Joe Bataan

No recording artist has more impeccable street credentials than Joe Bataan, the originator of the New York Latin Soul style that paralleled Latin bugalu and anticipated disco. His musical experience began with street corner doo-wop in the 1950s, and came to include one of the first rap records to hit the charts, 1979's "Rap-O, Clap-O". In between these milestones, he recorded classic albums like St. Latin's Day Massacre, a perennial favorite in the salsa market, Salsoul, which gave the record label its name and helped spark the national explosion of urban dance music, and Afrofilipino, which included one of the very earliest New York disco hits, an instrumental version of Gil Scott Heron's "The Bottle".