Carnegie Hall

Cimafunk is a veritable Afro-Cuban rockstar, a showman and singer whose kinetic blend of funk, Afrobeat, and hip-hop both celebrates and subverts Cuban popular music. With his nine-person band La Tribu, Cimafunk “has an uncanny ability to control the energy in a room” (The New Yorker)—and, more often than not, that energy goes toward dancing. Cimafunk’s live show has drawn excited comparisons to James Brown, Benny Moré, and Sly Stone, but he is quickly carving out his own expansive fusion for a new generation. “Cimafunk takes it back there while keeping it in the now,” says collaborator George Clinton. “It’s what we do, always reinventing the funk to keep it fresh.”