Mexican-American artist Cuco has released Cucombia. It is a two-song release featuring his reinterpretations of two iconic cumbia songs. These songs are “Llorar” and “La Negra Tomasa.”
The project doesn’t reimagine them. It honors how they already live, at sonideros, quinceañeras, and every gathering where the music gets turned up and the room comes alive.
“Llorar” and “La Negra Tomasa” are songs Cuco absorbed before he ever chose to be a musician, part of the soundtrack that shaped him long before the studio did. Cucombia places him within a lineage he didn’t have to seek out because it was already in the room.