Pan Caliente: El Dusty’s Cumbia Anthem

Latin GRAMMY week is here. And while it’s typically a ‘pat ourselves on the back’ and ‘give awards to our friends’ type of event (much like the real GRAMMYs) the last couple years have seen a slight shift to outsiders and not your usual pop dominated winners.

From La Santa Cecilia’s surprise win a couple years ago, to true endorsement of Gaby Moreno’s talent as Best New Artist, to Natalia Lafourcade’s incredible sweep last year in the highest category, the Latin GRAMMYs are showing real maturity 17 years in.

This year, we are strongly rooting for one of our favorite Producer/DJs out of #madeinCorpus Christi, TX. He goes by El Dusty and has been putting out BANGERS for the past couple years. So much so, that he’s redefined Electronic Cumbia Remixes stateside.

His track, Cumbia Anthem (feat. Happy Colors) is nominated in the Best Urban Fusion/Performance. And rightfully so because it’s a major banger!

This song highlights El Dusty’s unique talent at producing a tune that can embody great elements of electronic, trap, and cumbia music. It falls into that strange middle ground where cumbia lovers and EDM enthusiasts intersect. And I would have never imagined I’d be saying that there is an intersection of those two genres, but a great artist like El Dusty has found a way to make it work, and it BUMPs!

He’s been hustlin’ around the scene for quite a while and the payoff for all his hard work has been validated by this nomination. Crossing our fingers that his place in the Latin music industry will be solidified with a win!

If the idea of dancing to some hard-hitting electronic cumbia has been sparked by his Cumbia Anthem, you would do well to actually check out El Dusty live this Saturday, at Los Globos. If he wins, it could be a major rager…… who am I kidding, even if he doesn’t it’s going to be an epic party!