The Grammy-Nominated Afro-Cuban Rockstar on His Sound, His Mission, Blending Cuban Roots with Funk, and His Extraordinary Rise on the Global Stage
Cimafunk -- born Erik Iglesias Rodriquez in Pinar del Rio, Cuba -- is one of the most exciting musical stories of the past decade. He built his sound by fusing the deep Afro-Cuban traditions he grew up in with American funk, soul, and R&B, creating something that feels simultaneously ancient and completely new. A Grammy nomination. Festival appearances that have brought his music to audiences across the Americas and Europe. And a presence and a stage show that makes everyone in the room feel like they are part of something -- which, given his music's roots in communal celebration, is exactly the point.
In this conversation with Elmo, Cimafunk talks about where his music comes from, what it means to carry Cuban musical tradition into global spaces, the specific fusion of influences that defines his sound, and the mission behind the music -- which is about more than entertainment. He is thoughtful, joyful, and deeply connected to the idea that music can build bridges across cultures and histories that language and politics alone cannot reach.
"Funk and Afro-Cuban music come from the same place -- the body, the community, the need to move together. I didn't invent anything. I just remembered what was already there."
How he arrived at his singular fusion of Afro-Cuban tradition and American funk and soul -- the specific musical influences from both sides of the Atlantic, the moment he realized that these traditions were not opposites but deeply related expressions of the same African diaspora, and what it sounds like when you stop trying to choose between your influences and let them all speak at once.
The specific traditions he grew up in -- the rhythms, the ceremonies, the communal music-making that is woven into Cuban culture in ways that are not purely about entertainment but about identity, memory, and spiritual practice. What carrying those traditions means when you take them out of Cuba and into global stages, and how he navigates the responsibility of representing a musical culture to audiences who may be encountering it for the first time.
What the Grammy recognition meant: not just for his own career, but for the visibility of Afro-Cuban music and the artists who have dedicated their lives to it. His honest reflection on what the nomination changed and what it didn't, what it says about the Recording Academy's evolving relationship with global music, and what he hopes it means for the next generation of Cuban musicians navigating an international career.
Why Cimafunk believes his music is about more than entertainment -- the specific cultural and political context of his work as an Afro-Cuban artist building bridges across the US-Cuba divide, what music can do that diplomacy cannot, and how he thinks about the responsibility that comes with being one of the most visible Cuban artists of his generation on the global stage.
The practical reality of building an international music career from Cuba -- the challenges, the specific obstacles that other musicians from other countries don't face, and what it has taken to build relationships, audiences, and a touring career across cultural and political barriers that would have stopped most artists. What he has learned about persistence, timing, and the universal language of a great groove.
His philosophy on what funk -- in the broadest sense -- means as a form of human communication: the specific physical and emotional experience it creates in audiences regardless of cultural background, why he believes the body responds to great rhythm before the mind catches up, and what that tells him about music's capacity to reach people across every difference that separates them in the rest of their lives.
Cimafunk on the connection between Afro-Cuban music and American funk: one of the most illuminating musical conversations on Go With Elmo -- his specific, historically grounded account of why these traditions are not just compatible but genuinely related, and what he hears in both that confirms for him they are speaking the same language.
The Cuba conversation: his candid, thoughtful account of what it means to be an artist from Cuba building a global career -- the practical challenges, the cultural weight, and the specific ways that his origin shapes both his music and his mission in ways that artists from more open societies rarely have to think about.
On the Grammy nomination: not a victory lap but a genuine reflection on what recognition from the American music industry means to a Cuban artist -- the pride, the ambivalence, and the specific hope that it opens doors for other artists who are carrying equally important traditions and deserve the same visibility.
His live show philosophy: Cimafunk on what he is trying to create for an audience -- the specific experience of communal movement, the way his music deliberately builds toward moments of collective release, and what he has learned about performance from the Cuban musical traditions that have always understood the stage as a space of shared transformation rather than individual display.
On music as bridge-building: his most direct and personal statement of what he believes his music is for -- not just to entertain but to create genuine human connection across the political and cultural divide between Cuba and the United States, and why he believes that is both possible and necessary.
Cimafunk in full: joyful, serious, deeply rooted, and completely alive to the possibility of what music can do when it carries genuine culture rather than just style. One of the most distinctive voices to appear on Go With Elmo -- and one of the most important conversations about where global music is heading.