Cimafunk

Cimafunk serves as the stage identity for composer, vocalist, and producer Erik Alejandro Iglesias Rodríguez. His 2017 debut album Terapia illustrates a distinctive fusion of Cuban and Caribbean elements with Afro-Latin traditions drawn from salsa, guaguancó, urban rhumba, nueva trova, timba, and Santeria ritual music, while also incorporating contemporary funk, soul, pop, hip-hop, and EDM. The words on the record reflect everyday speech heard on the streets of Havana. The opening portion of the stage name stems from the Spanish term “cimarron,” which denotes enslaved people who escaped during the colonial period and sought shelter in Cuba’s isolated mountain regions. Cimafunk delivered his second full-length release, El Alimento, in 2021 and earned a Grammy nomination. His third album, Pa’ Tu Cuerpa, came out in August 2024 and featured contributions from Big Freedia, George Clinton, Trombone Shorty, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Monsieur Perine.

Rodríguez entered the world in Pinar del Río in 1989 and began performing vocals in church settings. Nearly all his relatives pursue careers in medicine. Both his secondary and higher education initially prepared him to follow that path, although he also received formal musical training. After two years of medical studies at university, he redirected his focus entirely toward music. At age 21 he relocated to Havana, where between 2010 and 2015 he directed choirs for leading Cuban artists such as Raúl Paz, David Torrens, and Liuba María Hevia. In 2014 he became a singer and composer with the forward-looking collective Interactivo, whose inventive performances are guided by pianist Roberto Carcasses and whose participants largely maintain independent careers at the forefront of Cuban music.

Taking that model as inspiration, Rodríguez departed the ensemble in 2016 to establish Cimafunk, a flexible ensemble whose configuration shifts according to each project. He issued Terapia independently that year and brought the musicians on an extensive tour throughout Cuba and the Caribbean. The 2018 single “Me Voy” attracted widespread attention from reviewers and radio programmers alike, prompting Billboard to name Cimafunk among its “Top 10 Latin Artists to Watch in 2019.” Later that same year he made his United States debut at South by Southwest, where the band’s vigorous performances, distinctive attire, and accomplished playing created a strong impression. Sold-out engagements followed in Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Mexico, and numerous European cities, after which he appeared at New York’s Central Park SummerStage. Upon returning to Cuba he received a hero’s reception and presented an elaborate three-hour concert at Havana’s Fábrica de Arte Cubano; simultaneously, “Me Voy” received the Lucas Prize for most popular video.

Although the global COVID-19 pandemic halted live performances throughout 2020, Cimafunk continued releasing singles, among them the five-track Cun Cun Prá EP whose track “El Potaje” included Omara Portuondo, Orquesta Aragón, Chucho Valdés, and Pancho Amat. In 2021 he released the single “Rómpelo” featuring Lupe Fiasco and, in October, unveiled El Alimento on his own Terapia Productions imprint via Thirty Tigers; that album contained appearances by George Clinton, El Micha, CeeLo Green, Los Papines, and Valdés, among others, and received a nomination for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album at the 2023 Grammy Awards. That March he participated with Count Basie, Soul Rebels, Weedie Braimah, and Nicholas Payton in an Afro-Cuban interpretation of Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas.” After further touring he returned to the studio with additional collaborators. The April 2024 single “Playa Noche” included trumpeter Keyon Harrold and Haitian producer/multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Michael Brun. In May he recorded “Catalina” as a duet with Monsieur Perine, and the following month Big Freedia appeared on “Pretty.” The full album Pa’ Tu Cuerpa, issued in August, contained these three tracks plus further high-profile pairings across its eleven songs, including “I Don’t Care” with Clinton, Nik West, and Trombone Shorty.