HOW REPARTO BECAME THE HEARTBEAT OF CUBA

Raw, raunchy, and self-referential, reparto has emerged as the island's dominant sound

- ANA GONZÁLEZ VILÁ

In Havana, reparto is playing in every taxi, every café lining La Habana Vieja, on Saturday mornings at Mio y Tuyo. A homemade mix of reggaeton and traditional Cuban rhythms, it's the preeminent soundtrack of Cuba today – and it's continued surging from the island's barrios.

In Spanish, "reparto" means different things; usually, the word can mean "allocating" or "dividing and sharing". However, in Cuba, it's also a slang term that describes working-class neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Havana – residential communities marked by hardship, crumbling buildings and constant shortages. And it's in these districts, through artists like Wampi and Wildey, that reparto finds new meaning.

Reparto is rooted in timba, a classic Cuban sound that exploded in the 90s and fuses Cuban son, salsa, funk, Afro-Cuban folkloric music and jazz into an improvisational hybrid. Reparto builds on this intricacy by blending reggaeton beats with its signature clave rhythmic pattern.