Ozomatli

A Los Angeles based Latin salsa, urban hip-hop and jazz-funk group. Made up of Raúl "El Bully" Pacheco, Ulises Bella, Jiro Yamaguchi, Jose "Crunchy" Espinosa, Cut Chemist, Wil-Dog, William "Echo" Marrufo, Pablo Castorena, Justin "Niño" Porée, Asdru Sierra and Chali 2na. They formed in the early 90's and mostly played local clubs. They released their self titled album in 1998.

I saw them once in the early days, and never though anything of it. Recently they toured with Korn(I beleive) and my friends saw them when they played at my school. I took the time to listen to some of their latest live stuff and was blown away. Not enough to pay the $30 ticket to see them(and proceed to ignore Korn for the rest of the night). My friends thought they sucked but said Korn ruled. I haven't talked to those friends in a long time.

The next time someone tells you there isn't original music being recorded, ask them about Ozomatli. I've been listening to the incredible sounds of salsa, hip hop, and jazz for a couple of years. They recently released their second album, Embrace the Chaos.

To understand their music, you should really see them live. Both of their albums are incredible, but what they do live borders more on perfection. The last time I watched Ozomatli live, they had about two thousand people shaking their hips and dancing a fool. They started their set marching band style in the back of the ampitheater making their way toward the stage. After jamming for two hours on the stage, the fusion band got back into the crowd with the people. Somehow they managed to make everyone in the audience take a knee. They slowly built to an explosion where everyone who thought they couldn't get down anymore, found the enregy to do it.

Unfortunately, Chali 2na and Cut Chemist are a bit more obligated to Jurassic 5 understandedly, but Ozomatli blends different styles and cultures of music to perfection.