La Bruja

Caridad De La Luz, aka La Bruja, is an urban renaissance woman. The beautiful Boricua is not only a reggeatón and hip hop artist, but also a poet, activist, writer, model and actress. Her resume reads like a long list of life achievements, but masterfully accomplished over the span of ten years since her debut at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York.

Her last music album, Brujalicious, is a mix-tape of sorts, where DJ Precision of The X-Ecutioners collages music by Chingo Bling, Jadakiss, Don Dinero and The Jungle Brothers with La Bruja's smart, multilingual flow. The record received high marks from The Village Voice and is considered by many of the pickiest reggaetón fans as a modern classic of the genre. The video for the album track Mi Gatita Negra also made the rounds on music television networks – an impressive feat considering that the record was self-released on La Bruja's own independent label De La Luz records.

But La Bruja's greatest accomplishment to date, however, might be her work as an activist via her Latinas 4 Life organization. This year, the community group will work with 20 New York City public schools to help young Latinas understand and cope with the difficult choices and scary situations they must confront as they grow older.

La Bruja recently got signed to 1830 Records, an independent label with a focus on digital media and distribution. It's the type of partnership that is in perfect sync with La Bruja's forward-thinking output and one that will probably keep pushing her career to the next level.

See: myspace.com/labruja