Panamanian-born Bay Area hip-hop stars Los Rakas gear up for Coachella
Words by Andrew Bell
Coachella is arguably the biggest festival in the world. Tickets sold out in just under 40 minutes this year for the two weekend-long festival that will include AC/DC, Drake, Florence and the Machine, Jack White, Lil B and over a hundred other musical acts including Panamanian cousins Los Rakas.
For those of you who haven’t been using their albums as a post-hyphy Rosetta Stone, Los Rakas is composed of MC Raka Dun and Raka Rich. The name Los Rakas is derived from Rakataka, a Panamanian slur for people from the ghetto. The duo is from Oakland by way of Panama and has been all over the country, captivating crowds with their bass-heavy bilingual mixture of dancehall, hip-hop, soul, reggaeton and R&B that can only be described as Raka music.
There was no business model when Los Rakas got started. There wasn’t a detailed plan to bridge a cultural gap by becoming one of the most successful Urban Latino rap groups in history. They just wanted to make music.
“In the beginning we didn’t really think ‘What genre we gonna do? Are we gonna rap in Spanish or in English? Who’s gonna be our audience?” explained Dun. “We were just creating and performing anywhere.”
The Panabay duo has come a long way from peddling mixtapes on Oakland street corners in 2006. Last year, Los Rakas released their first album on Universal Records. El Negrito Dun Dun Y Ricardo received rave reviews, reaching No. 1 in the iTunes Urban Latino Charts. The pair spent 2014 hitting festival stages both nationally and internationally, including Reggae on the River, Supersonico and Cali Roots, and became one of the first Latin acts selected for the Honda Civic Tour alongside Mexican EDM heavyweights 3BallMTY. The duo is one of only three Latin acts at this year’s Coachella including Chicano Batman and Nortec Collective’s Bostich and Fussible.
In one of the most pleasantly unexpected musical moves of 2014, new wave legends Blondie reached out to Los Rakas to feature on Blondie’s song “I Screwed Up” for their new Ghosts of Download album. The track is a playful apology for a drunken night driven by an infectious Cumbia rhythm and finished off with verses from Rich and Dun.
“She was looking for something different and they called us,” explained Rich.
“We didn’t believe it at first,” Dun jokingly explained. “I talked to Rico [Raka Rich] and he’s like, ‘Do you think it’s the real Blondie or is there some new school Blondie we don’t know about?”
El Negrito Dun Dun Y Ricardo follows the duo’s critically acclaimed underground albums Chancletas y Camisetas Bordada and Raka Love as well as a host of popular singles and features that gained them international recognition. Although it is their first major record label release, the Raka duo says the recording process was the same as it always has been for them. “Ever since our first mixtape, Panabay Twist 1, we called it a mixtape for legal purposes but in our minds we were creating an album,” explained Dun. “Every project we do we think of it as an album, whether it’s an EP or a mixtape song, we treat the track like it’s our album song.”
El Negrito Dun Dun Y Ricardo continues the Raka tradition of genre-bending and covers bases from hard-hitting dancehall hits like “No Tan Listo” to some deep hip-hop storytelling on “Sueño Americano” before ending on a highly danceable house/future bass note with “X-Tacy.” The duo took an Outkast-esque approach to El Negrito Dun Dun Y Ricardo and split the album right down the middle with Dun taking the first half and Rich taking the latter. The album showcases Dun and Rich’s individual personalities while also providing the seamless musical fusion that Los Rakas fans have come to expect.
Last year also saw another childhood fantasy come to fruition for Los Rakas when the Panabay duo had one of their songs selected for the soundtrack of their favorite video game. El Negrito Dun Dun Y Ricardo’s electro-cumbia/dancehall banger “Hot” was featured on EA Games’ FIFA 2014. When asked if they played FIFA before being included in the latest edition’s soundtrack, Dun laughs. “We’ve been playing FIFA since the ‘90s,” he explained. “So that was a dream come true.”
In the wake of last year’s success, Los Rakas find themselves lined up to step onto one of the biggest music festival stages in the world this April at Coachella. The feeling is understandably still a little surreal for the pair. “It won’t hit me, like, I won’t believe it until I’m actually rocking on stage. I don’t think we’re nervous as much as anxious to get on stage. We love performing,” Rich explained. “The bigger stage just gives us more room to do more kicks and more jumps.”
Before Los Rakas takes the Coachella stage, however, they will be departing on The Rapture tour alongside a couple of the most prolific West Coast lyricists of all time. The tour joins the duo with hip-hop legends Zion I and Locksmith, and hits Sacramento at Ace of Spades Feb. 17, 2015. “Our first tour was a hip-hop tour with The Grouch,” Dun said. “From there we did reggae tours and Latin tours, but we’re happy to be back on a hip-hop tour because that’s how we started.”
The duo is also busy working on their second studio album with Universal, but as of right now they are keeping details heavily under wraps. According to Los Rakas, there is no working title or release date currently, but they were able to divulge a little bit about the musical direction they were headed in on this next project. “We’re trying to give people a little bit of everything we do in one album,” Rich explained. “This time we wanna put everything in one plus some new genres you haven’t heard us hop on before.”
After years of hard work, gaining corporate sponsorships, touring the world and gaining major record label success, Los Rakas’ music has never deviated from its original intention. The Raka movement at its heart is still the same as it was when the cousins first stood on Bay Area street corners selling mix tapes out of the trunk. The Raka philosophy still centers around fearless creativity without boundaries. “It’s all about positive vibes,” explained Dun. “And not being afraid to just be yourself.”
Missed out on those Coachella tickets? Los Rakas will play Ace of Spades Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, when the Rapture Tour rolls into town with Zion I and Locksmith. The all-ages show is $15 and starts at 6:30. Visit Losrakas.com or Aceofspadessac.com for more info.
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