Celebrating his musical evolution and dembow’s unstoppable spirit.
Courtesy of the Artist.
In 2009, Dominican natives and descendants alike congregated in
coros, or gatherings in parks, up and down the East Coast, from Boston to New York to Philadelphia and Miami. Blasting from a sea of
chucheros the speaker boxes custom-built into cars, vans and school buses was a dembow that took the Dominican Republic by storm: El Alfa El Jefe’s “Coche Bomba.”
As one of the most popular songs at the time, the track transcended local hoods, barbershops and
colmados (convenience stores). But most important, it served as an introduction to the artist Emmanuel Herrera Batista, a.k.a. El Alfa. Over the past decade, the dembowsero has not only built an extensive, consistent catalog but amassed a groundbreaking following in his journey spearheading Dominican dembow. In the process he has propelled onto global airwaves a style of music that has historically been discriminated ag