{"id":31064,"date":"2026-05-28T05:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31064"},"modified":"2026-05-28T07:52:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:52:25","slug":"viva-cuba-part-three-obsesion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/viva-cuba-part-three-obsesion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a1Viva Cuba! Part Three: Obsesi\u00f3n"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"An edited version of this feature appeared in<\/em> SPIN.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pioneering hip hop duo Obsesi\u00f3n 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, Obsesi\u00f3n toured the States and shared a bill at the Apollo with The Roots.<\/p>\n

El Tipo Este says that the combination of hip hop textures with Cuban musical traditions is perfectly natural. \u201cWe 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\u2019s in our DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than one-third of Cuba\u2019s population is Black or mixed-race, and those cultural roots inform Obsesi\u00f3n\u2019s music. \u201cBut I would say that more than expressing<\/i> the Afro-Cuban experience, we are<\/i> the Afro-Cuban experience,\u201d El Tipo Este says. \u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe themes we explore in our lyrics are very diverse,\u201d he explains, \u201cranging from the simplest and most everyday in the form of street chronicles, to the most controversial social, political, and human issues.\u201d El Tipo Este emphasizes that Obsesi\u00f3n\u2019s music is \u201calways in the pursuit of a positive message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when addressing serious topics, the ebullient spirit of Obsesi\u00f3n colors the music. Released digitally by Oakland-based Round Whirled Records, 2025\u2019s Luci\u00e9rnaga, cr\u00f3nicas de luz<\/i> (Firefly, Chronicles of Light<\/i>) brilliantly combines hip hop and big band jazz. It\u2019s the kind of album that \u2013 were it to receive airplay in the U.S. \u2013 would likely connect with a wide range of listeners. And while El Tipo Este is an optimistic sort, he harbors few illusions. \u201cI think there’s still a lot of ignorance in the U.S. about Cuban music,\u201d he observes. \u201cThere’s a lot of diversity. And Obsesi\u00f3n is proof of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

>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\u2019s population) the musical culture of Cuba endures. Obsesi\u00f3n\u2019s El Tipo Este points out that an internationally-renowned Havana landmark is at the center of that scene. La F\u00e1brica de Arte Cubano is a former cooking oil factory that now serves as a multidisciplinary arts venue. \u201cIn that single space, young people \u2013 and the general public \u2013 can enjoy a wide range of artistic offerings,\u201d he says. \u201cF.A.C.\u2019s fusion of expressions not only enriches aesthetic enjoyment but also stimulates a more critical, diverse, and sensitive perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An edited version of this feature appeared in SPIN. Pioneering hip hop duo Obsesi\u00f3n is based in Regla, an industrial suburb on Havana Bay. Founders and MCs Magia Lopez and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,41,42],"tags":[5902],"class_list":["post-31064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hip-hop","category-interview","category-jazz","tag-obsesion","cat-36-id","cat-41-id","cat-42-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31080,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31064\/revisions\/31080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}