Venezuela’s raptor house legends DJ Babatr and DJ Yirvin are coming together for the culture

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In the decades following the birth and explosion of Caracas’ raptor house/changa tuki scene, two figures have been at the centre of its illustrious history. DJ Babatr, the founding father of the sound, and DJ Yirvin, the daring maverick who would break away and create his own sonic evolution, changa fusion. Despite their journeys being so intertwined, the two men have never performed together.

Amid a fraught political and socio-economic time for their country, spurred on by extensive US economic sanctions, airstrikes and the capture and deposition of former-President Nicolas Maduro, and, more recently, a devastating earthquake in Northern Venezuela that has so far claimed the lives of over 3,500 people, the pair will come together for the first time to honour Caracas’ sonic legacy at the second edition of Barcelona’s SOUNDIT festival, which takes place across July 17 to 18.

The highly-anticipated set will be part of a stage takeover from Latin underground dance music flagbearers’ TraTraTax, who have also called up BADSISTA, RHR, Bitter Babe and DJ Lag for the occasion. DJ Babatr and DJ Yirvin’s coming together will take the form of a “versus” DJ set, with both being able to offer their own unique flavour to proceedings one after the other. “We grew up listening to this stuff and having lots of respect for both Babatr and Yirvin. It was foundational, the kind of things that they were making,” says TraTraTrax co-founder Nyksan. “We just thought, let's ask. I didn't even know if it would be a possibility, and it took us a bit of back and forth to make it a reality.”  ​

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“The whole line-up honours what we believe to be a sonic bridge,” he continues. “A platform that helps these kinds of things happen. Bringing two Latin legends, key figures in Venezuelan electronic music history, to a place where we can curate a line-up with lots of friends as well. It’s more about building than competing, so we are truly ecstatic to see them playing for the first time: iconic.”​

“I was the last one to know,” DJ Babatr, born Pedro Elías Corro, jokingly explains on a Zoom call from his home in Caracas. “A back-to-back is a very unique circumstance, where you do something with someone that you're really close to... so at the beginning, I wasn't so keen on the idea. But after thinking about it, I realised how important this would be for the culture,” he continues. “Also, with raptor house and changa tuki being sounds of resistance, back in the day, that was so important for our culture in Caracas.” DJ Yirvin, also on Zoom and nestled within his studio in the city, similarly admits it was a “surprise” to get the offer, adding that it’s “very interesting to see that after all the things that have happened throughout the years, it has come to this point.”​

Born in the late-'90s from the marginalised barrios in Caracas, DJ Babatr is credited as the primary architect behind raptor house/changa tuki — changa simply being the word to refer to Venezuelan electronic music. The sound is powered by Afro-Venezuelan percussion and hard synth lines, with influences from the European electro, house and techno played at parties on a miniteca (Venezuela’s mobile soundsystems.) By the turn of the millennium, he had joined forces with friends DJ Deep, DJ Armando, DJ Linares, DJ Elieser, DJ Byakko and DJ Yirvin to form The Raptor Crew, which launched a full-blown cultural movement. Known for its use of rowdy synths, fiery percussion, vocal samples and its dancers, referred to as ‘tukis’, often donning bright-dyed hair, caps and Nike trainers. 

Following its explosion throughout the ‘00s, the word “tuki” came to carry negative connotations, brought on by a moral panic around drugs and violence from the Venezuelan government and classist conservative onlookers. As a result, much of the reporting on the genre’s evolution and the subculture inspired by it comes from fallible accounts that have leaned into stereotypes and sensationalising.

One of which is the 2011 documentary ¿Quien Quiere Tuki?, which details the birth of raptor house and pits DJ Babatr and DJ Yirvin as rivals, with the latter having departed The Raptor Crew to form his changa fusion sound. The documentary is controversial among scene figures for its negative depiction of the young people entrenched within “tuki” culture. “I don't like it,” says DJ Babatr. “Even though it helped give visibility to what was happening, it also created a lot of socio-political imagery of marginalised people in Venezuela that I didn't feel was accurate. I think some of the portrayals in the short film carried negative connotations and did not fully reflect the reality of the people involved.”

“[That word ‘tuki’] was a way to refer to something bad always,” DJ Yirvin agrees. “The whole objective of what we were doing was to bring it around, to make it something interesting and related to the music.” 

“[The film] was a resurgence of everything that had happened, and it gave so much visibility to what had been historical at that moment,” he continues. “But it's difficult to tell a 20-year history in 15 minutes, and even relationships. But for raptor house to be what it is today, it was important.”

In the decades since then, raptor house has seen a resurgence not just within Venezuela but throughout the global underground. Having long-departed the scene, DJ Babatr was approached by TraTraxTrax to collaborate on a track with Miami-based producer Nick León in 2022. The single, ‘Xtasis’, went nuclear, with the resulting spotlight taking DJ Babatr from raptor house historian to a fully-fledged international touring artist overnight. His relationship with the label is one of the key reasons DJ Babatr agreed to their joint-set at SOUNDIT; “I have great appreciation for them — they were important in helping me return to music in this later stage of my career,” he says. 

B2bs are a rare occurrence for DJ Babatr. “I've only ever played b2b with a few people with whom I feel I have a sonic affinity. Funnily enough, Teki Latex is one of them, and Hyperaktivist, who is Venezuelan. This will be the first time with Yirvin, which is partly why I prefer to think of it as a “versus” instead of an outright b2b."​

“Even when SOUNDIT approached me to do this, I offered for Yirvin to start DJing first,” he continues. “Mostly because Yirvin hasn't had the chance to play that much in Europe and Barcelona. Hopefully, it will all be on friendly terms. It's about the music and paying tribute to the music itself and Latin American electronic music as a whole.”​

While they have never played together until this point, the two appeared on the same billing for the first time in decades during Arca’s Caracas Boiler Room showcase in 2024, which celebrated the pioneers and newfangled underground stars of Venezuelan dance music; “It felt like a clean slate, we started from the beginning there,” says DJ Yirvin. “It was so unique for the city, for different generations to be together. The young ones have never been to this kind of event, and with these figures, the older generations haven't been able to feel that kind of nostalgia and feel what it was like back in the day.”

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Both men are steadfast in their belief that building connections old and new, and affirming raptor house’s position among the wider Latin American dance music landscape, is the core mission behind this rare get-together. “At this point, it's not just about bringing together Venezuelan music,” says DJ Babatr. “But also about everyone coming together. There are Colombians, Chileans, Brazilians, all these people. It's not about the way in which we compete, which humans do, but more about building something together.

​“Even though I have other projects going on, I still wanted to play with DJ Babatr at SOUNDIT in order to spread the word around the music of Caracas, and ensure people know about what we created,” DJ Yirvin adds.

So what can the Barcelona crowd expect from this landmark moment? “I think it will be difficult, but it will be a strong set. I know we have different approaches to leading people on the dancefloor,” says DJ Babtr. “I have a strong sensitivity for reading the energy in the room, so I don’t overprepare. But it will be strong.”

​“It's all very exciting. Hopefully new things will come from it, and Baba and I can make long-lasting peace,” DJ Yirvin jokingly adds. “Anything can happen. I'm excited to bring my sound and energy to the festival.”

SOUNDIT Festival will take place within Barcelona's Parc Nou across July 17-18. Get your tickets here.

Megan Townsend is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, get in touch with her here.