‘LL: One of Hennessy’s mottos is “Never Stop. Never Settle.” What drives you to never stop and never settle?
Raka Rich: We want to become one of the biggest artists of all time, especially for Latin music. It’s like, we’re never gonna stop. We’re never gonna settle until we get to that position.
‘LL: And once you hit that goal, then what?
Raka Dun: We’re gonna set another goal – a bigger goal.
‘LL: What are some obstacles you’ve overcome to get to where you are now?
Los Rakas: The language barrier [our music being in Spanish] has been a bit of an obstacle within the industry. Being able to crack into the general market has been an obstacle because our style of music is not the norm. Getting out of your comfort zone is difficult for people. At most of our shows many people don’t speak Spanish, but music is a universal language. Also traveling for long periods of time (apart from our family), and having to adapt to different environments. We’ve made endless sacrifices in our personal lives for our long-term success. With every obstacle we learn, and push forward. It’s a good feeling to know we are doing something different, that’s what Rakas do!
‘LL: What kind of legacy do you hope to leave behind?
Raka Dun: Obviously we want to be able to tour around the world, but we also want to build a youth center, like the one that helped us in Oakland. There’s where we learned to make music. But it wasn’t just music. They also had culinary programs, and stuff like that. You know, just programs that help the youth become whatever it is they want to be.
Raka Rich: We see ourselves continuing to spread the Raka sound across the world; expanding our clothing line into department stores in different countries; continuing to influence the next generation of artists and people to try new things.
For a look at their track “Sueño Americano” peep below. Also to follow Los Rakas as they take on new adventures. Visit them at losrakas.com and follow them on Twitter at @LosRakas.