BLACK THOUGHTS: A Political Ideological Perspective for Afro Latinos

The Unpublished Papers

Hip Hopistas: Requiem for a Second Verse

By: Kevin Alberto Sabio
January 1, 2011

“The Aboriginals had suffered massive genocide,

And now we suffer tales of our lives that are falsified,
Unbelievable myths of our nature are nation wide,
And some are proving it true by being out there on the homicide…
You have some out that fall to mis-education,
And commit assassinations just to gain a reputation…
You see, the picture is much broader than the brush,
And yes we do have some ills, but commit to judgments that rush,
I’m kickin’ some knowledge just so that all you will know,
That this how we roll…with Spanish People In Control!”
-- Knowledge As Supreme/New Latin Swing; “Spanish People In
Control”, circa 1994 (unreleased).

Baltimore- A few years back, I had originally written a stand-alone

piece entitled “Hip Hopistas: Keep it Real” which had been published online

for an E-magazine that I was a Contributing Writer for at the time. In the

article, I had expressed the involvement of Latinos in the culture of Hip Hop,

and those that were newly arrived to the country who had somewhat

disrespected the history of the culture of Hip Hop while proclaiming it as

their own. ‘Hip Hopistas’ was originally meant to become an ongoing

article series, with subsequent articles expressing Latino concerns from a

Hip Hop perspective. I ended up writing my two other article series, pretty

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much leaving this one to remain as a solitary entry. Because of certain texts

that I have had the pleasure to read, I felt it to be timely and necessary to

return to this particular topic.

Over the past six months I recently had the pleasure to purchase and

read several nonfiction texts about Hip Hop culture, and the state of the Hip

Hop and Post-Hip Hop community/generation. Many of these works were

books that I had long wanted to purchase at the time that they were initially

published, but didn’t have the funds to go out and support the authors. Some

of these texts are considered seminal works about Hip Hop culture, with a

number of them (in my personal opinion) being very deserving of that title.

One of the first books on Hip Hop Literature that I had received (as a gift)

was Dr. Michael Eric Dyson’s, “Between God and Gangsta Rap”. That was

the beginning of my ‘Hip Hop Library’. Since then, and more recently

speaking, I have been able to get my hands on “Black Noise” by Tricia Rose,

“It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop” by M.K. Asante, Jr., “Hip Hop Decoded” by

Black Dot, and “Stand and Deliver” by Yvonne Bynoe. I was also able to

purchase and read “Hip Hop America” by Nelson George, but wasn’t as

impressed with his work as I was with the other aforementioned texts. Each

work spoke about the origins of Hip Hop, the ‘culture/community’ versus

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the ‘industry’ of Hip Hop, and also the possibility, or impossibility, of Hip

Hop being able to transform itself into a viable political vehicle for social

change. As impressed as I was with these works, among others that I have

read and/or owned, one question proceeded to nag me as I continued to

absorb these works…..

Where do Latinos, specifically Afro Latinos, fit into all of this? How does

this apply to us, and get this information to benefit us?

I mentioned in my article subtitled “Voice of the Voiceless” in this

series about the Afro Latino artists/lyricists that spoke to our issues, and put

them on wax; artists like Immortal Technique, Willie Villainova, Viva Fidel,

Rebel Diaz, The Arsonists, and the Orishas out of Cuba. You also have the

Afro Latino rhythms that permeate throughout Latin America, such as

Bomba y Plena from Puerto Rico, Punta from Honduras, Son from Cuba,

and many other music styles that have their roots in our African heritage.

Many of the great Salseros and Merengueros of the past spoke about our

issues and concerns back in the day.

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 In my own youth, as I had mentioned briefly in the article subtitled

“Word Power” in this series, I had spit a few rhymes of my own as a

member of a defunct music group that I had (briefly) formed with some

former friends from my high school years. (We were called ‘New Latin

Swing’; a hybrid group doing a mix of Hip Hop and Latin Freestyle music,

with Latin rhythms mixed in. In my opinion, we should have been the Latin

Freestyle equivalent of Bell Biv Devoe). Two of them that I distinctly

remember were rhymes called, “Spanish People In Control (S.P.I.C)”, and

“Latin Persuasion”. Though neither song made it to wax, the power of what

I was talking about still resonated. I remember spitting “Spanish People In

Control (S.P.I.C.)” one time for one of my boys during my time in the

military, a Boricua brother (my best friend in the service actually), and he

loved it. I had written other material for the group, but unfortunately, none

of it got to see the light of day. My partners weren’t as dedicated to being

music artists as I thought they should be, especially not musical trendsetters.

After that disappointing experience, I never picked up the mic again. At

least I never put down my pen…

In the late 90s (around 1998 or so), there was an underground

movement of (conscious) emcees rising up throughout Latin America,

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specifically among Afro Latinos. They weren’t focused on the materialism

or misogyny of their American-born counterparts; they spoke about issues

affecting them in their country(ies) of origin. They spoke to issues of racism

that they faced in their home country, the dire poverty that affects their

communities, and of oppression that they faced from their respective

governments. There were several articles written about this movement

printed in such periodicals as Stress Magazine, and Urban Latino Magazine.

Apparently, this was also happening around the time of the so-called ‘Latin

Explosion’ here in the United States. As I had stated in the article subtitled

“Reflections of Me”:

“…Afro Latinos were relegated to the status of persona non grata.

You never saw us during the whole explosion, not unless you dug around

really deep in the underground circles…”

Our voices went unheard, and our opinions were left unexpressed. So in that

sense, we had to create our own voices, and find alternate ways for us to be

heard. Inspired by the conscious artists here in the States, our brethren

throughout Latin America decided to lift their voices, and put their thoughts

to wax (or tapes, or CDs, or any other means that were available to them).

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 As stated in the texts listed above, Hip Hop can be used as a tool to

help instill social change in our communities. It can be a tool; not be

considered as the end all and be all. It can be used as a way to help

politicize the youth of our communities, but cannot be seen as the only

answer or the ultimate solution. Our Latino ‘raptivists’ are doing their part

to enlighten our youth to certain issues affecting our communities, much like

their African American counterparts. If we can get our youth to embrace

these conscious emcees, as opposed to the crap that’s played on mainstream

radio, we might be able to turn them away from the negativity that they are

being programmed to follow. At the same time, our political leadership

must come up with plans and initiatives to combat these issues that are

negatively affecting our communities. Our activists on the grassroots level

are doing what they can, but they cannot succeed without the proper support

that’s needed from the community. With our activists, raptivists, and

political leadership working together, we just might be able to fix the

ailments that plague our communities; ailments such as poverty, gangs,

disrespect, misogyny, and proper health care. We can transform our

wayward youth from predators to protectors, and engage them to become

more politically active and involved in their communities. No longer should

they feel ashamed to express their pride in their culture, or to not

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acknowledge any parts of their roots, or where they come from. Nor should

they accept the treatment of the system of the status quo, and not stand up

for their community, or what they believe in politically.

My Hip Hopistas, is ya wit me?!