Paul Beaubrun brings Haiti’s revolutionary spirit to new album ‘VERTIÈRES’

Haitian singer and guitarist Paul Beaubrun has released “VERTIÈRES,” a nine-track album that turns Haiti’s 1803 independence battle into the backbone of a genre-blending record fusing mizik rasin, rock, blues, Afrobeat and reggae.

The album, out since Aug. 28 on Lovebrand Records in partnership with Beaubrun’s own imprint LAKOU Records and distributed worldwide through The Orchard, is named for the Battle of Vertières.

Beaubrun, 41, was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, the son of Lòlò and Manzè Beaubrun, founders of the Grammy-nominated mizik rasin band Boukman Eksperyans, and the grandson of the late Haitian comedian Languichatte

According to French broadcaster RFI, Beaubrun carries in Port-au-Prince a heritage as considerable as his parents’ legacy in mizik rasin, and built VERTIÈRES to summon the memory of the 1803 battle as a way of questioning the present, moving between transmission, resistance, rock and blues.

Beaubrun has described the project as a deeply personal journey from heartbreak to what he calls spiritual sovereignty, framing it less as a story of defeating others than of taking full responsibility for one’s own life and choices.

The record’s lead single, “Rasin Toussaint Tap Pale Yo,” released in May, pays tribute to revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture.

The nine tracks are “Papa Solèy,” “I Am VERTIÈRES,” “Nannan Limyè A,” “Pote Lavi,” “Rasin Toussaint Tap Pale Yo,” “Verite,” “Don’t Let Them Get Away” featuring Indigenous rapper and climate activist Xiuhtezcatl alongside Haitian artist Badio, “Manbo,” and “Silence” featuring KOLO.

The pairing on “Don’t Let Them Get Away” links Beaubrun’s Haitian roots-rock to Xiuhtezcatl’s Indigenous hip-hop and climate activism, extending VERTIÈRES’ themes of resistance and ancestral memory beyond Haiti’s borders.

VERTIÈRES arrives as another entry in Beaubrun’s project of carrying Boukman Eksperyans’ mizik rasin legacy into new genres and new audiences, while anchoring it explicitly in the revolutionary history that produced the world’s first Black republic