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Latin Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop was created by Black and Latin kids in The Bronx in the 1970s.

From the Spanish Caribbean, rap looks Caribbean with exposed African and Spanish roots.

Latin Hip-Hop News

Freestyle Love Supreme (SPECIAL TONY AWARD, Lin-Manuel Miranda) is on Broadway at the Booth Theater to Jan 2, 2022. From $59. 🇵🇷

Previously

The Cruce de Campeones USA National Freestyle Rap Finals are at La Boom NY in Woodside, Queens on Sat, Oct 2 at 6pm. Cacha vs Yartzi is the exhibition. From $35. 🇨🇴🇨🇺🇩🇴🇪🇨🇬🇹🇲🇽|🇦🇷🇵🇷

We’re All in the Mix

Hip-Hop was created by African American and Caribbean American kids in The Bronx in the 1970s, but it’s roots are in the Caribbean, Africa and Europe. Latin kids raised the level of break dancing with their parents’ Palladium Ballroom dance moves.

DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) started the first hip-hop party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in Morris Heights, The Bronx. Campbell was born in Jamaica.

The four main elements of hip-hop culture are:

  1. Rapping
  2. DJing
  3. Break dancing
  4. Graffiti writing

Latin freestyle, a form of Latin rap, came up in Puerto Rican communities Uptown and in The Bronx, and Italian communities in Brooklyn in the 1980s.

Whatever happens in New York City travels everywhere. Latin hip-hop also developed on the West Coast with artists like Cypress Hill. Tupac Shakur was one of the main West Coast artists, but he was born in El Barrio, East Harlem.

Reggaeton and Latin trap are offshoots of Latin hip-hop. Another offshoot is the Broadway hit of our generation: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.” Miranda forged his path with “In the Heights” and the earlier “Freestyle Love Supreme.”

Caribbean precedents include West African griots (storytellers) and European troubadours. In the mountains of Puerto Rico, troubadours still compete with each other on stage just like a rap battle. Puerto Rican plena also has improvisational traditions that are a lot like rapping.

Bomba, the Puerto Rican folk drum, song and dance tradition, can also be seen as a precursor to break dancing.

Everybody wants to throw down there own claim, but there is nothing new under the sun and we are all mixes of each other, the great mix.

Calle 13

Residente of Calle 13 in 2010 (Christian Perez/Dreamstime)
Residente of Calle 13 in 2010 (Christian Perez/Dreamstime)

¡Atrévete-te-te! From 2005 to 2014 Calle 13 dominated Latin hip-hop, winning four Grammy awards and 24 Latin Grammy awards. More important than the awards, the band really captures the feelings of Latin youth.

On break, since 2014, the band members René Pérez Joglar (Residente), Eduardo Cabra Martínez (Visitante), and Ileana Mercedes Cabra Joglar (iLe) are doing their own thing.

iLe has come into her own as a great Latin voice. She delivers the same biting wit as her brother, but softly in a snake charmer kind of way.

“Coco” Héctor Barez, Calle 13’s original percussionist, is taking Puerto Rican bomba jazz to the world with his El Laberinto del Coco project (ICP, NEA, SXSW).

Latin Music

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