DJ JUANNY returns the time of an EP on the genesis of his identity between Honduran roots, the rap blog era, and the club culture
DJ JUANNY, fka JUANNY DEPP, is a San Francisco-based DJ, producer, and music activist. His universe is inspired by the sounds of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica while integrating samples from pop culture or cinema.
He is co-founder of the label and parties AMOR DIGITAL alongside 99% and Yuca Frita. JUANNY took the step of production at the time of the pandemic, and delivers since then, at an impressive rate, a lot of club bangers on his own Bandcamp or the one of his label, not to mention the Suchitoto EP for the bosses of naafi* in 2021.
The next release from the Franciscan producer is an EP entitled MIATA that will be released on the Oakland label, NO BIAS. With this release, JUANNY reflects on the suburban boredom and alienation of the late 2000s, and early 2010s, a period in which he forged a new identity incorporating his Central American heritage, and his passion for rap, and club culture. The name of the EP echoes the Mazda MX-5 Miata, the car model JUANNY’s father owned as a teenager. The future producer hoped that the trips in the Miata would last as long as possible in order to listen to as much rap music as possible during the blog era and to enrich his knowledge of dance music.
Before the release of the EP next week, DJ JUANNY entrusted us with the unstoppable dembow tool “CENTER OF AMERICA”, in listening today in our columns. Composed of Korg keyboard sounds, dembow rhythms, and typical guaracha bass, the track also includes two vocal samples, which JUANNY described to us: the first one, in Spanish, quotes the Salvadoran religious leader Monseñor Oscar Romero, brutally assassinated by the Salvadoran military forces supported by the United States. The second is from 2022 when SF Mayor London Breed was forced to make a public apology after saying that the city’s drug problem was due to Honduran migrants.
Take your BlackBerry Bold and send a BBM to your friends, MIATA will be released on May 8th in digital and vinyl.
Pre-order MIATA by DJ Juanny on Bandcamp, official release on May 8th on NO BIAS.
