kumar

Kumar was born in the Mantilla neighborhood, Arroyo Naranjo Municipality, Ciudad de La Habana. He is one of the most famous rap singers of Cuban hip-hop. He is also famous because he acted in the film 'Habana Blues' and because his song 'No se vuelve atrás' also appears on the soundtrack of this film.

Mantilla is a hot neighborhood famous for its marginality. There he discovered hip-hop and other things... In 1997 he took his first steps in the genre. But his real beginning was in the group Familia..s Cuba Represent in 1999. With this group he achieved great popularity on the island. In addition to recording together on various Hip Hop compilations and performing on the most important stages of the Cuban scene, with great success.

In 2003 he launched his solo career and recorded his first demo. The interaction with many young jazz talents and alternative groups meant that his musical proposal was nourished by all the musicians he worked with, among them: Ojos de Brujo, Telmary, Interactivo, David Torrens, X Alfonso, William Vivanco, Yusa, Pupi and los que Son Son, young talents from Jojazz... and more.

Also at the same time he dedicates himself to the production of other Hip Hop groups and singers, Reggaeton, funk and alternative music in general. In 2006 he reunites with the group M.A.T.E. From this moment on his music takes on a more alternative world. It was no longer just Hip-hop but the timbres of jazz, funk, reggae, Afro-Cuban rhythms, merge with poetic and deep verse, but as street-level as the 'Ke volá asere' that is heard on every corner of Havana.

In 2007 he achieved great triumphs at the national level and performed on many important stages and in 2008 he settled in Barcelona and finished his first recording production which hit the market under the name Película de barrio with the collaboration of musicians from Ojos Brujos, Original Indie Style, musicians from the M.A.T.E. group, among others.

In recent years Kumar has performed on Spanish and European stages receiving good audience reception and good press reviews. He began his career in 1998 with a group called "Duros Como el Acero", adopting El Menor as his rapper name. He later became part of the influential collective Familias Cuba Represent, appearing on various albums and compilations, and confirming his decision to dedicate himself professionally to music.

Kumar doesn't have much of the "gangsta" about him. He is a modest person, almost bordering on shyness, and his entourage is formed by his brother, who acts as his manager, and no one else. Without inciting drug consumption, without displays of sexual prowess, without inflicting harm on his enemies.

This doesn't mean that Kumar's lyrics lack bite or that his live performances don't have an impact. A critic compared him to the Beastie Boys for his "revolutionary hip hop discourse united with the volcanic energy of rock and roll." Another related him to Bob Marley, presumably for his dreadlocks.

What is certain is that Kumar has the gift of expressing and transmitting the shared experience of the Black people, that heritage that connects him with generations of the displaced and dispossessed. "You don't ask who we are, much less who we were," he sings in "No Se Vuelve Atrás". "What matters is not how we got here or if we are here, but what we represent…."