¡Viva Cuba! Part Three: Obsesión

An edited version of this feature appeared in SPIN.

Pioneering hip hop duo Obsesión is based in Regla, an industrial suburb on Havana Bay. Founders and MCs Magia Lopez and El Tipo Este have been making music together since 1996. Early releases came out on Cuban national record label EGREM; distribution in the U.S. has, unsurprisingly, been quite limited. In 2003, Obsesión toured the States and shared a bill at the Apollo with The Roots.

El Tipo Este says that the combination of hip hop textures with Cuban musical traditions is perfectly natural. “We can’t deny or separate ourselves from who we are, so turning to the rich Cuban music never cost us much effort; it was truly organic and inevitable. It’s in our DNA.”

More than one-third of Cuba’s population is Black or mixed-race, and those cultural roots inform Obsesión’s music. “But I would say that more than expressing the Afro-Cuban experience, we are the Afro-Cuban experience,” El Tipo Este says. “Our songs are influenced precisely by the fact of being Black people in Cuba today. Every social variable takes on a particular nuance when an Afro-Cuban person experiences it.”

“The themes we explore in our lyrics are very diverse,” he explains, “ranging from the simplest and most everyday in the form of street chronicles, to the most controversial social, political, and human issues.” El Tipo Este emphasizes that Obsesión’s music is “always in the pursuit of a positive message.”

Even when addressing serious topics, the ebullient spirit of Obsesión colors the music. Released digitally by Oakland-based Round Whirled Records, 2025’s Luciérnaga, crónicas de luz (Firefly, Chronicles of Light) brilliantly combines hip hop and big band jazz. It’s the kind of album that – were it to receive airplay in the U.S. – would likely connect with a wide range of listeners. And while El Tipo Este is an optimistic sort, he harbors few illusions. “I think there’s still a lot of ignorance in the U.S. about Cuban music,” he observes. “There’s a lot of diversity. And Obsesión is proof of that.”

>While the U.S. government’s effective blockade exacerbates economic hardships that have led to the exodus of more than 1.5 million Cubans in the last few years (representing 15% of the country’s population) the musical culture of Cuba endures. Obsesión’s El Tipo Este points out that an internationally-renowned Havana landmark is at the center of that scene. La Fábrica de Arte Cubano is a former cooking oil factory that now serves as a multidisciplinary arts venue. “In that single space, young people – and the general public – can enjoy a wide range of artistic offerings,” he says. “F.A.C.’s fusion of expressions not only enriches aesthetic enjoyment but also stimulates a more critical, diverse, and sensitive perspective.”