ChocQuibTown

ChocQuibTown
Background information
Origin	Chocó, Colombia
Genres	Hip hop, funk, Afro-Colombian
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Nacional Records Sony Music
Associated acts	Sidestepper La Mojarra Eléctrica
Website	www.chocquibtown.com
Members	Carlos "Tostao" Valencia Gloria "Goyo" Martínez Miguel "Slow" Martínez

ChocQuibTown (sometimes written as Choc Quib Town) is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Afro-Colombian hip-hop group, whose members are originally from the Colombian department of Chocó but which formed in the city of Cali. The group consists of Carlos "Tostao" Valencia (rapping), his wife Gloria "Goyo" Martínez (singing and rapping), and Gloria's brother Miguel "Slow" Martínez (production and rapping).

ChocQuibTown performing at Central Park Summer Stage, New York City, 2011

History

Gloria Martínez (born 12 July 1982) and her younger brother Miguel (born 1986) were both born and grew up in the small town of Condoto in the department of Chocó in western Colombia. Their father Miguel had a large collection of records ranging from salsa and local chirimia bands to Western pop like Michael Jackson^[1][2] and Gloria has said that her nickname "Goyo" comes from the fact that as a girl she loved listening to her father's records, in particular "Goyito Sabater" by the Puerto Rican band El Gran Combo - she sang along to the song so often that her family started calling her "Goyito", which was later shortened to "Goyo".^[3] Father Miguel was from a musical family: his cousin was Jairo Varela, founder of Grupo Niche, one of Colombia's best known salsa bands.^[1]

Due to Miguel senior's job as an electrician the Martínez family moved first to the department's capital Quibdó, where his children Gloria and Miguel first met and became friends with Quibdó native Carlos Yahony Valencia (born 5 March 1981), and then later to the sea port of Buenaventura. As Colombia's major Pacific port the town saw a lot of trade coming in from the US, and the Martínez children started to hear American hip hop music from Los Angeles and other parts of the US, brought in the sailors on the ships.^[2]

Having graduated from school in Buenaventura, Gloria moved to Cali to study psychology at university, while also becoming involved in the city's fledgling underground hip hop scene. It was in Cali in 2000 that she met Valencia again, who had moved with his mother to live in the city, and was now also involved in rapping. Over a meeting in one of Cali's parks, Valencia told Martínez about his idea to create a band to make a fusion of Colombian Afro-Caribbean music and hip hop from the perspective of the Afro-Caribbean people of the Chocó, and to promote this neglected corner and culture of Colombia, an idea that appealed to Martínez.^[3] Her brother Miguel, who had become interested in producing music on his computer, asked to join them, and ChocQuibTown was born. The band named themselves after the city and department that they had grown up in: Tostao said that "we chose the name because it's very sonorous, and in music all the elements you use must be focused in sound".^[2]

Tostao convinced the Martínez siblings that they had to move to Bogotá to pursue their musical ambitions. In Bogotá, Tostao sung with various local bands, including Mensajeros, Carbono and La Mojarra Eléctrica. Goyo was invited to join the salsa/electronic group Sidestepper^[3] - the group's founders Richard Blair and Iván Benavides heard the musical ideas of Tostao and Goyo and encouraged them to pursue their ambitions and record their own songs. The band played at the "Hip Hop al Parque" festival in the capital in 2004 and won the competition for best band at the festival, their prize being 10 million pesos.

Their first album, Somos Pacífico (2006), was recorded and released independently by the band and produced by Blair and Benavides. Their music and live shows were gaining a reputation and in 2008 ChocQuibTown signed to Nacional Records and released their second album, Oro. The album also became their first international release with US and UK versions the following year, although these differed from the Colombian version, being compilations of tracks from both Somos Pacífico and the Colombian release of Oro. The group undertook an extensive world tour in 2010 (including over 40 dates in Europe alone) which included the festivals of South by Southwest in the US, Glastonbury and Lovebox in the UK, Roskilde in Denmark, and Parkpop in the Netherlands. The group's third album, Eso Es Lo Que Hay, was released on Sony Music in November 2011, and was produced by Andrés Castro and Slow.

In 2013 the band released Behind the Machine (Detrás de la Máquina), an album of songs from their previous albums re-recorded in a simpler, more traditional style without technology.

When the band play live they are joined on stage by Milton Jurado (guitar), Jhon Sanchez (electric bass and backing vocals), Larry Viveros (tambora, congas and marimba) and Andrés Zea (drums).

Personal life

Tostao and Goyo have been a couple since 2002: they married on 7 December 2011 in a hacienda a short distance north of Bogota.^[4] In October 2012 they announced they were expecting their first child in April 2013.^[5]

Discography

Albums

• Somos Pacífico (2006)
• Oro (2009)
  • issued in US and Europe in 2010, but with different track listings, including tracks from both Somos Pacífico and the Colombian version of Oro
• Eso Es Lo Que Hay (2011)
• Behind the Machine (Detrás de la Máquina) (2013)

EPs

• El Bombo (2008)

Other

• Paris-Bogotá (2008) – four-song mini-album collaboration between Mali-born French rapper Oxmo Puccino and ChocQuibTown

Recognitions

Grammy Awards

Latin Grammy Awards

Premios Nuestra Tierra (Colombia)

Premios Shock (Colombia)

Premios Lo Nuestro (Americas)

References