Goyo’s Rise to Fame Has Been a Win For Afro-Latine Artists

In our Q&A /function collection Inform Me Más, we ask a few of our favourite Latine artists to share some inside data about their lives and habits, revealing every little thing from their most up-to-date learn to the songs that get them hyped. This month, Grammy-winning artist Goyo, a member of legendary group ChocQuibTown, drops in to speak about her newest flip as a solo act, Afro-Latine illustration, and what she’s acquired in retailer for us in 2024.

As reggaetón, afrobeats, and entice change into world, their distinct sounds and formulation change into extra cemented. Nonetheless, rapper and singer Goyo has at all times defied the confines of a single style. As a member of the award-winning group ChocQuibTown, the sound that she helped craft alongside along with her brother Miguel “Gradual” Martinez and Carlos “Tostao” Valencia, mixed components of conventional African percussion, Colombian people, hip-hop, dancehall, and reggaetón. Now, as she continues her musical journey, this time as a solo artist, Goyo nonetheless finds it troublesome to place a label on precisely what her sound is.

“The reality is that it is troublesome for me to categorise myself as one single factor . . . I can simply do a track that is straight hip-hop or a track that is straight folkloric. It is a part of what I’m,” says the artist.

When she first arrived on the scene, it was simply as troublesome for the business to categorise her and her fellow group members. They gained their first Grammy beneath the rock/different class for the track “De Donde Vengo Yo,” as there was no urbano class at the moment. However since that point, the style has exploded permitting younger artists from barrios throughout the globe to chase their desires and permitting feminine emcees to indicate what they’re able to.

But, regardless of this inflow of recent expertise, there’s a fluidity and maturity to Goyo’s sound that instantly units her aside.

“Throughout the urbano motion, hip hop, rapping, singing, that is the place I really feel most snug,” she tells POPSUGAR.

For long-time followers of ChocQuibTown, this could come as no shock, as Goyo’s expertise for melodic hooks and exact lyricism has been evident since ChocQuibTown’s debut album “Somos Pacifico” in 2006. Nonetheless, now that the highlight is solely centered on her, she’s in a position to totally embrace her versatility, crafting songs and exploring ideas that spotlight a extra private journey.

“With ChocQuibTown, what we wished to do was put Chocó on the map, to vindicate our tradition, and not directly say that ‘hey, we’re right here.’ We’re representing our hood.”

“With ChocQuibTown, what we wished to do was put Chocó on the map, to vindicate our tradition, and not directly say that ‘hey, we’re right here.’ We’re representing our hood,” Goyo shares. “The distinction now [as a soloist] is the expertise, every little thing that I’ve lived, displaying every little thing that I’m as a flexible lady.”

It is a journey that has many parallels with a sure hip-hop legend and certainly one of Goyo’s idols: Ms. Lauryn Hill. Each have been the only real feminine members of powerhouse rap teams. Each burst onto the scene to fast acclaim and never solely may harmonize and supply R&B components to go with their male group members’ raps, however they have been additionally powerhouse spitters in their very own proper. The similarities aren’t misplaced on Goyo as she admits to trying to Ms. Hill, not solely as a supply of inspiration however a trainer of types, serving to her construct confidence as a younger emcee.

“For me, she’s a trainer in the best way that [listening to her music] was in a position to rid me of a whole lot of concern and permit me to be myself when it got here time to put in writing [my verses],” Goyo says.

Together with Hill, Goyo mentions Cunning Brown, and Rah Digga as main influences. On the Latin facet of issues, artists like Tego Calderon, Celia Cruz, and Grupo Area of interest have all had an amazing affect on her.

“I grew up surrounded by music, my mom and my aunts at all times singing in the home. So whereas I used to be rising up influences would at all times come to me from all totally different sides,” she remembers.

These totally different sides have been one thing she acquired to showcase within the HBO particular, “En Letra de Otro,” the place she put her spin on traditional songs like Don Omar’s “Otra Noche” and Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va.” However do not get it twisted, these weren’t simply Goyo’s interpretations of classics. She really made them her personal, rearranging them with utterly unique lyrics and beats.

Now, she’s able to observe up that challenge with a brand new album of all unique tracks. And if the primary two singles are something to go by, Goyo is utilizing the deep waters of the urbano style as her playground.

“Tumbao” offers reggaetón de la vieja vibes with its easy dembow and conventional percussion components. Insomnia then again is an entire 180. Produced by hip-hop producer IllMind, it begins with a heavy rock riff earlier than main into some snappy snare drums and driving a Jersey-style bassline over which Goyo flows between a melodic refrain and extra pointed raps with ease.

“Throughout the inventive course of, it is vital to have an idea, a starting, and an finish,” she says.”However in rap, generally you may have a punchline that does not have something to do with the idea however you can also make it join with the following verse. It is an attractive recreation and it is the factor I most take pleasure in, that it is not inflexible. That I can begin a track melodically and once I get bored, change to rapping.”

However regardless of the expansion that she’s undergone and regardless of her profession getting into a brand new chapter, Goyo affirms that she’s nonetheless the Goyo her followers have been launched to again in 2006. And as an Afro-Colombiana in a style that, regardless of its Afro-Latine origins, has change into more and more whitened, she understands that the illustration that she’s championed ever since her ensemble days is simply as vital now because it was within the earlier days of her profession.

“I feel that the method [by which Afro-Latines find success] is a course of that takes time, that perhaps in my era, I will not see as many adjustments as the following era will, however [the work is being done],” she says.”And the vital factor is that we’re acutely aware of that work . . . that we perceive the place we come from and take magnificence from that … in order that we will maintain advancing and make the load lighter for [future generations].”

In relation to lightening the load, Goyo has performed a big function since stepping onto the world stage. Not solely did she assist put the traditionally Black neighborhood of Chocó on the map, however her continued success helped to make room and supply a blueprint for the following era of Afro-Latine artists, displaying them that industrial and demanding success is feasible whereas nonetheless staying true to your sound and the place you come from.

But, for an artist who has already achieved a lot and stands as an inspiration to her folks, Goyo needs her followers to know that she’s nonetheless acquired extra to realize at this stage of her profession and is wanting ahead to bringing them alongside for the journey.

“We’re placing a whole lot of love into the album, “La Pantera,” and I hope that the followers prefer it and join with [it] . . . ,” she says. “One thing I’ve at all times wished to realize is to have a solo album — to carry out, to tour as a soloist and reconnect with the followers who’ve adopted us and likewise to search out alongside this new route extra folks to accompany me within the course of. Now, I can materialize that dream.”

Now that we have got you hyped for Goyo’s upcoming challenge, maintain studying to get the deets on who she’d prefer to collaborate with, what she’d be doing if she wasn’t rapping, and what she does cuando la insomnia se la pega.

POPSUGAR: The place is your glad place?

Goyo: Wherever my household is.

POPSUGAR: What track would you play to get the occasion began?

Goyo: Blessings (Remix) by Victor Thompson.

POPSUGAR: What do you do when you possibly can’t sleep?

Goyo: Write. Learn.

POPSUGAR: Who’s your most listened to artist proper now?

Goyo: Fridayy. I am loopy about Fridayy

POPSUGAR: Which artists would you prefer to collaborate with sooner or later?

Goyo: Don Omar. Tego Calderon. And Eladio. He goes tremendous onerous.

POPSUGAR: If it wasn’t music, what ardour would you dedicate your self to?

Goyo: Writing.

POPSUGAR: What was the very best factor about being in a music group?

Goyo: Being the one lady.

POPSUGAR: What was probably the most troublesome factor?

Goyo: Being the one lady.

POPSUGAR: Lastly, how would you outline the phrase “Tumbao”?

Goyo: Tumbao is that particular one thing that I’ve and that you’ve however is totally different for everybody.