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Latinos, Hip Hop, & Politics
Loading ...As we look at the increased political, cultural and social wars begin fought in our country, the question arises if Hip Hop, in its role as cultural rebellion, has a place or voice in issues such as the war in Iraq, the criminalization of immigrants, republican corruption, and so forth. Do “beats, rhymes, and life” have anything to do with what’s going on in our world? KRS-ONE declared that Hip Hop was “Not about a salary, it’s all about reality”. But, has Hip Hop kept its promise in staying connected to these realities that kill off our youth in foreign countries, deny children the rights to an education because of their legal status, or show that Republicans and Democrats are “… two heads of the same beast” ? (big up R.C Holmes) These are questions certainly up for debate. In light of the attacks being made upon Latinos, and their right to pursue the same journey as other immigrant communities in the past, a challenge has been given to me (a Hip Hop Latino) to find out whether or not Hip Hop, Latinos, and politics, have any relationship to one another.
Hip Hop as politics? Or act of defiance?
Is Hip Hop political? I don’t recall that BDP, Melle Mel, Public Enemy, NWA, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, or Talib Kweli encouraging us to join a political party, or to vote for Kerry. Yet there has been a surge of politics in Hip-Hop brought about by our icons of the past and future. Puffy, through his “Vote or Die” campaign, and Russell Simmons with his “Hip Hop Summits” certainly want us to hit the ballot box and vote for our next president. But is Russell Simmons attempting to bring back the ‘glory days’ of conscious politics in Hip Hop? Or, ushering in a new phase in the culture that never existed before? Yes, Hip Hop was a response, an address, to politics of the War on Poverty, the “White Flight” to the suburbs, the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. There were also conscious roots with spoken word such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron, but those ‘glory days’ of Public Enemy, Brand Nubian, and Boogie Down Productions as ‘political rap’ is an idea viewed through hazy glasses. These groups called for the end of violence, awareness of AIDS in the community, the dangers of crack cocaine. These groups also encouraged us to have a sense of power as Blacks and Latinos. In any lyric was there mention of writing to my congressman, joining a political campaign, or running for congress?
Even so, in my rebellious skepticism, I see vast gaps in the effectiveness of Hip Hop “going political.” Is there any credibility of icons such as Russell Simmons and Puffy as viable politicians? They are the most immersed in American capitalism–media moguls who have a hand in what we wear, listen to, watch on TV. Do they believe in the political system? As true American success stories, I would say yes. Grassroots organizations have been also critical of Puffy and Rush, and in Hip Hop in general, as political figures. In “The Politics of Hip Hop”, critics have noted that “art is always political, but artists shouldn’t be politicians”. Other activists have called Puffy and Russ “Hip Hop capitalists, not Hip Hop politicians”.
Let’s take a deeper look, upon its rise; Hip Hop was not intended as a political medium; rather an epic act of defiance against environment, nature, language, and time that’s bigger than politics. Every component of its culture was truly rebellion against all forms of nature. Kool Herc was able to stop time by extending the break and pull a sample of a song for everyone in the block to get down. MC’s took the opportunity to defy language by bringing stories, wordplay, competition, and commentary within that isolated moment in time. B-Boys and B-Girls were able to freeze, spin, and lock as a means to defy gravity and other forces of nature. Graf artists took the written word, chopped it up, and expressed it in new fashions that transcended mere paper as messages were proclaimed along trains and their routes. These were poor inner-city Black and Latino youth taking what was given to them and empowering themselves to manipulate nature, politics, language, and laws in order to gain power and strength over the elements that were killing them, making them hungry, and exploiting them. So is Hip Hop political? Why would a culture take on the medium they are fighting against? N.W.A. told us to “Fuck the Police”, and Dead Prez was down to run “up on them crackas in they city hall”.
The blurring of Latino Identity In Hip Hop
In an MC battle in Wildstyle, Ruby Dee of the Fantastic Five admitted “My name is Ruby Dee and I’m a Puerto Rican/You might think I’m Black cuz the way I’m speakin’”. These two lines set the precedent, and the debate, of the presence (or lack thereof) of Latinos in Hip Hop. The tendency to put things in an “us versus them”, “Black and White” fashion, as well as the continued efforts by the mainstream to animalize and devalue African derived artistry are culprits. In an interview, author Raquel Rivera notes the significant number of Latinos in the birthplace of Hip Hop, the presence of MC’s, breakers (Notably Crazy Legs of Rock Steady Crew), and graf artists. Latinos in NYC were also experiencing effects of Vietnam, the War on Poverty, and the flight of the middle class the city to the suburbs. Puerto Rican history also shows strong ties to African culture as evidenced by the large racial diversity found amongst Puerto Ricans and its presence in Salsa.
Salsa is as much a cultural product from African origins as Reggae and Hip Hop in drumming, collectivism, and culture. The term came about in the 1950s to describe the large number of musical styles coming from Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean. Just as much as Hip Hop sampled from every genre of music imaginable, Salsa was the hybrid of Son, Danzon, Mambo, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, etc. Its nomenclature parallels southern born Black musical genres such as “Jazz” or “Rock” where the term gave reference to a shift to a more rhythmic or grooving ‘jazzing up’ a ‘spicing’ of the music. In terms of arrangement, Salsa carries is own version of a break. As funk and soul tracks had a moment where the drummer goes off on a percussive or groove breakdown, Salsa has the ‘montuno’ a moment of high rhythmic energy cued by singers and MCs shouting some exclamation… in the same fashion as James Brown (Celia Cruz’s “Azucar” was her call for the montuno). The cultural esthetic of Salsa, the societal changes occurring in the United States, and the continued struggle of oppressed peoples, made the connections between Blacks and Latinos quite easy in the creation of Hip Hop.
Another reason for the lack of Latino presence in early Hip Hop history can be found in its own foundational values. As mentioned before, Hip Hop was a hybrid music where breakbeats were lifted and coupled with interesting samples from classical, rock, and other sources (a listen to “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” should show you this). Hip Hop was also a means of ending violence in the inner city by bringing people together under new forms of competition that didn’t require guns or knives. Afrika Baambaataa’s Zulu Nation was a way to bring rival gangs together under the banner of cultural empowerment. Musically, Disco, House, Freestyle, Electro, and other genres shared the same dancefloor, as Kraftwerk was played alongside James Brown, Madonna met the Beastie Boys at Danceteria, and, Run-DMC macking on Shelia E in Krush Groove, who was more Indianapolis Funk than Hip Hop. The Sugarhill Gang’s call out to “… the Black, the White, the Purple and Yellow” was a blurring of color difference.
The final nail on the coffin of Latino presence in Hip Hop came about just after the “Golden Age”. The rise of gangsta rap such as N.W.A. and Black Nationalism from Public Enemy, and the media’s need to find culprits of cultural genocide removed the multiculturalism from Hip Hop. The biggest success during this era was Cypress Hill, who drew up on the dark production styles of the Bomb Squad, gangsta subject matter, and weed as their chief bridges to the larger hip hop culture. They solidified their cultural roots with tracks such as “Latin Lingo”. In New York, Fat Joe, and the Beatnuts maintained closer to the architecture of NY Hip Hop. The genre became more specified when it took on geographic location as identity such as West Coast, East Coast, Southern, etc. Even today, we are now looking at specific cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Minneapolis (Atmosphere), Ohio (RJD2) as their own hip hop Genres. The vast splintering of Hip Hop after the ‘Golden Age’ (Where Fresh Prince would not be too far removed from Rakim or Slick Rick) made it hard for a marginalized group to find universality across race.
The problem today… (what the hell)
So with today’s new skool bringing in underground/overground, Hyphy, Crunk, Trap, and the club banger, where should Latinos in Hip Hop be found today? In certain respects, Latinos are never more visible today with Tony Touch, Fat Joe, and Pitbull bringing the presence to the forefront. There is also a subgenre of Hip Hop in Spanish coming from the west coast, influenced by Cypress Hill, Kid Frost, and southern style. Finally, Latin bands and groups have implemented Hip Hop for a while now with groups such as Ozzomatli, who brought in Charlie Tuna of Jurrasic 5 and Cut Chemist as DJ. The coming out of N.O.R.E as a Latino and his embrace of reggaeton has brought a whole new esthetic to Hip-Hop culture where now Puerto Ricans and other Latinos have found a rhythm to create their own blueprint music. Just as in Hip-Hop’s early days, reggaeton is benefiting from a vast amount of diversity as pop, gangsta, consciousness, and the club banger, can be found in the genre due to the shift in ethnocentrism. Yet where is the Latino Dead Pres? The only person that comes to mind is the one like Immortal Technique, who by his own identity as a Black Peruvian, has been able to find respect and solidarity with many of those who share his cultural heritage. He can speak to Harlem as much as to Bogota, about underground exploitation as well as corporate America.
Final Thoughts
Hip Hop is riddled with complexity, so there really isn’t an answer to how Latinos in Hip Hop fare with politics. There really can’t be an obligation to have Fat Joe speak on immigration, voting, and politics as much as we would ask Young Jeezy to do this same. Hip Hop was not meant to be political, but a means to remove oneself from shackles of oppression. Anyone in Hip Hop must be socially responsible, however, as our Hip Hop forefathers have shown us. Cypress Hill showed us their neighborhood; Immortal Technique showed us the drug trade from the ground up, but what about the rest of us? What do we have to say?
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