VIDEO DEBUT
AUGUST 16, 2010
Video Selecter: Los Rakas
Los Rakas Take Back Reggaeton For Panama With "Abrazame"
by Tom PryorEach week Nat Geo Music scours the far reaches of the interwebs to bring you the hottest new music videos from around the world.
This week we've got a special treat for you - the debut of a brand new video from one of our favorite new groups, Los Rakas.
If you missed our coverage of this year's LAMC events, then you missed us raving about this Bay Area duo (DunDun and Rico AKA Filthy Rich) who are single-handedly taking back reggaeton to its Panamanian roots.
That's right - forget Daddy Yankee and Wisin y Yandel and all the other Boriquas (even Calle 13) - because reggaeton's true pioneers were Panamanian rhyme slingers like El General and Nando Boom, who first married Spanish rhymes to Jamaican dancehall riddims back in the early '90s with hits like "Tu Pum Pum" and "El Desorden" - recalling the historic between Panama and Jamaica that goes all the way back to the building of the Panama Canal (which relied on workers from all over Central America and the Caribbean, especially Jamaica).
But enough history, check out what Los Rakas can do with Jamaican dancehall star Gyptian's "Hold Yuh Riddim" (remixed by NYC's own Uproot Andy) on this brand new video for "Abrazame", directed by Aris Jerome.