Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Ileana Mercedes Cabra Joglar – is better known as iLe - but for a long time she was known as PG-13, in the Puerto Rican hip-hop group Calle 13. Her 2016 solo debut, iLevitable, was a masterful survey of traditional Latin forms - boleros, ballads, boogaloo, and mambo. Now, with her latest, Almadura (the title means “strong soul” and is a play on words of the Spanish word for "armor" ("armadura") - thanks, Wikipedia) she draws from traditional musical genres like bomba and boogaloo, and continues to learn from her own roots, serenading her native Puerto Rico and calling for political action. iLe and her band play some of these tunes, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here: