Long before I had the language to decipher the music I liked and the music I couldn’t stand, kompa ballads were already swirling in my head and commanding the rooms I walked into–banquet halls full of oscillating hips and outstretched arms and collared shirts drenched in sweat. Being of Haitian descent means understanding kompa music by osmosis, often starting in early childhood when your mom or tatie drags you to dance during some ten-minute Sweet Micky song. The shuffling, click-clacking rhythms, twangy basslines, and pearly synths of my parents’ home country have only sounded better with time.
On “Little Haiti,” B0YG1RL, the Miami-based singer-producer duo, take the genre’s gooey percussive sway and kitschy electronica and push the gain into the stratosphere. Kompa has never sounded this distorted or ethereal. Vocalist June Vinette’s trancelike call and response summons all the life-or-death romanticism of a classic Haitian love song. “Ou c’est sèl bagay m bezwen,” he sings. “Cherie lanmou mwen, mwen bezwen viv bò kote m.” (“You are the only thing I need/My darling, I need you to live by my side.”) In one fell swoop, I’m transported back to late-night soirees watching my parents rock back and forth together, only this time I won’t need any convincing to join them on the dancefloor.
