diano garcia

When it comes to Seattle hip-hop, there is Sir Mix-A-Lot and honestly nothing else if you’re talking about national recognition. For a city that dominated mainstream music in the ’90s with its grunge icons, Seattle hasn’t broken its rappers in the same way it did with its alternative-rock acts. Ironically, Sir Mix-A-Lot was on the verge of a commercial breakthrough years before Nirvana, and you’d think a hip-hop revolution would’ve followed. Maybe it’s because the Seattle rap scene...

Do you want to hear the future of hip-hop? While thousands of rappers, on major labels or out of them, are recycling the same shuffling rhythms and pulsating keyboards, Diano Garcia takes the essence of hip-hop, the funky urban vibe, and slams it together with pop, world music, jazz, and whatever the hell this gentleman can find. Sure, label it as Afro-Beat if you will, but that doesn’t begin to describe the dizzyingly eclectic and wildly original vision that is showcased proudly here. The...

With its big, shuffling beats; jazzy, sultry horns and trumpets; snapping hip-hop rhythms; toe-tapping synthesizers; and even some cool, laid-back rapping, Turn It On is a full-tilt party album. You have to wonder how much fun Diano Garcia and his band mates were having when recording this CD; you can practically feel the sweat flying off this record. Imagine if James Brown had appeared now and instead of the ’60s. Granted, Garcia doesn’t have Brown’s supercharged charisma (and that’s...

RATING: 9 Stars (out of 10) Diano Garcia (http://www.dianogarcia.com) is a little bit acid jazz. A little bit world music. A little bit hip-hop. OK, what the hell is he then? The unpredictability and fairly wide pop range of "Turn It On" is a large part of its appeal. Garcia is an artist that, given the right push, could morph into the next Prince, or at least a 21st century iPod version of him. It may seem like hyperbole, but it's not. Garcia is certainly eclectic enough to...