by Aura Abrego
“A La Mano” was born from a true story of El Kapoland: a love experience with a girl who played with the feelings of several men.
With Afro-Cuban roots, a story of heartbreak and a lot of Caribbean flavor, El Kapoland and El Banshee present “A La Mano”, a single that seeks to position the Cuban cast as a global urban phenomenon.
“The song is born from a very personal story,” explains El Kapoland, originally from Santiago de Cuba.
“It talks about a girl who played with the feelings of several men at the same time, but we did it from a very typical Cuban expression, which is ‘to have it at hand,’ that is, to take things lightly and mischievously.”
“A La Mano” is a journey through the Latin Caribbean. The song fuses rumba, guaguancó and the vibrant sound of the Reparto, the urban rhythm fashionable among young people on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.
“Each beat comes from real experiences,” adds El Kapoland. “It’s not just a song, it’s an experience told from what I’ve lived.”
From Puerto Rico, El Banshee joined the project when he detected the rise of the Reparto and sought to collaborate with its most representative figure in Cuba.
“When I saw what was happening with the Cast, I knew I had to join that movement. The Kapoland is the hardest in Santiago de Cuba and the connection was immediate,” says the Puerto Rican artist.
“Cuba has always been on the margins of the urban world due to limited access to the digital,” reflects El Banshee.
“But this union shows that Cuban talent deserves to be heard globally.”
The production was in charge of Ray Productions, considered the main urban music production house in Santiago de Cuba.
The video clip, directed by Apolo Films, was filmed between Havana and the Dominican Republic with a visual proposal that pays homage to Cuban folklore and daily life.
“We developed the concept from the Solar de la Ceiba, a typical Cuban space where many families live together. It is a place full of history and life, where the popular culture that shapes our music is born,” says a representative of Ray Productions.
The story of the video revolves around a party where great dancers dispute, to the rhythm of rumba, the attention of a beautiful mulatto.
To do this, a traditional rumba group participated, which elevates the story with authenticity and scenic strength.
With “A La Mano”, El Kapoland and El Banshee demonstrate that urban music can also tell personal stories, rescue cultural roots and break borders.