Locos Por Juana

This Miami band's fingers are just itching to grab Ozomatli's crown. The term "genre-crossing" falls short here: the group draws on the Colombian, Venezuelan and Puerto Rican heritages of its members to invent a sound that lives in the place where borders cease to matter. Hip-hop, reggae and funk fold organically into cumbia and salsa, and political concerns surface naturally amidst the rolling waves of music. The group was founded in the late '90s; they finally signed with Universal Music in 2007 and released their major-label debut La Verdad in 2008.