Two bilingual groups with Panamanian roots are set to hit the west coast this November: Combat rockers Making Movies and Grammy-nominated Hip Hop duo Los Rakas take on cities in Arizona, California all the way to Washington state as part of the Panameri’kana Tour.
“Raka Rich and I are very excited to hit the road with our Panamanian brothers and happy to showcase the diverse Panamanian sound,” Raka Dun of Los Rakas said.
“We instantly connected [with Los Rakas]” adds Enrique Chi of Making Movies. “We are both exploring identity and how the deeper you look into it the more connected we all get.”
“Panameri’kana” is a play on word panamerican, which means to cover or represent all of the Americas. Both artists have Panamanian roots, a country known as a melting pot that bridges North and South America. Los Rakas‘ fresh mix of hip-hop, plena, reggae and dancehall music carries influences from the San Francisco Bay as much as the Panamanian barrio, representing the cutting edge of “Pan-American flows.” Making Movies are known for genre-bending North and South American influences, mixing the latin roots of jazz, blues, and rock’n’roll with rumbero percussion, psychedelic organs, and grungy fuzz guitars; redefining the “Latin” category because they say “rock’n’roll is latin music.”
Making Movies is ending a landmark year that began with Rolling Stone premiering their rollicking anti-corruption collab with Rubén Blades, No Te Calles, the first single from Paraíso Road Gang, album currently nominated for the Latin Grammy Album of the Year and featured on NPR’s Best Songs of 2019 so far. Making Movies’ following album release, ameri’kana, which features Blades and members of Los Lobos, Flor de Toloache, and Ozomatli. Blades offered himself as a guide to the band during the process, and appears on three tracks of the record, including “Delilah”, a song Blades co-wrote with Lou Reed, which Grammy.com called, “an epic musical collaboration brought together by the topic of immigration.” The band has toured with Jesse & Joy, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Los Lobos, and will join Rubén Blades in Mexico City at the Auditorio Nacional in November.
Los Rakas are turning the current Latin hip-hop world on its head, positioning themselves as the “heirs of pioneering Panamanian reggaetoneros such as El General and Renato,” said radio station KQED. The group has performed at major festivals like Coachella, Ruido Fest, SXSW, and has even performed at the White House. The Grammy-nominated duo is currently touring their 2019 album, Manes De Negocio, best described by Remezcla as “socially conscious trap soiree.”
Panameri’kana Tour Dates
10/31: Sante Fe, NM @ Tumbleroot
11/1: Tucson, AZ @ Night of the Living Fest
11/2: Las Vegas, NV @ Fantasma Festival
11/4: San Diego, CA @ Casbah
11/6: Fresno, CA @ Strummers
11/7: Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
11/8: San Francisco, CA @ Neck of the Woods
11/9: Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
11/10: Portland, OR @ Lola’s Room
11/11: Seattle, WA @ Barboza
