For Erick Recinos, Santero isn't just a stage name, it's a way of life. The 33-year-old DJ and MC says he's a full-fledged "voodoo artist" who spent his childhood traveling across Central America and the Caribbean before taking up Santeria in his 20s while studying dance with the National Folkloric Ballet of Cuba.

The Salvadoran-Guatamalan Recinos eventually settled in Oakland, California and teamed up with Grammy-nominated producer Greg Landau (Susana Baca, Maldita Vecindad, Bobi Cespedes) to record 2005's Arawaks & Maroons, which features healthy doses of reggae and Latin jazz with pinches of ska and R&B. Santero is now putting the finishing touches on a second album, El Hijo De Obatalá, for early 2008.

Through his music, Recinos hopes to become an ambassador for Santeria: "We are not demons or the devil's agents; I just want to show that my tradition is something beautiful and elegant, it's something very spiritual that is an alternative to the mass consumption of Catholicism or any other religion."

see: myspace.com/santero

"Beautiful Girls," the summer anthem that laces Ben E. King's Stand By Me with suicidal fantasies, has made 17-year-old singer Sean Kingston an overnight sensation.

In fact, Kingston's rise to the top of the charts began not too long ago, when the Miami-native sent hundreds of messages to the MySpace account of J.R. Rotem, the multi-platinum producer of such talents as 50 Cent, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child and Rihanna. Eventually, Rotem heard one of Kingston's tracks and invited the then 17-year-old to Los Angeles for an audition. The meeting was more than fruitful: the once-homeless Kingston got a contract and Rotem, who had just launched his own label, Beluga Heights, got his first artist.

Lucky them. Last week, Kingston's candy-coated "Beautiful Girls" became the most downloaded track on iTunes and, most likely, the breakout hit of the summer. Released as the first single on his eponymous debut, the track's music, lyrics and video are an apparently welcome throwback to kinder if not quite gentler times.

Sung in a sweet Jamaican accent – Kingston and his troubled family spent many years in Jamaica – and propelled by a crisp snare beat, "Beautiful Girls" glides where other sample-heavy songs have plodded. (In an period where most riffs are driven home by razor-shaped synthesizers, the song's main melody is underlined with a xylophone.)

Despite the song's novelty, Kingston, who has sworn off on cursing, does not appear destined to be a one-hit wonder: the album's second single, Me Love is about to enter the same iTunes Top 10 chart. A more recognizably reggae pop number, "Me Love" is a boisterous, up-tempo love song with the drums mixed up and the guitars low.

Built on the Led Zeppelin classic D'yer Maker, the track zips along with a boyish chorus and lyrics that likens heartsickess to drowning
in the ocean. Kingston, who is the nephew of dancehall star Buju Banton and the grandson of legendary reggae producer Jack Ruby, is also producer Rotem's project for 2007 and the rest of the album, while unmistakably Jamaican in flavor, is entirely American in composition.

On There's Nothin', his duet with fellow child prodigy Paula DeAnda,
a strong piano line, string and flute fluorishes as well as a short rap are just a few of the standard R&B elements that make this a pleasant placeholder.

The cool club track "Take You There" features a sometimes breathless Kingston extending his hand to the ladies over synthesizers big and small and a tropical house beat. But the real banger is Got No Shorty, a crunchy, spare track with giant hand claps, a subtle organ hook and a cartoony vibe reminiscent of OutKast's Hey Ya.

Those who like their hip hop slower and seemingly meaner should enjoy "Drummer Boy" which has bombast aplenty even if the lyrics – "this ain't a movie and I ain't pretending" – are as innocent as on his love songs. As on other tracks, it's hard to fault Kingston for being naive when the music is so damn mature – in "Drummer Boy," a hypnotic organ line imitates the up-stroke beat of a reggae guitar and the vocal chorus deftly incorporates the Little Drummer Boy's "pa rum pum pum pum."

It's Kingston's "bilingualism," his ability to rap in American and sing in Jamaican, that makes "Kingston" – which happens to be the capital of Jamaica – a small surprise, especially if you're willing to suppose that Kingston the rapper's style might owe some of its cadences to Detroit's Eminem.

In a time when albums rarely sell half as well as singles, Kingston's debut album is likely to triumph. There's a half-dozen hot singles on Sean Kingston, meaning the summer of '07 will probably extend late into the fall – not because of global warming but because we'll be getting a steady trickle of his caribbean charm long after the leaves have fallen.

Notch readily admits that his Español is limited to "abuelita sayings," but that hasn't stopped him from singing his way into the hearts of the young ladies. The seasoned singer, who once fused dancehall and R&B as one half of Born Jamericans, has transitioned from yardcore riddims to the dem bow beat in what he calls a celebration of his complicated ethnic background.

Born Norman Howell in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised in Washington, D.C., Notch speaks with a slight Jamaican accent and sings with a voice that is distinctly Caribbean. The product of African-American, American Indian, Cuban, Jamaican, Portuguese and Puerto Rican heritage, he grew up speaking English, Spanish and Jamaican patois, an amalgamation that he affectionately calls "Spatoinglish."

Notch's polyglot flow is what breathes life into "Hay Que Bueno," the blistering breakthrough track from his Machete Music debut, Raised By the People. The sharp-dressed, caramel-colored crooner's career appears to be ready for take-off. The one-time guest vocalist on tracks by Sublime and Thievery Corporation has more recently contributed to Daddy Yankee's Barrio Fino and Luny Tunes' Mas Flow, Vol. 2 compilation. But for anyone who thinks he's just cashing in on the reggaetón boom, the thirtysomething has three words for any doubters who wish to challenge his cred: "Check my discography."

Anyone into British music with a big beat, a la Gorillaz, is set to fall in love with the music of London cutie Lily Allen. Considered one of the U.K.'s top artists, alongside Coldplay and Robbie Williams, Allen will drop her debut album, Allright, Still, in the U.S. in just a few months. Already, the 21 year-old Allen has played a couple of sold-out shows in the U.S. promoting her digital-only Smile EP, to widespread acclaim from bloggers and music critics alike.

Equal parts cute and feisty, Allen owes her seemingly overnight fame to her good sense and great talents rather than to any record label’s marketing efforts. Unlike other musicians who became Internet-famous before even releasing an album – e.g., Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or Arctic Monkeys – Allen already had a record deal when the demos on her MySpace page started to blow up on the blogosphere. After proving to her label that her songs were ready for public consumption – and did not need additional polishing from any hot sh*t producer – her first single, Smile, immediately landed at number one on the British charts when it was released last summer.

With a very cool-sounding record that mixes soulful reggae samples with swanky R&B rhythms, Allen may have produced one of the most refreshing pop albums in years. Even when her lyrics are all about the boyfriend break-up, Allen's sassy delivery makes each bubblegum explosion snap like loose electrical wires. It’s a warm, bratty attitude with the same cosmopolitan vibe that has made Lady Sovereign and M.I.A. commercial successes. Just catch the first minute of her video for LDN and you'll know why she's both entitled the positive press and the wise-ass stance she strikes with such seductive confidence.

You can get a taste of what Lily Allen's world of sound is like when you download the two free mixtapes available on her official webpage. While you're there, don't miss the lyrics and staccato breakbeat and rollicking piano line on "Knock Em Out".