BELIZEAN MUSIC LEGENDS
AZIATIC!
CHANGING THE GAME!
Aziatic stepped up the Punta Rock beat infusing Hip Hop influences and bringing a fresh sound and swag to it. He is a creative Garifuna Belizean musical genius that crossed over Belize’s most popular musical art form to a younger generation of Belizean musical lovers of the late 90s and 2000s who were fading away from traditional Andy Palacio, Chico Ramos and Mohobub styles. He kept the fundamentals of Garifuna drum and bass lines authentic but injected a funky spin on them laced with a Michael Jackson like falsetto vocals, music synths and samples that were heard on American Pop, Rap and Neo Soul hit tunes. He was a Belizean musical innovator.
The cross-cultural pollination of the Aziatic musical period accentuated a Belizean-American youth fresh out of the American high schools with a hip musical vision of the time and of being raised in a Garifuna household in South Central Los Angeles. You could hear it in his music on the tracks of his first full album “Most Wanted” like Chatty Chatty, The Rebirth, Beat That Drum and Flirting Vibe. It took Belize by storm and his was something quite new in comparison to the Sounds Incorporated 80s Punta Rock beats that propelled the Belizean musical genre to popularity across Central America and the Caribbean. Like the new young American rappers who kept changing the game rapidly with styles and beats, these young Belizean Garifuna Punta Rockers are planting their signature and brand all over the music.
In a musical world where the recycling of the old with the new through sampling and digital musical software, Aziatic brought to the fray the merger of 808 drum patterns with pulsating Garifuna drumbeats mix in with what can be labelled “Hip Hop Punta Rock”. Even the American black and Latino kids across the High schools in Los Angeles and New York were bumping to this kind of Punta Rock beat. He introduced a perfect crossover never heard before even when Andy Palacio was the new thing across the popular music venues of the Hollywood music scene in the 80s and 90s. And where dancehall reggae dominated the Belizean party scene in Belize and the Belizean diaspora, the new vibe of Punta Rock had to be a part of the popular Belizean DJs music mix. It was fast and pulsating at times, groovy in the middle like Aziatic’s Garifuna Paranda style jams and composed of all the popular traditional Garifuna musical styles. He was pushing the envelope, changing the game, and yet staying relevant within the sphere of the Pan-Garifuna world.
What can be term as “Belizean Music”, “Belizean-American Artists” or for that matter, “Belizean Music History” has become very dynamic and extensive today and has a global appeal being that musical Rap and Hip Hop artists like Moses “Shyne’ Barrow break-through in the 90s as the next big thing in the American Rap genre may have had an impact on those like the Aziatic’s of the same period. And this Hip Hop Belizean-American heritage has continued to be embraced in the 2000s by American rapper Makonnen who has Belizean heritage and comes straight out of South Central Los Angeles and Atlanta. The innovative Makonnen created a new style of Rap music busting on the American Hip Hop music scene with his hit tune “Tuesday” featuring the legendary rapper Drake and from his album “I Love Makonnen”. The style went on to influence those like Juice World and Travis Scott making Makonnen a legend like Shyne before him. Now both of these Belizean-American rappers are legends in the American Rap world.
It is from this breed of Belizean-American musical artists that Aziatic originated. Whether we want to agree with it or not and resist the change and culture of a revolutionary global Belizean music hype, it exists within the culture of the present day Belizean young people at home and abroad who have embraced it in this way of what is dubbed as Belizean music. Apart from the 90s Belizean audiences waving the Belizean flag at the popular U.C.L.A. Memorial Day reggae concerts in southern California, they have also embraced Belizean musical artists like the Punta Rock superstar Aziatic performing at big music venues during the same period. He was one of the opening acts at the Belizean reggae artist Pupa Curly’s Seabreeze reggae show at the L.A. Sports Arena in ’94 before the historic venue’s demise. As he graces popular Belizean Punta Rock cultural spots like Hopkins in Belize and Belizean television shows over the last few years, Aziatic continues rolling out his hit tracks within the vibrant 2026 Belizean music scene leaving his musical influence on many of the new Belizean musical artists of today.
Aziatic Hit Tunes:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/chatty-chatty/4116031?i=4116005
https://music.apple.com/us/album/flirting-vibe/4116031?i=4116025
https://music.apple.com/us/album/jam-96/1472881735?i=1472881865
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-rebirth/4116031?i=4116015
(Photos through the courtesy of Aziatic FB page
By Bilal Morris
