We’re a team of beat makers and artists reimagining and developing Belizean music.
Inspired by the country’s rich culture and sounds, we mix traditional rhythms with modern beats to construct a fresh, authentic sound for today’s generation. Born from the Belize Music Project (launched in August 2024), we’re building a bridge between Belize’s musical past and future.
Burial Ground
produced by Ivan Duran
This beat features one of the earliest known recordings from Belize, a logging chant from a field recording probably from the River Valley area of the Belize District. The voices that you hear were recorded approximately 100 years ago.
Driving question: How is music connected to history, to the work life in the forest?
Ding Ding Walla Walla
produced by Ivan Duran
Miss Floss Cassasola was a legendary music educator who was actively involved in Belize’s Independence Movement. On this beat her children choir sings the popular traditional Creole song Ding Ding Walla made famous decades later by another Belizean cultural giant: Mrs. Leela Vernon.
Driving question: What feelings do the voices generate in you when listening to this beat?
Punta experiment #1
produced by Flayed Lotus
Punta is a traditional Garifuna rhythm and fertility dance rooted in West African and indigenous Caribbean traditions. In the late 1970’s Pen Cayetano and his Turtle Shell Band gave birth to was later became Punta Rock music which to this day Belize’s most popular dance music.
Driving question: How did Punta transform into Punta Rock in Belize?
Belmopan
produced by Deady
The voice on this Radio Belize recording is that of Tito Castro who composed this ode to Belmopan around the time of Independence. Like most of our musicians and singers we don’t know enough, so a big reason to unlock our musical past in order to know where we are heading.
Driving question: Why is Belize’s music history so important to uncover?
Benque Boom & Chime
produced by DJ Oonga and Juni Mar
Belize’s western and southern regions have a strong history of Marimba music, a traditional Central American instrument with African origins which uses pitched wooden bars to produce sound. On this beat the marimba is mixed with Boom and Chime instruments like the Boom drum, Ding-a-Ling and the Jawbone with a contemporary Reggaeton feel.
Driving question:Explain the significance of the marimba culturally and musically?
La Verdad
produced by Xhaba
We know that Maria Betancourt lived in Belize City when Radio Belize recorded this song in 1974.
Her voice is a piercingly powerful example of under explored and under exposed women artists in Belize’s cultural history. Much investigation and research are required to fix this imbalance.
Driving question: Are there any artists in your community that you’d like to know more about?
