walking upstream…
Kapo
Kapo
Kapo (Juan David Loaiza Sepúlveda) is a Colombian singer from El Cabuyal, near Cali, who spent over a decade performing música popular at truck stops and roadside shops before signing with La Industria Inc. in 2019. He broke through globally in 2024 by trading reggaetón for a warm, melodic Afrobeats-Latino fusion he calls a "mix of sensations," with the singles "Ohnana" and "Uwaie" both going viral and charting on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs and Global 200.
the sound in question
2024
OhnanaKapo
walk the tributaries ↓
Bob Marley1970s · Reggae / Roots reggae / Ska
Kapo has said he toured the Bob Marley Museum in Jamaica and that the visit directly shaped the creative direction of "Ohnana" — the song's warm, healing, one-drop-adjacent lilt over Afrobeat drums traces back to that trip.
listen: upstream & heresource: El Universal (Cartagena) — direct quote naming Chichi Peralta, Juan Luis Guerra, Julio Jaramillo, and Bob Marley as referents ↗
1978
Is This LoveBob Marley
2024
OhnanaKapo
listen forListen for the unhurried, rocking-chair sway in the rhythm bed and the gentle, consoling vocal tone — the same easy-does-it warmth Marley built songs like this one around, just carried on Afrobeat percussion instead of a reggae one-drop.
Burna Boy2020s · Afrobeats / Afro-fusion / Reggae
Kapo has named Burna Boy (alongside Omah Lay) as an Afrobeat pioneer he actively studies, describing his own genre as African-rooted rhythm — amapiano, kizomba, champeta — filtered through a Latin voice.
listen: upstream & heresource: El Tiempo — Kapo on studying Burna Boy and Omah Lay, and blending amapiano/kizomba/champeta ↗
2022
Last LastBurna Boy
2024
UwaieKapo
listen forListen for the low, rolling log-drum bass and the half-sung, half-murmured cadence that leaves space between phrases — the loose, melancholic-but-danceable pocket that defines Burna Boy's Afro-fusion and that Kapo borrows for his own hooks.
Juan Luis Guerra1990s · Merengue / Bachata / Latin pop
Kapo has named Juan Luis Guerra directly among the "artistas de música popular" he loves, part of the romantic, horn-and-harmony Latin songbook he grew up on before he ever touched reggaetón or Afrobeats.
listen: upstream & heresource: El Universal (Cartagena) — direct quote naming Chichi Peralta, Juan Luis Guerra, Julio Jaramillo, and Bob Marley as referents ↗
1990
La BilirrubinaJuan Luis Guerra
2024
ImagínateKapo
listen forListen for the layered, close-harmony backing vocals and the way a simple romantic hook rides a bright, danceable groove — the merengue-schooled instinct for a big, singable chorus that carries into Kapo's pop-crossover tracks.