Cimafunk is a double Grammy-nominated Cuban timba singer who has the same infectious energy as James Brown. Watch him perform and watch some old James Brown videos. The similarity in their energy is striking. Cimafunk is a Cuban funk singer who makes you smile and want to get up and dance. He is definitely new generation, but makes boomers feel young again. This guy should be playing stadiums. He has that much energy. He rocked Coachella in 2024.
#afrocubanfunk
Cimafunk in New York City
OCTOBER
Afro-Cuban Funk
Cimafunk & La Tribu “Pa Tu Cuerpa” Tour makes Sony Hall real funky, in Manhattan’s Times Square Theater District; on Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 8pm (6pm doors). From $35. 🇨🇺
MAY
Afro-Cuban Funk ~ Nuestros Sonidos at Carnegie Hall
Cimafunk & La Tribu “Pa Tu Cuerpa” Tour with a special guest, gets funky at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall; on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 7:30pm. From $55. 🇨🇺
New York City Venues
- Blue Note Jazz Club
- Brooklyn Bowl
- Brooklyn Paramount
- BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!
- Carnegie Hall
- National Sawdust
- Sony Hall
- SummerStage
- Webster Hall
Cimafunk
Erick Iglesias Rodríguez, is a former medical student whose solid beats and infectious stage presence gets everybody dancing. He bubbled up out of Cuba, the artesian well of Latin music in 2017-18. The whole world wants a drink now. Billboard magazine named Cimafunk one of its “10 Latin Artists to Watch in 2019.” He broke out with “Me voy” (I’m going) in 2020.
Cimafunk is from Pinar del Río, a small city in western Cuba’s tobacco country. It has a slightly different cultural and musical heritage than Havana or Santiago de Cuba. La Tribu (The Tribe) is Cimafunk’s 8-piece band from Havana.
Soul and Funk Music Changed the World
1970s soul and funk music influenced the entire world, not just because its great music, but because of its social commentary. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s made it safer to speak out, and people did. That inspired artists around the world to bring the same energy and activism into their own music. One of those inspired was Fela Kuti, whose afrobeat evolved into today’s afrobeats (afropop). Cimafunk is another inspired one.
His stage name is based on the Cimarrón’s, Afro-Cubans who freed themselves and fought the colonizers like hell. That happened a lot throughout the Americas. We just weren’t taught about it in school. His band’s name “La Tribu” (The Tribe) may be a reference to the Afro-Indigenous mix which is common throughout the Americas. Being colonized is an apocalyptic hell (we weren’t taught that in school either). Indigenous peoples escaped colonial abuse by escaping to the mountains and forests. Later, trafficked Africans escaped too, and met and mingled with the Indigenous Peoples. So there was a lot of mixing. In the Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean communities proudly acknowledge their Indigenous heritage. Out of all that mess, Afro-Indigenous Peoples created most of the popular culture that we have come to love today. This is where it started.
Timba Gets Funky
His sound developed out of timba, the Afro-Cuban funk-folk-jazz dance music that came up on the streets of Havana in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, it took a different spin when Cuba was completely isolated after losing its Soviet patron. Timba keeps evolving, but it is Cuban dance music for Cubans.
Cimafunk takes timba a little further and back out into the world. It’s part of a continual recycling of Latin musical influences back and forth across the water. Latin music came to the United States from African and Indigenous influences in the Caribbean. New Orleans is a Caribbean city. In the States, they took away the drum, and we got the blues, jazz, rock, soul/funk, hip hop, and trap. Meanwhile in Cuba, traditional son Cubano (Cuban salsa, before it was called salsa) absorbed rock influences and evolved into songo. Songo got stretched further into timba. Cimafunk makes timba more funky and brings it back to the U.S. as something new. Where will it go next?
Ask Cimafunk. He pulls that funk thread a little deeper into his music and is even bringing back great 1970s style. The Miami Herald called him “the James Brown of Cuba.” Like Sly Stone, George Clinton, and James Brown, Cimafunk makes you wanna, “get on up, get on the scene…” So much so that many writers place him in the Dance/Electronic category.
Albums
“Pa’ tu cuerpa” (2024). “For your body” is a great title for a Cimafunk album.
“El Alimento” (2021) was nominated for the “Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album” Grammy.
“Cun Cun Prá” (2020)
“Terapia” (2017). For Latins, music and dance is therapy. It’s how we soften the hard edges of life. When you have a problem, you go and talk with the local priest or priestess. They tell you which orisha (saint or angel) has taken your head. You devote yourself to that orisha and dance for them. The orisha probably had the same problem as you, but because they are divine, they overcame it. By devoting yourself, you begin the process of healing yourself. But because you also sing and dance to the orisha in front of everyone, the community understands what you going through and knows how to help you too. In traditional cultures, dance is how we pray. We’ve been covering Cimafunk since 2017, and he confirmed that we got it right. This is Latin terapia (therapy). Let’s dance.
Tours
- Pa’ Tu Cuerpa (2024)
Information
Facebook @CimafunkOficial
Instagram @cimafunk
YouTube @Cimafunk