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Libertad!

Local Reggaeton artist, Jinetero MC is about to release his much anticipated first EP. Starting his life as a street kid from Cuba, he believes the only limitations on life are the ones you set yourself.

Since the age of nine, Yonier Cueva Vega, AKA Jinetero MC has not shut up. Growing up as a hustler on the streets of Camaguey in Cuba, he has had to talk his way around many different life situations, good and bad. As a Jinetero (Cuban street hustler), becoming a Reggaeton emcee in New Zealand was the last thing he dreamed of achieving in life. Where he comes from, you’re happy if you make it through the day and grateful if you manage to find a place to sleep and something to eat. He says, “In New Zealand, paradise is when you get what you want. In Cuba paradise is; you’re happy when you can.”

Far from his life on the streets, sitting in popular Wellington Café Fidels, Yonier attributes his ability and skills as an emcee back to his hustling days. He had to interact with tourists in order to get work sometimes, and without knowing what he was saying in English, he would talk anyway. “Whatever tourists wanted, I would do and take a commission from it.” The work of a Jinetero also involves the prostitution and pimp trade, all of which Yonier says he was around since he was young.

At 19, life changed for him when he met his Kiwi wife. He packed up the street life and moved to New Zealand to start a new one. He found Aotearoa to be beautiful, but a very lonely place at first. It was frustrations from being 19, homesick and unable to work in New Zealand that prompted him to start rapping. Friend and well known Wellington hip-hop artist Kos 163 gave him the direction he needed to express himself through music. Yonier says Kos taught him the self confidence and discipline required to freestyle. “Actually I already had the ability to freestyle, I just hadn’t realised it yet. I didn’t have to think to rap, it just comes naturally as a skill I learned from the streets.”

After meeting Olmecha Supreme’s front man, Imon Star at a Matariki concert in 2006, Yonier took the next lesson in becoming a performing artist and musician. “We came third in the World Battle of the Bands finals, and started touring after that… I had never done any thing like that before, so I was always learning about how it was going to be in the industry.”

Last year, he took his first trip home to Cuba since arriving in New Zealand. Being in the comfort of home gave him the perspective he needed to realise his skill as a Spanish speaking rapper and how much he actually enjoyed performing. He met with Reggaeton producer Kiki Pro, who’s described as one of Cuba’s best original composer and producers.

Yonier says, “In New Zealand, people don’t understand my culture, or language so, going back to Cuba was necessary to communicate what I was feeling and the energy I was trying to express in my music.” The warm response from audiences in Cuba gave him the confidence boost he needed to know that a career in music what he was going to do with his life. “[People] …received it as I had been expecting, like something totally challenging, original and interesting to look at.”

The tracks he produced with Kiki Pro in Cuba became the songs on his EP, Libertad. Now the date for his album release party has been set, the line up has been designed to do more than just party. Yonier says he wants to connect artists and encourage a sense of community. The lineup features King Kapisi, Sheba Williams, Olmecha Supreme, King Home Boy, Upper Hutt Posse, Rainbow Country, The Wanderers, Audio Mechanics, Flowz and Kos 163, Blunt Committee, DJ V and Still Burning. Some of the artists featured are big names in New Zealand music, and others are still coming up. “I am expecting to create a whole network of different artists getting to know each others’ abilities. It is important; because it helps to build confidence in each others’ creative abilities and keep the music community and spiritual energy alive… The artists involved have been committed to the gig because they are working towards the same vision.”

“People like me have to put it out there for others to open their eyes, I like to connect people and I want to open the doors for those who believe the doors are closed, when the doors are open. Because it has been done for me, I can now do it for others.” Jinetero MC is referring to the limitations of his loved ones back home, whom he says feel disadvantaged because Cuba is a third world country and because of the effects of the embargo by the US. However he believes limitations are as big as one puts on themselves. He has called his album Libertad, meaning freedom, for this reason.

“I am the right person to liberate myself; no one is going to do it for me. Music for me is meditation and healing, it keeps me going. Though you are sad, you can be happy, music is about enjoying life and its moments. It is about letting problems go. When you let things go, others let it go and feel free and good, so that’s my job as an artist, helping others to feel free.”

When remembering street life in Cuba, I expect him to lament. But, he looks me dead in the eyes and says, “It was great!” and chuckles a husky laugh. Puzzled, I ask him why he is laughing, he says, because the whole mind set is so different to where he is now. He says he is still trying to fit into this Western country and its first world system. “I am always playing big,” he laughs and explains the only limitations are the ones you set yourself. “There is always negativity from people but it is usually given because people want to see change, so really, it can be used positively.”

‘Libertad’ EP Release Party
February 11, San Francisco Bathhouse, Wellington

Top homegrown hip hop and reggae musicians will come together for a one off event ‘Positive VibratioNZ’ to support the release of New Zealand’s first ever reggaeton EP.

• Jinetero MC (Reggaeton)
• King Kapisi (Hip Hop)
• Flows and Kos 163 from The Footsouljahs (Hip Hop)
• Olmecha Supreme (Afro-Fusion/Hip Hop)
• King Homeboy (Beat Box World Champ)
• Blunt Committee (Hip Hop)
• Still Burning (Reggae)
• Rainbow Country (Reggae)
• Sheeba Williams (Cabaret Fusion)
• The Wanderers (Hip Hop)
• DJ D (Africa)

For more on the event see nzlive.com
Check out Jinetero MC’s myspace