If you spend enough time listening to mainstream Latin pop right now, you start to notice how polite it’s become. Sure, the rhythms are global, and the streaming numbers are massive, but somewhere on the way to the top of the charts, a lot of the music lost its teeth. The raw, speaker-rattling grit of the underground got buffed out to fit neatly onto daytime radio playlists.
La’Ci has zero interest in being polite.
A rising bicultural force with a penchant for heavy bass, dark electronic grooves, and unapologetic neo-perreo rhythms, La’Ci is dragging Latin music right back to where it belongs: the sweat-drenched, chaotic center of the club floor. With her August 2026 single “Dembow Funk” currently tearing through sound systems—and some serious industry heavyweights backing her play—she isn’t just catching the Latin wave. She’s cutting right through it.
The Breakthrough: Enter Walk On Water (WOW)
Raw underground magnetism is one thing; turning it into a global career without losing your soul is another. For La’Ci, the bridge between the two is Mathew “Vine” Burke, the veteran executive and founder behind Walk On Water Music Group (WOW).
Anyone who knows the inner workings of the music business knows “Vine.” For over a decade, Burke has run WOW as a go-to launchpad for culturally disruptive talent, cutting major deals across Sony Epic Records, Universal Capitol Records, Sony Music Publishing, and Warner Chappell. Most executives would look at an artist like La’Ci and immediately try to sand down her edges for mass consumption. Burke did the exact opposite. He saw the electricity in her bicultural identity and told her to turn the volume up.
Their dynamic goes way beyond a standard manager-artist relationship—it’s a genuine creative alliance. After her April 2026 breakout track “MAJOR” racked up over 310,000 views on YouTube off the back of a gritty, iPhone-shot video, Burke didn’t just sit back in the boardroom making calls. He got into the studio trenches with her. He co-wrote her follow-up heater, “Dembow Funk,” and locked her into sessions with legendary five-time Grammy-winning producer Jerry Wonda—the sonic architect behind classic records for The Fugees and Shakira—to build out her upcoming debut EP, The Gringa Files.
The Sound of “Dembow Funk”
Clocking in at a tight two minutes and forty-two seconds, “Dembow Funk” (released via Walk On Water Music Group) is a masterclass in controlled chaos. If “MAJOR” was a warning shot to the nightlife scene, “Dembow Funk” is the moment La’Ci kicks the door off the hinges.
The track lives in that loud, sweaty intersection where Dominican dembow and Brazilian baile funk crash into tropical brass and subterranean club bass. It’s the kind of record you feel rattling in your ribcage before your brain even registers the beat—bridging the gap between a 4 AM warehouse rave and a packed Latin block party. Co-written by La’Ci and Burke, the song ditches glossy pop overproduction in favor of hypnotic drums and a fearless, right-in-your-face vocal delivery. It’s a bold middle finger to anyone trying to box her into a single regional sound.
Live in Brooklyn & Unfiltered Online
To really understand what La’Ci is building, you had to be in Brooklyn recently for her standout headline set at the iconic queer and underground nightlife staple, 3 Dollar Bill. Taking over the massive East Williamsburg space, La’Ci turned the room into a pressure cooker. Alongside a ferocious live rendition of “Dembow Funk” that had the crowd bouncing off the walls, she road-tested a slate of exclusive, unreleased tracks straight off The Gringa Files. Watching her command the stage, it was obvious: these songs weren’t built in a corporate lab; they were built for real bodies moving in real time.
That same zero-filter energy carries straight over to her digital world (@laaaaaaaaci on Instagram and TikTok). At a time when most rising artists treat their social feeds like sterile, PR-approved lookbooks, La’Ci treats hers like an afterhours green room.
Her aesthetic is messy in the best way—visceral, provocative, and fiercely DIY. One day she’s posting shaky, handheld clips from a late-night studio session with Grammy royalty; the next, she’s dropping raw crowd footage from 3 Dollar Bill or teasing bass-heavy snippets from The Gringa Files. For young bicultural kids and club heads alike, she represents a thrilling dual reality: an artist who can tear down a Brooklyn warehouse on a Sunday night and hold her own in a major-label boardroom on Monday morning.
What Lies Ahead
If “MAJOR” lit the match and “Dembow Funk” poured on the gasoline, the upcoming arrival of The Gringa Files is shaping up to be a full-blown five-alarm fire. With Mathew “Vine” Burke and the muscle of Walk On Water Music Group in her corner, La’Ci is proving you don’t have to water down the underground to build an empire. The club has been desperate for a real disruptor—and La’Ci just took over the booth.
Stream “Dembow Funk” and “MAJOR” everywhere now via Walk On Water Music Group, and keep up with La’Ci on Instagram and TikTok at @laaaaaaaaci.
