Felix Delgado (born December 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Cuban Link, is a Cuban American rapper and original member of Terror Squad.

Biography

Delgado was born in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Cuba, in 1974. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1980 during the

Mariel boatlift The Mariel boatlift () was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between 15 April and 31 October 1980. The term "" (plural "Marielitos") is used to refer to these refugees in both Spanish and E ...

, settling in the South Bronx in New York City. When Delgado was growing up, hip hop music was rising in popularity in his neighborhood. Delgado took on stage name Cuban Link and associated with fellow rappers

Big Pun Christopher Lee Rios (November 10, 1971 – February 7, 2000), better known by his stage name Big Pun (short for Big Punisher), was an American rapper. Emerging from the underground hip hop scene in the Bronx borough of New York City in the e ...

and Triple Seis in a group under the name Full-A-Clips. Cuban Link and Big Pun both made guest performances on

The Beatnuts The Beatnuts are an American hip hop group and production duo from New York City. Its current members are JuJu and Psycho Les. JuJu (born Jerry Tineo on December 14, 1968) is a Dominican American from Corona and Psycho Les (born Lester Fernande ...

' single "Off the Books" in 1997. They joined the local rap group Terror Squad, and Link performed on the track "Tell Me What You Want" from the group's self-titled debut album. Link previously did guest appearances on Big Pun's ''

Capital Punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

'' and Fat Joe's '' Don Cartagena''. Cuban Link was signed to

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and began recording his debut LP ''24K''. Big Pun died on February 7, 2000, so Cuban Link wrote "Flowers For The Dead" in Pun's honor. However, without Pun's mediation, contract disputes between Fat Joe and Cuban Link and leaks prevented the release of ''24K''. In April 2001, during an album release party for

Angie Martinez Angela Martinez (born January 9, 1971) is an American radio personality, rapper, singer, and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice of New York" during her two-decade tenure at New York City station HOT 97 (WQHT), she left that position in 2014 to jo ...

at Jimmy's Bronx Cafe, Cuban Link got in an altercation and had his face slashed when he was trying to break up a fight between Fat Joe and rapper Sunkiss. By that time, Cuban Link left Terror Squad. He released a mixtape, ''Broken Chains'', in 2003 put together by Dren Starr & Roy P. Perez. He joined independent label Men of Business in 2005 and released ''Chain Reaction''. It included singles "Sugar Daddy" (featuring

Mýa Mya Marie Harrison (; born October 10, 1979), (stylized as Mýa), is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Born into a musical family, she studied ballet, jazz, and tap dance as a child. Initially, Mýa began her career as a VJ ...

) and "Scandalous" (featuring

Don Omar William Omar Landrón Rivera (born February 10, 1978), better known by his stage name Don Omar, is a Puerto Rican reggaeton singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. On September 1, 2017, he announced that he would retire after a ...

) and combined some

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American hip hop, ...

sound as well. It was the largest independent deal ($2MM) for a single album and an unsigned act, at the time and a joint venture with Universal.

Discography

;Studio albums * ''24K'' (2000) (Unreleased) * ''

Chain Reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that sys ...

'' (2005) ;Collaboration albums * '' Terror Squad: The Album'' with Terror Squad (1999)

References

External links

Official Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuban Link 1974 births Living people American entertainers of Cuban descent Atlantic Records artists Cuban emigrants to the United States Cuban rappers Hispanic and Latino American rappers People from Havana Rappers from the Bronx Cuban reggaeton musicians Terror Squad (group) members East Coast hip hop musicians 21st-century American rappers