On Friday, Brooklyn’s long-running Soul Summit collective came together with Miami-based electronic duo Paperwater to celebrate Juneteenth in a shared cultural space.
Paperwater is the byproduct of two artists, longtime friends and fellow producers Eddy Samy and Daygee Kwia, that originated in 2016. Soul Summit — founded in 2002 by DJs Tabu, Sadiq Bellamy and Jeff Mendoza — tours nationally to uplift communities through music.
Both acts are rooted in authenticity and passion with the goal of bringing communities together.
Soul Summit is a DJ collective and music festival.
(Courtesy of Soul Summit)
“A lot of things for a long time in America were anti-Black joy,” said Tabu. “Eventually the pendulum has to swing back the other way.”
In a nation where everything is often commercialized, Tabu believes culture begins underground. The underground scene originated as a counter-cultural response to the mainstream, where artists often manage aspects of music creation like production, distribution and promotion independently.
Following that recipe, Mendoza says Soul Summit was founded to address a void in the community created by profit-oriented sound.
“I felt that the people were being force-fed untruth by the music industry,” said Mendoza. “In the background, the people who had the strings and had control were projecting their say-so in the direction they felt that people should go. Underground, we saw that wasn’t necessarily the case.”
“The underground house music scene has the reputation of uniting people,” said Bellamy. “The synergy and the organic aspect of the music brings that sense. People come peacefully.”
With the FIFA World Cup in town, this idea of unity and untaught enjoyment is a running theme. Like sports, music unites people of all cultures, backgrounds and identities. While soccer is a truly global sport, music is a truly global pastime.
Friday’s match between Haiti and Brazil was being screened at ZeyZey Miami, the little Haiti music venue where Soul Summit took place that same night.
“The name says that the world comes to play, and the world is more ‘melanated’ than people want to believe,” said Tabu. “At the end of the day, culture runs things. That’s what keeps the cash register ringing: It’s culture.”
Paperwater celebrated 10 years in 2026, and Soul Summit will celebrate a quarter of a century in 2027. After years of bringing people together, the ethos of both collectives still places emphasis on the people and communities that make their music possible.
“Stuff never starts in the boardroom,” said Tabu. “It starts on the streets… A big part of cool culture [is Black people]. We have the sauce.”