Cuban Link

Delgado was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1974. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift, settling in the Morrisania neighborhood of The South Bronx in New York City.[2] When Delgado was growing up, hip hop music was rising in popularity in his neighborhood. Delgado took on stage name Cuban Link and associated with fellow rappers Big Pun and Triple Seis in a group under the name Full-A-Clips.[3] Cuban Link and Big Pun both made guest performances on The Beatnuts' single "Off the Books" in 1997. They joined the local rap group Terror Squad, and Link performed on the track "Tell Me What You Want" from the group's self-titled debut album. Link previously did guest appearances on Big Pun's Capital Punishment and Fat Joe's Don Cartagena. Cuban Link was signed to Atlantic and began recording his debut 24K. Big Pun died on February 7, 2000, so Cuban Link wrote "Flowers For The Dead" in Pun's honor. However, without Pun's mediation, contract disputes between Fat Joe and Cuban Link and leaks prevented the release of 24K. He released a mixtape, Broken Chains, in 2003 put together by Dren Starr & Roy P. Perez. He joined independent label Men of Business in 2005 and released Chain Reaction. It included singles "Sugar Daddy" (featuring Mýa) and "Scandalous" (featuring Don Omar) and combined some reggaeton sound as well. It was the largest independent deal ($2MM) for a single album and an unsigned act, at the time and a joint venture with Universal.