Oakland duo Los Rakas was heartbroken at the news that their hometown football team will now become the Las Vegas Raiders. When asked about the move by HipHopDX at a recent Red Bull Sound Select show in Los Angeles, Raka Dun and Raka Rich, who were both wearing black and silver, sighed in anguish.
“We’re there every year, whether they’re winning or losing,” Raka Rich says. “We’re loyal. And a business decision didn’t matter about our loyalty. Everything is for money. It didn’t matter about the people. That’s where the world is going now. Everything is for money. It didn’t matter it has a great vibe.”
The team still has a few more seasons in the Bay Area before packing up for the desert. And this isn’t the Raiders’ first move as they spent some time in the ’80s in Los Angeles — but for Dun, this move signifies something more than a relocation.
“When you think of Oakland, you definitely think Raiders, that’s a big part of Oakland that’s gonna be gone, so it’s sad,” he shares.
While Dun ponders if the NFL’s N.W.A would come back to Los Angeles, he says he’d still root for the team. But his right-hand man can’t say the same.
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“I can’t do it,” Rich says of rooting for the Raiders still. “If they go far, I will still be proud of the players, I will be happy for them, but I can’t. It doesn’t feel right. Las Vegas Raiders, it doesn’t sound right to me.”
On the bright side, Los Rakas is celebrating its first ever Grammy nomination for Best Latin, Rock Urban or Alternative Album with Los Rakas. Even though they lost out on taking home the golden trophy, the Panamanian duo finds the nod a big encouragement.
“Every artist dreamed to be in the Grammys,” Dun says. “It’s like the World Cup of artists. We were part of that. It felt good.”
“It was the All-Star of music, the best of the best,” Rich adds. “For us to walk in there, it felt good as an artist because no matter if you’re super poppin’ or it doesn’t matter, you were in there because you know you’re poppin’. It’s about the talent if you’re in there. It’s not about who got the most views on YouTube, who got the most followers on Instagram. In there, it’s all about the music, who’s really got it.”
They carried that momentum into their sophomore album, Raka Love 2, their first independent album. After working on their music for 10 years, Los Rakas feel they have perfected their craft of blending genres and just having fun. And they give credit to a certain superstar who sometimes gets backlash for his cultural influences, but who has taken international flavor to heights that truly have yet to be reached.
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“Different languages, different cultures, Drake is one of the people doing that,” Rich says. “He’s bridging those gaps. It’s becoming — it’s easier, it’s more accepted, it’s easier to push the people now. It’s not that foreign that people are afraid to like it. People are like ‘Yeah, I don’t know what y’all saying in some parts, but I feel it and that’s cool.'”
Los Rakas’ Raka Love 2 is out now.
