Mickey Dastinz is a Dominican DJ and producer from Navarrete, in Santiago province. He founded and directs Masaka Africana.

Batá and the Taíno

He traces the music to his Afro-Taíno roots, and to growing up around batá drums — the sacred drums of the Yoruba, carried into the Caribbean by enslaved people and kept alive in the religious practice of the islands.

The starting point is uncommon for an electronic producer. Most Dominican dance music arrives at Africa by way of Europe. He is going in the other direction: the drum is what he heard first, and the club is where he put it.

Masaka Africana

Masaka Africana is the project that made his name, and it works as a live show as well as a record. Masaka Africa Viva and The Ritual are among the tracks.

He has taken it abroad. He played EPHIMERA in Tulum in 2023 and brought the live Masaka Africana show to FITZ in Madrid in 2024, and he is booked out of Spain — which is where the Afro-house circuit currently has its money.

In 2023 he made El Pañuelo with the Spanish duo MËSTIZA, a record that put a Dominican drum tradition inside a European club release.