You Rate It: Blondie Gets Back To The Caribbean With Los Rakas
Panamanian/Bay Area rappers Los Rakas team up with Blondie for a genre (and generation) bending dembow tune.
Wild Caribbean: The Caribbean’s Most Unusual Animals
Words by Jesse Serwer and Natalie Weiner—
In recognition of Earth Day today, we're celebrating the other side of Caribbean wildlife—by highlighting some of its most strangest and most distinctive anima... Read More...
Top Honors: Mariano Rivera Does Panama Proud
Words by Jesse Serwer—
With the regular season of Major League Baseball coming to an end, we just had to LargeUp the greatest closer in baseball history, Mariano Rivera, as he heads into retirement follo... Read More...
CONTEST: Walshy Fire Wants Your Senegalese Dancehall Rhythms
Words by Jesse Serwer—
You might take our friend Walshy Fire for a party-all-the-time kinda guy but the Major Lazer frontman, sound killer and occasional LargeUp contributor likes nothing more than to un... Read More...
Ground Provisions: Jamaican and Panamanian Food Meet in Vermont?
Words by Jesse Serwer, Photo by Matthew Thorsen—
If you're going to open a Jamaican spot in an area best known for winter sports and ski slopes, you've got to call it Cool Runnings, right? That's just ob... Read More...
LargeUp Premiere: Los Rakas Rep JA + Oscar Grant with “Hablemos Del Amor”
Words by Jesse Serwer—
You might be asking yourself right now: Los Rakas rep JA? Ain't they those Panamanian dudes from the Bay? Yes, but they've just hopped on the brand-new riddim called Rep JA, from t... Read More...
Throwback Thursdays: Jam & Suppose’s “Camion Lleno de Gun”
Words by Wayne Marshall—
When reggae en español first got going in Panama in the early 80s, it was all about making cassettes for local bus drivers to lure customers to their diablos rojos, and rocking o... Read More...
Audio: Raka Dun, “No Tan Listo”
Words by Jesse Serwer—
Most everything that comes our way from the Los Rakas camp scorches but even by those standards, "No Tan Listo" from Raka Dun's upcoming solo EP, Afro Latino, is sizzling. Rhyming ... Read More...
Throwback Thursdays: El Chombo’s “El Gato Volador”
Words by Wayne Marshall—
While Panama is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of dancehall reggae en español, Puerto Rico gets credit for eating up the faithful versions of Panamanian artists like Na... Read More...
Toppa Top 10: The LargeUp Last-Minute Gift Guide, Holiday 2011
Words by Jesse Serwer
If you're anything like us, you save your holiday gift shopping for the last minute. Like on-the-way-to-the-folks-Christmas-Eve last minute. Although if you're anything like the m... Read More...
Toppa Top 10: Ten NBA Ballers From The Caribbean
Words by Jesse Serwer
Finally... it's basketball season. After nearly two months of cancelled games, the NBA lockout is over. The end couldn't have come soon enough—this winter was starting to look l... Read More...
NYC: Win Tickets to See Los Rakas Live at SOBs Saturday (11/19)
Words by Eddie STATS Houghton
Y'all know we are Los Rakas stans around here. Hell, we are actually naturalized citizens of West Rakastan (henceforth I would like to be referred to as 'Raka Stats.' Not re... Read More...