completed additional studio collaborations with the likes of Omara Portuondo, Idan Raichel, Stephen Marley, Los Aldeanos, Robert Glassper, Raúl Paz, Roberto Carcasés and Interactivo. Her place as a crown jewel in the Cuban rap scene cemented, she has just released a phenomenal LP ‘Palabras Manuales’ on Universal Music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyoUtvvv4Rg
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