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TORONTO, Sept. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Toronto-based producer, DJ, and beatmaker Ladji Mouflet unveils “Hatuey,” a warrior of a single that pulls its title and its spirit from one of Caribbean history’s most defiant figures. Built on the hypnotic percussion and rolling low end that have become his signature, the track finds Ladji at his most physical, a record made for the dance floor that carries something much older underneath it.
The name is not incidental. Hatuey was a Taino Indigenous chief who led resistance against the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century and was burned at the stake for it, choosing defiance rather than surrender. Through his mother’s lineage, Ladji carries Taino heritage himself, and the parallel is intentional: a song about refusing to bend. The connection runs through the visuals too, with cover art weaving together Taino imagery and the tribal tattoos Ladji and his brother wear in tribute to that history.
Ladji built “Hatuey” the way he builds everything: alone in the studio at first, composing, producing, and arranging every layer himself before bringing in his family, team and label. The result sits at the intersection of baile and the wider electronic sounds he has spent years refining, hypnotic Afro percussion set against sleek, modern production.
That sound was shaped long before Ladji touched a fader. Raised between Harlem, the South Bronx and the Lower East Side of New York, he grew up inside a household built around rhythm. His mother, from the Dominican Republic, danced salsa on stages alongside Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. His father, Senegalese and Martinican, founded a dance and music school blending West African tradition with ballet and jazz.
That sound has already found a massive audience without a major. Ladji’s breakout single “Baiana 2022” has passed 35 million streams and became an unofficial anthem of the last World Cup, shared by Tom Brady, Lamine Yamal and Wayne Rooney. “French Bossa Nova” followed with more than 44 million streams. Today Ladji reaches 1.5-2.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 350,000 followers across social platforms, all built independently through his own label, Alkebulan Records.
“Hatuey” arrives as the first single from Ladji’s upcoming album, ‘The Pilgrimage,’ a journey back to himself, tracing his roots one track at a time and letting that heritage lead the record.
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SOURCE Ladji Mouflet
