Chicano Rap Roots: Black-Brown Cultural

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Callaloo.
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CHICANO RAP ROOTS
Black-Brown Cultural Exchange and the Making of a Genre
by PanchoMcFarland
In 1992, the 500th year of the European presence in the Americas, Mexico officially
recognized Africa as the "third root" (el tercerraiz) of its hybrid (mestizo)society and culture. Meanwhile, throughout the Mexican diaspora in the United States, Chicanas and
Chicanos carved out a new musical culture by borrowing from and transforming a new
world African culture, hip hop. By 1992, Chicanas and Chicanos had been rapping, breakdancing, deejaying, and writing graffiti for a decade. In that year Kid Frost (later Frost),
the godfather of Chicano rap, released his second compact disc, EastsideStory. The year
prior,another important rap innovator, the group Cypress Hill, released its debut album,
CypressHill. Much like in the sixteenth century, mixed-raced Amerindians (Chicanas / os)
and new world Africans (U.S. blacks) live side by side as a result of a new economic and
political order. Under Spanish colonial rule Africans and indigenous Americans remade
cultures in diaspora and through mestizajeand mulataje(cultural or biological mixing
involving Africans in the Americas). In the postindustrial, neocolonial new world order,
Chicanas/os and African Americans borrow and transform aspects of their cultures to
create hip hop on the West Coast.
This essay examines the roots of Chicano rap music. Chicano rap texts (music, lyrics,
style, and interviews) illustrate a new millennial mestizaje/mulatajeconsisting of Mexican /
Chicana/ o, African (American) and European (American) elements. This new millennial
mestizaje/mulatajeis similar in circumstance and significance to that mixing of cultures
that created Mexico and Mexicanness in the sixteenth century. Analysis of the work of
Kid Frost, Cypress Hill, and South Park Mexican (SPM) reveals a complex encountering
of cultures that made the genre, Chicano rap, and which signals a rapidly growing trend
in United States society.
The concepts "diaspora," "mestizaje,""mulataje,"and the "people of color" identity
allow for important inquiry into the identity claims and culture of youth of Mexican descent in the postindustrial, postmodern United States. I examine the ways in which the
multi-ethnic and multiracial world of rap offers a challenge to typical understandings
of racial/ethnic identity, race relations, and identity politics. Additionally, for scholars,
analysis of this "interracial"interaction found in much of youth culture provides opportunities to reassess and redefine such foundational concepts of Ethnic Studies as mestizaje
and diaspora. Importantly, hip hop culture has created a situation in which youth of
Mexican and African descent in the United States can overcome obstacles to interracial
communication and develop interethnic alliances that challenge the ways we think about
race, culture, and politics.
Callaloo29.3 (2006) 939-955
CALLALOO
New Millenial Mestizaje/Mulataje: Diaspora, Mixture, and People of Color
In his article, "Diasporacentrism and Black Aural Texts," Robert Fox points out that
etymologically "diaspora" suggests "a scattering which is also a sowing"; the dispersion
of a people, their implantation in a new land, and the harvesting of a new culture (Fox
369). Inasmuch as both African- and Mexican-American cultures result from such a process, they are diasporic. New African and Mexican cultures emerged as they dispersed
throughout the United States. In response to their new surroundings, Mexicans and
Africans developed cultures that relied on syncretism and hybridization (mestizajelmulataje).These new African and Mexican cultures exhibit an aesthetics of reworlding (Fox
369). They are laden with Africanisms and Mexicanisms, yet they are uniquely American
(United States-ian). They are rooted in the myriad cultures and traditions of Africa and
the Americas, yet transform and transfigure them within the context of a multiracial and
multiply racist United States of America. They have also adapted the technologies, values,
worldviews, language, and economy of the neo-European U.S. culture to fit their needs
and desires and, in turn, permanently altered the original cultures.
Mestizaje,a process of cultural and biological/racial hybridization, has characterized
Mexican cultures for centuries'. Mexican anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil Batalla writes
that the process of mestizaje results, in part, from continuous attacks on indigenous
Mexican cultures2. The survival of Mexican people and their indigenous cultural roots
is due to resistance to this cultural imperialism. Resistance to cultural destruction and
appropriation allowed Mexicans to maintain important aspects of their culture while
modifying them to fit their new surroundings (Bonfil Batalla 135). Mexicans utilized the
new technologies, values, religions, and languages of dominant groups, that is, Spaniards
and Anglo Americans, to forge new cultural practices. Mestizaje,from this point of view,
is not simply reducible to miscegenation between Europeans and indigenous Americans.
It should be better understood as acts of resistance and survival by a people besieged by
European cultures.
Today, more than 20 million people of Mexican descent in the United States continue
the process of adaptation, resistance, and hybridization that we know as mestizaje.Cultural mestizaje,our ability to adapt and survive under conditions of colonialism, became
a badge of honor during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. We proclaimed
ourselves a brown people, a mixture of Spanish and indigenous blood and American
and European cultures (Acufia; Mufioz). We are a product of imperialist violence yet we
survived to create something new, the Chicana/o.
Chicano Movement historian Carlos Mufioz acknowledges that Mexican mestizaje
has become more complex over time, as intermarriage between Mexican Americans and
people of other races increases as we have come into close proximity. He is one of few who
acknowledge this more complicated notion of mestizaje.Unfortunately, he and others do
not pursue the documentation of such processes. Thus, in popular and scholarly discourse,
mestizajeis understood simply to refer to Spanish-indigenous mixing. Because the concept
has such a long and well-accepted history, I use a new term to describe the processes of
black-Chicana/ o interaction that created rap and a new Chicana/ o identity associated with
post-industrial urban living and youth culture. Mestizaje/mulataje
suggests a furthermixing
of Chicana / o culture and identity, one that has occurred in the late twentieth century in
the urban centers of the Southwest. By adding mulatajeto "mestizaje,"I intend to suggest
940
:CALLALOOthat African Diasporic cultures and peoples have been central components of syncretism
and hybridization in Mexican societies, especially in postindustrial Mexico America.
Additionally, the "people of color" identity helps us understand interracial cultural
exchange, communication, and identity formation characteristicof a great deal of the urban
experience for blacks,Chicanas/ os, other Latinas/ os, and Asians in the United States. Laura
Pulido's analysis of the people of color identity within the environmental justice movement
provides useful insight. Pulido points out that the people of color identity developed as a
way to acknowledge the commonalities between subordinated racial and ethnic groups.
Many people of color recognized thatthey had common experiences of racialdiscrimination,
especially in concern to their environments. Within the environmental justice movement,
Pulido finds that the negative experience of racial discrimination was insufficient for the
development of an identity that is resistant and positive. Pulido writes, "a viable identity
requires that people see themselves as agents in their own right" (164). It is not enough to
have a common experience of victimization. People need to see themselves in control and
empowered in order to create identities that lead to new worldviews, orientations, and
values. People of color in the environmental justice movement distinguished themselves
from the dominant European-origin group by examining African and pre-Columbian
Amerindian ontology, epistemology, and perspectives on nature. According to them, their
new pre-Columbian and African worldviews were different from and superior to that of
European Americans. Thus, their new identity as people of color was positive and based
on something unique to them-their traditions and worldviews and not on a negative
identity rooted in what they were not.
Youth of color growing up in inner cities in the United States during the 1980s and
1990s had the task of maturing and developing self-conception in a period of intense
denigration of their identities. This period saw what many have called a "Waron Youth
of Color" perpetrated by governments that, in some cases, criminalized young people's
very existence. Youthwho looked a certain way, listened to rap music, or had certain types
of tattoos were criminalized through informal (police and private citizens singling them
out and labeling them as criminal) and formal means (legislation that did not allow them
to congregate or be out at certain hours). All inner-city youth of color experienced this
type of racism. In the face of such denigration of their identities, young people created a
subculture with a new set of values, morals, aesthetics, and identities that they imbued
with positive characteristics.Today'ship hop nation consists of youth of color who identify
with the music, their racial/ ethnic identities, and a new mixed-race / culture worldview.
Where kids of various racial and ethnic backgrounds interacted in hip hop venues (shows,
concerts, clubs, street corners, youth clubs) an identity was formulated that foregrounded
their common culture and marginalized their (ethnic) differences. For Chicanas / os, this
process results from centuries of both positive and negative interactions with Africans.
From Son to Rap: Mestizaje/Mulataje in Mexico America
Beginning with Aguirre Beltran's 1946 publication of Lapoblaci6nnegrade Mexico (The
BlackPopulationofMexico), scholars have documented and shed new light on the impor941
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tance of Africans to the creation of the Mexican state and culture. In 1503, the first Spanish slave ship brought Africans to the Americas; by the end of slavery in Mexico during
the first half of the nineteenth century, between 250,000 and 300,000 Africans had been
legally transported to Mexico (tens of thousands more were likely smuggled into Mexico),
making Africans the second most populous racial group (after the indigenous) during
the colonial period3. With such a large presence in Mexico, Africans undoubtedly helped
shape Mexican culture and Mexicanness. However, as a result of a strict racial hierarchy
and later governmental initiatives to erase blackness from Mexican national identity, the
African presence in Mexico was ignored in order to focus on a Spanish-indigenous mestizaje
(Hernandez Cuevas, 2004). African influence on Mexicanness is far-reaching;it includes
culinary, linguistic, musical, and epistemological contributions. Intermarriage and miscegenation between Africans, Amerindians, Spaniards, and Asians was also important.
Key political figures such as Mexico's second president, Vicente Guerrero Saldafia, as
well as Jose Maria Morelos, hero of Mexican independence from Spain, were of African
Mexican descent.
Importantly, for this study, Mexican musics were greatly influenced by Africans. Marco
Polo Hernindez Cuevas shows how "the jarocho4son, the mariachi, the fandango [...]
all have black African roots at the point of origin along with Amerindian, Spanish and
other roots" (31-49). Using historical documents, Hernindez Cuevas shows how rhythms,
audience participation, dance, and instruments traveled from an African context to the
Americas and became part of Mexican expressive culture. The Afro-Cuban son tradition
serves as the foundation of two of Mexico's most important national musics, jarochoand
mariachi(Hernandez Cuevas 42-45). Jarochoand mariachimusic, along with African influenced instruments such as the marimba,jarana,caj6n,and tarima,5have become symbols of
Mexican national pride and have been identified internationally with Spanish-indigenous
mestizaje.Thus, the mariachimusic and lyrics and dances that many non-Mexicans and
Mexicans alike associate with Mexican Spanish-indigenous mestizoculture have roots in
African aesthetics. The music, dance, and worldview that Mexicans brought with them in
their journeys to the United States contain Africanisms that would influence Chicana/o
culture throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.
During the twentieth century, Chicanas/os and U.S. blacks continued the process
of mestizaje/mulataje,which began during the colonial period. Here, during periods of
increased interracial communication and exchange, U.S. denizens of African and Mexican descent shared in the creation of unique and influential youth subcultures6. Gaye
Johnson writes that "for as long as they have occupied common living and working
spaces, African American and Chicano working-class communities have had continuous
interactions around civil rights struggles, union activism, and demographic changes"
(316). Matt Garcia's research illustrates how young people have shared cultural knowledge and practices and built a common youth culture, even when residential segregation
and the complex and contradictory web of racisms experienced by both groups erected
barriers between them. He points out that Los Angeles dancehall promoters of the 1940s
recognized that a new generation of Mexican Americans not only enjoyed Latin music
styles but were also drawn to the popular swing music of the time. Swing was the music
of choice for the young Mexican, black, Filipino and white working-class practitioners of
zoot culture. Dance promoters seized upon the popularity of swing and zoot culture and
942
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showcased popular swing bands at multiracial dances. In the 1950s the popularity of rockand-roll music continued to draw a multiracial youth audience to dances. Garcia argues
further that "the racial/ethnic intermixing facilitated a blending of cultural influences
[... created a music that] possessed a broad-based, cross-cultural appeal, which facilitated
understanding among a racially diverse audience."
Such multiracial youth interaction in the middle part of the twentieth century resulted
in a process of cultural exchange and borrowing that birthed lowrider culture, rock-androll music, and contemporary gang and street culture (see Garcia, Loza, and Yamoaka).
Both Garcia and Johnson argue that the resultant youth subcultures challenged racial
prejudices and stereotypes. Garcia found that intercultural dancehalls along with interracial socializing at school and participation in multiracial political organizations led to
improved relations between blacks and Chicanas / os (164). Garcia'sinformants stated that
they began to date interracially.One interviewee remembered the El Monte dancehall as
"a melting pot," where interracial dating was not uncommon.
Certainly,relations between the two groups have not always been ideal. As a result of
the competition for scarce resources and their uncritical acceptance of racist stereotypes
imposed upon people of colorby the racist,capitalistU.S. society, an uneasy tension and high
levels of animosity have also characterized Chicana/ o-black relations. Times of economic
instability in the United States tend to increase racial animosity because Chicanas / os and
blacks are positioned among the lowest in the labor and social hierarchies, increasing each
group's socioeconomic difficulties and, thus, competition between them. The deindustrialization process of the late twentieth century, oppressive social conditions, drugs, AIDS,
police violence, and draconian legislation aimed at controlling people of color created
such an atmosphere in the 1980s7.Gaye Johnson writes that as a result of these problems,
"Latinosand African Americans have sometimes identified each other as impediments to
their own community's progress" (321). Incredibly,against these odds in the middle of the
1980s, brown and black inner-city cultural exchange led to the development of Chicano
rap and hip hop scenes throughout the Southwest. From the center of Chicano rap, Los
Angeles, to small towns like Pueblo, Colorado, young Chicanas/ os began breakdancing,
rapping, and DJing. Clearly, a new mestizajewas developing.
Chicana/ o rap and hip hop began in the early 1980s when Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's
Delight" (1979) introduced youth of Mexican descent to the new cultural phenomenon
developing in the black and Latina/ o barriosof New York. With this song, Chicanas / os
and others across the Southwest were finally able to hear rap. "Rapper's Delight" and a
string of early rap classics traveled quickly across the Southwest. Hip hop culture proved
infectious as Chicana/o and black youth throughout the Southwest flocked to join it. By
the early 1980s, following the popularity of several hip hop movies including Wildstyle,
Breakin',Breakin'II, and BeatStreet,hip hop culture was firmly entrenched in many Chicana/o and black communities.
As hip hop traveled west, Ice-T and N.W.A. created a new gangsta sound. Kid Frost
followed their successes with the release of HispanicCausingPanic in 1990. With it, Frost
had the first recorded Chicano rap album and the first hit, "LaRaza."8In the same year,
Lighter Shade of Brown (LSOB)dropped Brownand Proud.By 1993, the production team
behind Kid Frost's and LSOB's success, G-Spot Studios, and its founder, Tony G, had a
rdsume that included Frost's second (EastSide Drama,1992), ALT's early albums (Another
943
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LatinTimebomb,
1992 and StoneColdWorld,1993), and LSOB'ssecond (HipHopLocos,1992).
a
Dos,
group unaffiliated with G-Spot, released MexicanPowerin 1992 as well9. The
Proper
mid-to-late 1990ssaw an explosion of recorded Chicano rap,with the music being embraced
and recorded in Los Angeles to San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, Albuquerque,
Denver, Houston, Chicago, and other locations throughout Greater Mexico1o.Important
innovators such as the Darkroom Familia, Low Profile Records, South Park Mexican, and
the Cypress Hill network expanded the musical, thematic, and lyrical content of Chicano
rap. In the new millennium, Chicano rap artists and entrepreneurs have continued to
change the face of Chicana/o hip hop culture and rap music. The Chicano rap mestizaje
now includes Brown Pride online and Digital Aztlin; the revolutionary discourse of the
Divine Forces radio show and website; and a number of Chicano rappers and DJs from the
Midwest including Los Marijuanos, DJ Payback Garcia and Kinto Sol, and Los Nativos.
Through an examination of Chicano rap music and hip hop culture, Rafael Perez-Torres
reveals that mestizajeis ever evolving (331). The new millennial mestizaje/mulatajeindicated by Chicano rap music can be a liberating "strategy of critical empowerment" that
challenges simplistic, static, and, often, racist understandings of mestizaje(Perez-Torres
334). An analysis of rap texts will help us more fully understand contemporary Chicana/ o
indebtedness to Africa and African Diasporic cultures.
The Soul of Chicano Rap Music
When rap exploded across the country in the 1980s, Chicanas/os easily identified
with the new cultural movement's social and economic conditions as well as its complex
rhythmic foundations. The polyrhythmic layering at the heart of rap musical production
was familiar to Chicana/o youth who listened to their parents' cumbiasand mambosand
their older siblings' explorations of soul and funk music. Chicanos also have a long history of listening to the "oldies," the great black soul music of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s
often reinterpreted in rap. Chicana / o youth, then, were prepared to accept and transform
rap in ways similar to our ancestors' experiences with European, indigenous, and African
musics. Just as Chicanas/os adapted the accordion and violin to conjuntoand mariachi
music during the early twentieth century, in the last twenty years we have learned to use
turntables and samplers to express ourselves.
Rap as spoken, rhythmic poetry does not require the traditional musical elements of
samples, breakbeats, and reliance on bass drums and drum machines. In fact, rap does
not require instrumental accompaniment (Ice-T qtd. in Spirer). To rap all one needs is a
flow; the ability to speak rhythmically, poetically, lyrically. Rappers can rap over any type
of music. The strong presence of samples and interpolations of African Diasporic music in
Chicano rap suggests the strong influence that black cultures have had on Chicana/ o youth.
Moreover, the music's heavy bass, polyrhythms, and "noise" arenecessary elements to tell
the stories of postindustrial urban America. "Noise" or using multilayered urban sounds
as part of the musical backdrop signifies on the noisy and chaotic urban experience of
youth of color. The polyrhythms so characteristic of rap music create a sense of flexibility
in social relationships, as the rhythms present the possibility for multiple interpretations
944
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of space, time, and place. Walser argues that they serve as a defensive weapon against
one-dimensional understandings of human relations offered by the dominant U.S. society.
This flexibility in social relations and human understanding provides a cultural space for
exploration of social and interpersonal relations that break through the class and racial
barriers imposed by U.S. society.
Chicano rap music producers utilize African polyrhythmic structures as the basis for
their musical production. In particular, Chicano rappers and rap producers have an affinity for using funk beats and samples in their music. This is no surprise given that the
rise of recorded Chicano rap follows directly in the footsteps of the G-Funk sound of West
Coast rappers and producers such as Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre pioneered the use of funk beats and
guitar riffs of James Brown and George Clinton's groups, creating the West Coast sound
(Kelley 189). Early innovators developed G-Funk so that hip hop aficionados could listen
to the music in their cars. The culture of lowriding found a musical companion in the slow
grooves of G-Funk. Brian Cross writes that Dr. Dre always tests his music in his car to
make sure it has the right mix of musical elements (35). DJ Muggs, producer for Cypress
Hill, describes other important elements of the West Coast sound in the documentary film
Rhymeand Reason.He confirms the notion that West Coast rap differed from East Coast
sounds due to its heavy use of funk and adds that common elements of West Coast rap
music include heavy reliance on moog synthesizers, handclaps instead of snare drums,
and "whiny, high, synthesizer-type things."
Moreover, the gangsta rap sound developed in a specific geographic location, inner-city
Los Angeles, where black and Chicana/o youth have had considerable interaction and
find themselves affected by state-sponsored oppression in similar ways (Davis, chp. 5)11.
The street culture and use of marijuana by some black and Chicano youth undoubtedly
influenced the pace and sounds of West Coast rap. Marijuana,which gives its users a mellow high, is not conducive to energetic dance beats. Marijuanaand street culture require
the slower, headier beats and psychedelic guitar and piano riffs of G-Funk.
While Los Angeles Chicano rap artists such as Slow Pain, Frost, and Brownside and
others such as the San Francisco Bay Area's Funky Aztecs borrow directly from Dr. Dre's
G-Funksound and 1970sfunk, many arealso fond of rapping over "laid-back"soul grooves.
The sultry singing and lush instrumentation of 1970s soul provide another musical and
thematic palette from which Chicanos draw. In just one album Slow Pain recognizes Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, the O'Jays, and Smokey Robinson, funk pioneer Rick James, and
new soul singers Keith Sweat and R. Kelly. Frost names some of his musical influences as
Teddy Pendergrass, Earth,Wind and Fire, and Al Green. The electronic funk of the 1980s
exemplified by groups like Cameo, Roger Troutman,and Zapp also provides Chicano rap
with musical inspiration.
Chicano rap vocal delivery is also influenced by the vocal styles of important black rappers. The most influential rap artist is Tupac Shakur.The flow, vocal inflections, language,
and subject matter of several Chicano rappers owe their existence to Tupac's innovations.
Slush the Villain, Don Ciscone-who worked with Froston his 1999 and 2002 albums-Latino Velvet, and some Low Profile artists sound like Tupac reincarnate. Other rappers,
including Frost and Brown Huero of the Brown Town Looters, publicly recognize Tupac
as an important influence. On "ThaStrong Survive" from TheOllin Project,Brown Huero
implores us to listen to Tupac's (aka Makaveli) political critique on his song "Blasphemy"
945
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from his posthumously released CD, The Don Killuminati:The Seven Day Theory.Blunts
Lla's ("step n 2 tha sun," also on TheOllin Project)political analysis of urban Chicano living and his shouting of political slogans on the outro of the song draw on Tupac's style,
which in turn drew upon the African American oratory tradition of black preachers and
social movement leaders.
Further,the Funky Aztecs and Tupac recorded the song, "SalsaCon Soul Food," which
illustrates the type of inter-racialcollaboration found by Garciaand Johnson. Tupacadds a
level of complication to African American-Chicana/ o relations in his verse as he criticizes
the police for fearing positive black-brown social relations. On "This Is LA," Delinquent
Habits, a group that includes Kemo, a self-labeled "Blaxican"(biracial,black and Mexican), sample Tupac's "ToLive and Die in L.A.," in which he acknowledges the important
contributions of ethnic Mexicans to Los Angeles by rapping that L.A. would not be the
same without them. Tupac's lyric demonstrates the manner in which cultural exchange,
borrowing, and transformation flow in many directions.
The styles of other Chicano rappers indicate heavy influences from important black
rappers. On the album CalifaThugs,rappers associated with Low Profile Records rap in a
style associated with the Midwestern group Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony (BTNH).San Diego
rappers Mr.Sancho and Silencer rap in the rapid, high-voiced style closely associated with
BTNH and the Chicago group Crucial Conflict12.Low Profile Records' album, CalifaThugs,
as well as the artists' primary identity as "thugs,"demonstrate their debt to BTNH and their
mentor, Eazy E., founder of N.W.A. and Ruthless Records. However, their styles are not
simply borrowed; they did not "bite"(steal or plagiarize) BTNH's style. They re-interpret
an important influence with a San Diego Chicano style, evidenced especially in their use of
Spanish and Chicano street vernacular. Slow Pain's style and the use of the pimp / player
theme and "byaatch"to label the women with whom he has sexual relations borrow from
Northern California innovator Too $hort,13whose themes connect him to the pimp toasting
tradition (Kelley, Cross, Perkins). Others quote black rappers and other important cultural
figures such as Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix (e.g., "StreetFighter" on TheOllin Project).
In one song, also on that album, Lethal Assassins Clique quotes Master P in addition to
Tupac and Snoop Dogg's duet, "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" (Shakur).
The use of a centuries-old oratory tradition in Chicana/o, Mexican, and Amerindian
cultures adds further to the mestizaje/mulataje
of Chicano rap. Poets and their craft were
revered
in
Aztec
culture.
(Mexica)
highly
Poetry was "flower and song" (flor y canto)
for Aztecs. It was beautiful speaking. Political speeches encouraged Mexican peasants,
indigenous people, and middle classes to fight for independence from the Spaniards.
During the Mexican Revolution of the early twentieth century,ballad (corrido)singers and
composers effectively used their voices and lyrics to inform citizens of important events.
Chicana / o poets, speakers, activists, and other intellectuals drew upon indigenous, Spanish, and mestizooral traditions to write and perform political poetry and give speeches at
rallies and marches during the Chicano Movement. Rappers use the rhetoric of cultural
nationalism (Frost 1990, Lighter Shade of Brown 1990, TheOllin Project2001) and Mexican
indigenism (El Vuh 2003, The Ollin Project2001). They use phrases and slang indicative
of Chicana / o nationalism and radical Chicana / o politics. Groups like El Vuh and Krazy
Race, as well as contributors to The Ollin Project,sample and/or directly quote speeches
and political poetry.
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Chicano Rap Mestizaje/Mulataje
Chicano rappers exhibit an incredibly varied number of Mexican and African Diasporic
musical influences via black American culture of the past one hundred years, Mexican cultures, and Latina/ o musics. In the following sections I examine the work of three Chicano
rap artists focusing on the importance of the African Diasporic contribution. Frost's third
album artistically exemplifies the complex mestizaje/lmulatajedeveloping in Los Angeles.
South Park Mexican has been incredibly successful since emerging from Houston in 1995
with his debut, Hillwood.SPM is part of a second-generation Houston rap scene that
includes DJ Screw, Lil Keke, Lil Troy,and Fat Pat'4.Thus, he exhibits musical, thematic
and lyrical influences that differ from those of Los Angeles-based Chicano rappers, and
his music and professional life demonstrate the ways in which mestizajelmulatajetakes
different forms in different locales. In their multiracial makeup, Cypress Hill embody
the multi-ethnic nature of the Los Angeles hip hop scene. Their music bears witness to
the mestizaje/ mulatajedeveloping between African American, Latina/ o, Chicana / o and
other Angelenos.
Frost's Smile Now, Die Later
Kid Frost (Arturo Molina) started out in the multiracial L.A. hip hop scene in the early
1980s. He created a rap label with Ice-T and they participated with veteran Chicano rap
producer Tony G, in the hip hop scene of Uncle Jam's Army, a traveling group that threw
hip hop parties throughout L.A.'s black and brown neighborhoods (Cross 24, 190). Frost
recallsthe early years of L.A.rap when rappersonly talked about partying. He distinguishes
himself by claiming that he and his crew "were taking it into the streets," talking about
the struggles and issues facing Chicanas / os in L.A. (Cross 190). A Chicano nationalism
that celebrates resistance, ethnic pride, and social banditry informs Frost's first two CDs,
HispanicCausingPanic and East Side Story.
In his early work Frost directed his narratives and musical style exclusively to a Chicano audience familiar with R&Boldies and 1970s groups like El Chicano and Malo. He
even reveals a sense of competition with African Americans in the following exchange
with Brian Cross:
BC [BrianCross]: Does it trip you out ...
KF [Kid Frost]:That groups like NWA came out and stole Chicano
culture and stuff? Pendeltons and shit... (193)
He goes on to argue that African American rappers have exploited lowrider culture, compares this to the historical theft of Mexican culture by Europeans, and adds that African
American youth do not lowride as well as Chicanos.
At the same time Frost acknowledges the influence of African American culture and
music, citing such people as Mary Wells and Bill Withers as important to his development
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(Cross 195). His music has, of course, depended on African Diasporic traditions.Afro-Latin
and contemporary hip hop rhythms and samples of popular black soul and R&B have
shaped Frost's musical style from the beginning. Frost begins to reveal the true nature of
the mestizaje/mulatajewith the release of his 1995 album SmileNow, Die Later.
The vocal arrangements and styles throughout this album recall 1970s soul singing.
Diane Gordon's vocals on tracks such as "East Side Rendezvous" and "Look at What I
See," and sample backing vocals on "Mari"and "La Familia" exemplify this influence.
Uses of samples and reinterpretations of funk and soul music on many tracks further
demonstrate the Chicana/ o fondness for black "oldies." For example, producers Tony G.
and Julio G. use several elements from Sly and the Family Stone's "Family Affair" and
Rick James's "MaryJane"on "LaFamilia" and "Mari,"respectively. The song "YouAin't
Right," demonstrates the complex nature of cultural exchange and transformation occurring between Chicanas / os and blacks. The backing track for this song is the Clint Ballard,
Jr.composition, "You'reNo Good." The song was initially recorded by African American
soul singer Betty Everett of "Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" fame. It gained national
popularity with a mid-1970s version by popular Mexican American artist Linda Ronstadt.
In 1995 Frost and his producers added heavy bass drum sounds and other West Coast rap
musical elements to create an entirely new song laden with African Diasporic sounds but
uniquely Mexican American in the song's narrative and worldview.
Frost's producers also rely on typical West Coast rap sounds, such as the heavy use of
funk guitars and bass lines on "Mari"and "Nothing but Love." Another important aspect
of their musical production includes the use of high, whiny synthesizer sounds and piano
chords held over several measures ("Family Affair,""YouAin't Right," "Look at What I
See," and "Youseemurda")that Muggs describes as typical of the West Coast sound. The
producers of "How Many Ways Can You Lose A Body" and "Bamseeya"rely on handclaps
instead of snare drums; again, a typical feature of West Coast rap music. The musicians
on this CD also borrow from ethnic Mexican cultures. The use of Southwestern sounds
such as Spanish guitars and references to Pancho Villa in "Bambseeya"locate the music
in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands. Other examples of the way in which the music borrows
from and locates its production in ethnic Mexican cultures of the Southwest include the
use of samples of the popular group El Chicano's "Chachita"and "Look of Love" on "La
Familia" and "La Raza Part II," respectively.
The uses of black diasporic sounds and the music's development in the multiracial Los
Angeles hip hop scene demonstrate the interracial cultural exchange between Chicana/o
and black youth that began as early as the 1930s in L.A. dancehalls and schoolyards (Garcfa 164). While Frost's music was heavily influenced by black diasporic musics and black
Angelenos, the many references to Chicano life and uses of popular Mexican American
sounds also point to Frost's rootedness in ethnic Mexican culture and society. The mixing
and transforming of black diasporic and ethnic Mexican sounds demonstrate mestizajel
mulatajeas part of a new identity and cultural sensibility of young, urban Chicanas / os.
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SPM's H-Town G-Funk
South Park Mexican (Carlos Coy) has built a successful recording company out of his
Dopehouse Records. SPM15claims to have risen from his status as drug dealer, "O.G."
(original gangsta or veteran gang member), and criminal to become an owner of a thriving independent business. In just a few years, SPM built Dopehouse Records from a small
operation selling CDs through independent CD stores and regional networks to a business
that has a large group of artists, a long list of popular CDs, and a distribution deal with
Universal Records.
SPM's sound and vocal style reflect his upbringing in the rap and hip hop scene of
Houston, Texas. Early Houston rappers emphasized their gangsta identities and culture
and the stories their songs often tell involve violence, guns, drugs, misogyny, racism, and
poverty. Their music showed the heavy influence of West Coast G-Funk but their lyrical
delivery and flow, accent, language, and vocabulary locate them in the South and, more
specifically, in inner-city Houston. SPM's first album, Hillwood,similarly posits a gangsta
identity and tells stories of crack sales, violence, and struggle in his barrio.The musical
production follows in the G-Funk tradition.
A second wave of Houston rappers continue to make use of funk and the West Coast
style, but the thriving Houston and Southern hip hop scene creates an environment in
which innovation by people like DJ Screw, Lil Troy,Master P, and Luke led to new sounds
and vocal styles. Hip hop in Houston expanded to include a broad musical, stylistic, and
thematic vocabulary by the mid-1990s. SPM's later work, such as the eclectic 1999 release,
The3rd WishtoRocktheWorld,reflects this development. Thematically,the album discusses
typical gangsta stories ("Loyal Customers," "Creep With Me," "Hillwood Hustlaz"),
problems associated with brown-on-brown violence ("Land of the Lost"), offers humorous rants ("Wiggy"),and opines on male-female relations ("Thug Girl," "Miss Perfect").
SPM collaborated with more than twenty different artists, including rapper Pimpstress,
vocalist Marilyn Rylander, eight producers, and more than a dozen other rappers. The
album includes many songs in which SPM does not appear. In this way the album often
highlights the entire Dopehouse crew of rappers and music producers that includes black
men and women, and Mexican and Chicano men.
SPM's use of 1980s beats ("Thug Girl"),Latin musical sounds like castanets and Spanish guitars on "Latin Throne," Spanish and Chicano street vernacular, and claiming of
a Mexican identity ("LatinThrone") reflect the unique mestizaje/mulatajedeveloping in
Houston. SPM's music and style also demonstrate the way in which popular music trends
dominated by corporate rap like that of Sean "Puffy" Combs (P.Diddy, Diddy), Jermaine
Dupri, Master P, and Jay-Z also influence regional rap culture and mestizaje/mulataje.
Corporate rap has caused SPM to change his music and image by increasing production
values, relying more on dance beats and popular sounds, and incorporating the themes of
"baller,""player,"and conspicuous consumption; all of these trends are associated with
the dominance of corporate rap in popular music. SPM's music demonstrates many influences including the soul singers ("Landof the Lost," "LatinThrone,""Who's Overthere")
and funk music of the 1970s and contemporary popular musical trends. SPM's music
and corporation provide initial evidence that black and brown youth cultural interaction
described by Garcia and Johnson is creating a unique mestizaje/lmulatajein Houston. His
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music reflects a familiarity with African American popular music and culture of the last
three decades. The multiracial nature of Dopehouse Records, which he founded and directs, also indicates a cultural borrowing, exchange, and transformation. SPM has a role
in creating a new youth culture in Houston-a youth culture similar to that being created
throughout the West.
Cypress Hill Familia
Black Cuban brothers Sen Dog (Senen Reyes) and Mellow Man Ace (Sergio Reyes), Italian American DJ Muggs (Lawerence Muggerund), and multi-ethnic Latino B-Real (Louis
Freese) formed Cypress Hill in the late 1980s. The group hails from Cypress Avenue in the
Southgate district of Los Angeles. Ace moved on to a solo career and had a hit with the
release of "Mentirosa"in 1989. The remaining three members released their debut album,
CypressHill, in 1991. Songs like "Phunky Feel One" (1991), "How I Could Just Kill a Man"
(1991), and "Insane in the Brain" (1993) catapulted them to international superstardom
in the early 1990s. Cypress Hill has not only created a new genre of slow, beat-heavy,
marijuana-influenced rap music, but the group has also made it a point to extend the
hip hop community by reaching out to white rock fans (they joined the alternative rock
Lollapalooza tour) and Spanish-speaking Latina/ o communities (they released a Spanish
language version of their greatest hits in 1999). They have always been conscious of rap
and hip hop culture as a multi-ethnic, multiracial youth cultural form and have refused to
limit the possibilities of rap in order to reach youth from all walks of life (Cross;Ndlobvu).
In an interview with Dumisani Ndlobvu, B-Real argues that "music is for everybody," and
defends his group against critics who fault Cypress Hill for reaching out to youth of all
races. Sen Dog and Muggs explain their cultural politics of interracial alliance in a 1991
interview conducted by Brian Cross:
SD [Sen Dog]: We feel you can all be down with your own, but not
when it comes to the music; you all got to be together.
Muggs: We feel [understand, empathize with] the niggas, the Mexicans, the Chinese, white kids, it don't matter. (238)
Cypress Hill believes that hip hop culture and rap music arevenues for positive multiracial
youth dialogues-places where young people of different races can "feel" each other, can
enjoy each other's company and share culturally, politically, and emotionally.
Cypress Hill's cultural politics and body of work epitomize the mestizaje/mulatajethat
is responsible for the emergence of Chicano rap and hip hop culture and that is indicative
of the close proximity of people of color in the postindustrial inner-city.They have worked
with white rappers House of Pain, and a long list of black rappers from all regions of the
country, speak fondly of their relationship to the Samoan rappers of Boo Yaa Tribe, and
have mentored the Chicano rappers Psycho Realm and Delinquent Habits. Their attitudes,
style, language, and music reflect a ghettocentric or barriocentricexperience. They revel
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and take pride in their underclass, urban roots. Their use of the word "nigga" exemplifies
Kelley's argument concerning the development of a ghettocentric identity and culture in
gangsta rap (210). He writes that
To be a real nigga is to be a product of the ghetto. By linking their
identity to the 'hood instead of simply skin color, gangsta rappers
implicitly acknowledge the limitations of racial politics, including
black middle-class reformism as well as black nationalism.
"Nigga" among many in black communities is a sign of a mutually shared identity. Black
people reclaimed an epithet that had been used for centuries by whites as a means of
humiliation. Just as they did with the term "black" in the 1960s, Americans of African
descent took a linguistic tool of oppression away from racists, changed it to meet their
cultural and linguistic needs (note the dropping of "er" and its replacement with "a"),
and gave it new cultural significance'6.
Unfortunately, the word, "nigger," in Chicana/o and other Latina/o communities
more often than not is used as a racial epithet. Latinas/ os have used words like "nigger"
and its Spanish equivalents to distance themselves from any association with American
blacks. We have also used these words to cause pain to black people and to demonstrate
a perceived racial superiority. In this way, Latina/ o uses of the word "nigger" have mirrored the way it has been used by whites. Therefore, Latina/o and Chicana/o claims to
the word "nigga" as a new cultural identity warrant a great deal of scrutiny. We should
ask ourselves whether our borrowing of an important black American cultural identity to
shape a new, rebellious Latina/o identity is not merely racist appropriation.
Though the use of "nigga"may be problematic, Cypress Hill's multiracial youth politics
reflect an important development in multiracial coalitional politics and the "people of
color" identity fostered in the environmental justice movement and other political arenas.
The people of color identity eschews nationalistic discourses that determine friends and
enemies based on skin color and, instead, argues for a coalitional politics based on the
shared experiences of oppression and struggle of working- and under-class members
of subordinate ethnic groups. A new, more complex, notion of cultural identity is being
developed in many places where working- and, increasingly, middle-class people of color
interact (Pulido). Cypress Hill reflects the realities of inner-city life for many people of color
as one of cultural exchange, borrowing, transformation, and common struggle. They, as
well as Chicano and other rappers, appeal to our youth of color because they acknowledge
a multiethnic, multiracial, post-industrial, inner-city experience that political leaders from
an older generation rarely engage.
Racial Politics, the New Mestizaje/Mulataje, and Chicano Rap
Hip hop arises out of African musical traditions including call and response, communal musical composition, polyrhythms, and resistance (Gaunt, Levine, Walser). Analysis
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of Chicano rap shows that it borrows and transforms African Diasporic traditions. Chicano rappers' and music producers' use of funk, soul, R&B,blues, jazz, and Afro-Latino
rhythms and the musical vocabulary of black American rappers demonstrates a history
of black-Chicana / o interaction and mutual creation of a powerful youth subculture. This
interracial cultural creation is witnessed in the music and lyrics as well as in the groups'
shared worldview, collaboration on musical projects, linguistic innovations, and shared
identities as "thugs," "gangstas," and hip hop heads.
This multiracial youth subculture signals a trend in relations between Chicanas/os
and blacks that I call new millenial mestizajelmulataje.African and Mexican Diasporic
peoples continually recreate the youth subculture known as hip hop in Los Angeles and
throughout the nation. The new culture relies on African and Mexican cultural traditions while utilizing technologies, ideas, and behaviors adopted from the dominant U.S.
culture. Hip hop heads transform aspects of the dominant culture to serve their cultural,
economic, social, and political needs and desires, using their cultures of origin and the
dynamic processes of multiracial youth interaction; behaviors characteristicof diasporic
peoples across the globe. What results is not African or Mexican, black, or Chicana/o. It
is something more; something unique. In this way the culture challenges commodified
notions of "blackness," "Mexicanness," "youth," "authenticity,"and "hip hop culture."
The news media, gangxploitation films, and the corporate, dollar-driven rap industry have
presented a distorted image of hip hop culture and its multiracial practitioners, causing
those of us distanced from youth, inner cities, or people of color to misunderstand, devalue,
and denigrate youth and hip hop heads. The resultant stereotypes present young black
and brown youth as criminal, irresponsible, and irrationally violent.
The culture industry has manufactured a negative notion of hip hop and youth cultures
and its practitioners that is belied by analysis of the music and lyrics. This new subculture
and the identities that stem from it often transcend cultural and racialbarriersestablished
by the dominant racial paradigm, which have often been uncritically accepted by people
of color. The draw of music, especially the polyrhythms of the African Diaspora, has
brought youth of color into mutually respectful and gratifying relations and has fostered
what Gaye Johnson calls "alternative communities of allegiance" (327). These alternative
communities rejectthe strict cultural nationalism of our parents' generation and ascribed
identities17of youth and people of color and open up the possibility for sustained interracial cooperation. Most of what occurs in hip hop culture is a multiracial exchange of
joy, emotion, and knowledge. The corporate mass media reflects little of this "positive"
behavior, preferring instead to demonize it, focus on violent and hedonistic corporate
rap, and deflect our attention from the "real"causes of violence, misogyny, drug abuse,
and poverty.
From the multiracial interaction apparent in much of hip hop culture, new understandings of race, politics, gender, and morality continue to develop. While these new
understandings are not always liberatory or progressive (witness the extreme misogyny,
homophobia, violence, and materialism of much of today's popular rap music18), they
have the potential to chart a new course in racial understanding between black and
brown people. The interracial cooperation at the root of Chicano rap has allowed for the
destruction of debilitating racial barriers in this era when black and brown people are
forced to compete for valued resources such as jobs, housing, and education. The music
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of Frost, SPM, Cypress Hill, and others bears witness to the mestizaje/ mulatajedeveloping
in Southwestern inner cities and to the choices of affiliation made by youth of color that
challenge racial categorization.
Further, analyzing Chicano rap's new millennial mestizaje/ mulatajeusing a lens that
redefines Mexicanness or mexicanidadthrough inclusion of the Third Root of African influence allows us to see more clearly the colonial processes that have subjugated, subordinated, and destroyed people of color since 1492. The colonial experience brought people
from Africa, America, and Europe together under a racial and economic caste system.
Remarkably, new cultures resulted from intercultural exchange, communication, and
conflict. Unfortunately, the African contribution to Mexican mestizaje/mulatajehas been
made invisible. Under the contemporary neocolonial new world order,Amerindians and
Africans are once again mixing and melding. Out of the oppressive conditions of neglect,
racism, and open hostility, black and brown youth are creating new ways of thinking,
seeing, and believing infused with the multiracial, resistant politics of the beat.
NOTES
1. Precolumbian Amerindians were from hundreds of cultures. Today, 289 languages are still spoken
by 56 distinct indigenous groups in Mexico (Hernindez Cuevas 37).
2. Bonfil Batalla rejects the popular notion that Mexico is a mestizo nation. Instead, he argues that
most Mexicans are indigenous. Nonetheless, he describes important processes that most scholars
of Mexican and Mexican American cultures label mestizaje.
3. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Africans later escaped slavery in the United States by migrating
to Mexico. For an entertaining and thought-provoking multimedia presentation of African contributions to Mexican culture see the exhibit The African Presence in Mexico.
4. Jarochois the term applied to the offspring of Amerindian and black parents in Veracruz (Hernindez
Cuevas 31).
5. The tarimais a wooden platform that is used as a drum by dancers in Mexican balletfolkl6rico who
pound out rhythms with their feet. It is believed that the tarimawas first used by Africans deprived
of their drums in the Americas (Hernindez Cuevas 45).
6. Nancy Guevara makes a similar argument about African American-Puerto Rican interaction beginning in the 1940s when Puerto Rican migration to New York increased rapidly and brought Puerto
Ricans and American Blacks in close proximity. See also Raquel Rivera.
7. In chapter 2 of Black Noise, Rose locates the emergence of rap in New York during the economic
restructuring beginning in the 1970s. Contributors to In the Barrios:Latinosand the Underclass Debate
detail the effects of the deindustrialization process on working-class Latina / o communities. Mike
Davis's account of power and racial inequality in Los Angeles documents police abuses in Los
Angeles's communities of color. Brian Cross provides a detailed table that lists the race of police
abuse victims in the years 1965 through 1991 in his It's Not about a Salary. The National Commission
on Criminal Justice criticizes the judicial system, detailing racial inequality and mistreatment of
people of color at all stages of the criminal justice system.
8. Kid Frost recorded the first known Chicano rap, "Rough Cut." Reagan Kelly writes that the song was
cut in 1984, but Frost states in an interview with Brian Cross that he recorded the song in 1981.
9. Mandalit del Barco and Reagan Kelley provide thorough histories of early Chicano rappers.
10. "Greater Mexico" is a term associated with the work of Americo Paredes and has since been used
by many Chicana / o studies scholars. The term implies the people, territory, and culture of Mexico
and the extension of Mexican-origin people, culture, and territories in the United States where ethnic
Mexicans have an important presence.
11. Davis describes oppressive policing tactics of the 1980s. Cross links the rise of gangsta rap to police
abuse (24-34 and "Appendix"). Kelley, Valle and Torres, and Moore and Pinderhughes discuss the
deep economic and social crisis for urban people of color attending the consequences of deindustrialization, globalization, and economic restructuring.
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12. See the following examples. Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony, 1995, E 1999 Eternal, Ruthless Records; 1997,
The Art of War, Ruthless Records; 2000, BTNHRessurection,Ruthless. Crucial Conflict, 1996, The Final
Tic, Pallas; 1996, Good Side, Bad Side, Uptown; 2001, The Call of the Wild, Buckwild.
13. Too $hort's albums include the following. Born ToMack (1988, Jive Records), Lifeis ... Too$hort (1988,
Jive), Short Dog's in the House (1990, Jive), and Chase the Cat (2001, Jive).
14. The Geto Boys and the 5th Ward Boyz represent the first-generation of Houston rappers. See the following from the Geto Boys: GripIt!, (1990, Rap-A-Lot Records), GetoBoys (1990, Rap-A-Lot Records),
and Da Good,Da Badand Da Ugly (1998, Virgin). See the following from the 5th Ward Boyz: GhettoDope
(1991, Priority), Recognize the Real (2000, Underground), and Word is Bond (2002, Underground).
15. See also the Dopehouse Records webpage at www.dopehouse.com.
16. Cornel West argues against the use of "nigga" on the song, "The N Word," from his spoken-word
CD, Sketchesof My Culture. He acknowledges that many African American people use the word as a
term of endearment and to recognize a common experience but asks why words such as "brother,"
"sister," and "homegirl," which are also used endearingly, are used less frequently. See Kennedy
for a complex and thorough discussion of the term.
17. Joanne Nagel explains that an important aspect of any ethnic or other identity is that often we can
not choose our identity and instead it is forced upon us by a dominant group.
18. See Kelley, McFarland, and Rose for discussions of violence and misogyny in rap music.
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-~.
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IV. Ruffhouse / Columbia, 1998.
---.
Templesof Boom. Ruffhouse/ Columbia, 1995.
---.
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Hill. Ruffhouse/ Columbia, 1991.
- Cypress
.
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. Here Come the Horns. RCA, 1998.
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That Was Then, This Is Now, Volume1. Celeb Entertainment, 1999.
- When
.
HelL.A. FreezesOver. Relativity, 1997.
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?Hispanic Causing Panic. Virgin,1990.
?
New WorldGames. MCR Productions, 2005.
Krazy Race.
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Los Marijuanos. The SmokeOut. Wicked, 2001.
. Puro Pleito. Wicked, 1999.
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. Psycho Realm. Sony, 1997.
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