Stylistically, it is known for its incorporating son Cubano, conga, cumbia, salsa, merengue, and Cuban rumba, as well as styles and forms such as rap and ballads.

[1] Ray Machado, the founder and lead singer of Máxima Alerta, was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, a busy city in the center of Cuba where reggaeton music gained popularity among the young, often marginalized and vilified youth culture (and where it is sometimes spelt "regueton" or "reggae town"), and merged with local influences to be called Cubaton.

He worked as a concert sound engineer for acts including Cándido Fabre, Paulo FG, and El Chispa y sus Cómplices.

[1] He founded the Cubaton fusion band Máxima Alerta on June 20, 1999 in Santa Clara, serving as lead singer, musical director, and composer of most of the songs for the group.

[1][4] According to Machado, hip hop began to gain popularity in Cuba in the 1980s, though rap was forbidden by the Cuban government because it was feared that it could be used for counter-revolutionary activities.

In time, the Castro government came to see rap music artists as potential new revolutionaries, provided that they produced lyrics that cast the Cuban Revolution in a positive light.

The album features such singles as "Echar pa'lante" ("Go Forward"), which mixes an old revolutionary ballad by Carlos Puebla about Che Guevara with hip hop and son Cubano; and "Machete", a crossover of Cuban rumba and salsa trumpets with a hip hop beat that centers on an old farmer cutting sugar cane with a machete.

[2][3][4] In 2009, the band's song "La Figura" ("Ay Lola"), which Maxima Alerta recorded with the Cuban reggaeton group Gente de Zona, rose to the top of the charts.

Six of the fourteen tracks on the album featured special guests Yulien Oviedo and Dante; Alexander Delgado y Randy Marcos; Sisto Llorente "El Indio".

That same year, it played at the New York City venues Drom and The Bitter End, performed during the Cuban Parade of New Jersey, and made television appearances on stations including Telemundo and Univision.

[3] The video for the single, released in October that year, was directed by Brandon Medina, and produced by Melu Films,[6] the production company of actor/singer/filmmaker Lucio Fernandez, the Commissioner of Public Affairs in Union City,[7][8] who also serves as the band's manager[9] and one of its vocalists.

[1][2][3][4] Machado described Máxima Alerta's fusion of genres by saying, "We mix American hip hop with son, salsa, merengue, cumbia and reggae.

The band's music pays homage to Elio Revé, the singer of the changüí, which, like son Cubano, originated from the Oriente Province, the eastern part of Cuba.