Yellow Gaza

Vador, DJ Joe, Asa Banton: the founding triangle of 2007

Around 2007, Cédrick Raboteur, known as Vador / Vadore, starts organising the first bouyon nights in Guadeloupe. He leans on two partners: DJ Joe and Asa Banton. Together they form Yellow Gaza, a connector collective that brings Dominican bouyon singers onto Guadeloupean sound systems. One point of chronology has to be stated clearly: Yellow Gaza is one of the pillar projects of Act II of bouyon in Guadeloupe (2007-2013), distinct from Gaza Crew founded by Suppa. That distinction is documented and structurally important, mixing up the two entities means missing the mechanism by which bouyon crosses from Dominica to Guadeloupe through a scene organising channel, not through a single artistic transfer.

The first Gwada wave 2010-2012 and the press record

Between 2010 and 2012, Yellow Gaza becomes the meeting point of the first Bouyon Gwada wave. The Gaza Girls lay down "Ka ou vlé", identified by Le Courrier de Guadeloupe as a local turning point in 2010. As early as 2012, the Dominican press documents the institutional controversy around "Bouyon Gwada" and explicitly cites "Yellow Gaza Girls". The French rap press, in a founding article titled "Bouyon to di World", associates Yellow Gaza and Gaza Girls Crew with the founding tracks of Guadeloupean bouyon. Those three sources converge: Yellow Gaza is one of the institutional connectors that opens the road for the Gaza Girls, for Suppa and for the whole Guadeloupean generation that follows.

Fifteen years on: the recent features, 2022-2024

More than fifteen years after its beginnings, the Yellow Gaza name resurfaces in 2022-2024 on tracks such as "Koké La (Bouyon Kings)" and "Sa Ki Bon x Koké La" with Miky Ding La in 2022, "Controling baby" with Edday in 2023, or "PLAN À 3 (Femmes Fatales Edition Bouyon)" with Yu Mei in 2024. That persistence on recent releases matters, it proves Yellow Gaza is not only a historical trace but a collective brand that contemporary voices can still activate. The profile belongs to the chapter La Traversée, which covers exactly the period when bouyon crosses from Dominica to Guadeloupe. Yellow Gaza holds a structural place there: it is one of the three or four names you need to know to understand how Act II 2007-2013 sets up the first Gwada wave and, in cascade, today's New Bouyon Wave.