TWERK IT:This is a clip I shot of a dance contest Scratch Produxiones held at the 3er Salón Internacional del Tuning y Car Audio in July. Reminder to always dance like no one else is in the room.
As mentioned before, Mexico City is car culture. The Monterrey rap/reggaeton group 330 Studio presided over this contest, with two women chosen: one blonde, one brunnette. That’s rapero Delincuente officiating, the rule was no booty grabbing.
I want to dedicate this post to those two women who let themselves get grinded on.
For me, it was only slightly shocking to see the gang-grinding at the end of each session, and I realized this same thing must be happening at car shows in the U.S. It’s not just a machismo thing.
I think the prize was a towel, a t-shirt and a CD.
EVA.EME: Not a backpack-underground-rapper. She reps Cuernavaca.
I didn’t want to edit this video too much, I wanted you to see the off-the-cuff Eva.Eme (pronounced Eva Punto Eme).
In Mexico, these days, it seems like everyone raps.
Over the summer I had a chance to meet 21-year-old MC Eva.Eme in her home town of Cuernavaca, Morelos. That of course is a written rhyme in the video above, but what I’m impressed with more about her is her love for the music and its energy. She sacrifices a lot, and given shady biz in the industry, people who rap on stage almost always do it for the love and not the bread, because you just don’t cake like that. Check out her group.
At this point in her career, she’s working a day job, trying to play clubs on weekends, and to my surprise has to suffer abuse from her mother just to go rock a mic. Eva showed me a scar on her wrist from her mother wilding out on her for coming home too late after a show. Drama. But that’s the life of an early 20s Mexican girl/rapper.
I’ll have a more thorough profile written for you later. I just wanted to get this video online for people to see. And yes, fans, hip-hop is alive and well in Mexico…but like anything, it needs a little work. If Eva keeps working on her bars, no telling where she might take her rhyming skills.
Listen to Eva:
Go here, and scroll down to stream 2 tracks by Eva.Eme.
In 2005, a Mexican hip-hop documentary produced by Canal 22 premiered, and to the best of my knowledge, it´s the best visual document yet of hip-hop culture in Mexico City. It feels a little dated. Big Metra, goes by Bigger B or something like that. Big Metra won this year´s DJ Concept award for best MC. I was always impressed he got Jada on a track.
My only problem with this is the use of Maldita Vecindad´s Rocco as the narrator. While Rocco is by no means lacking in any hip-hop cred, his Cyber Pachukote, raga-styled music isn´t quite purist hip-hop like I know a lot chavitos like their music. Rocco is still dope at the end of the day, and he reps hard for the indigenous people´s all over Latin America. My kind of dude.
I´d found this doc on youtube months ago, but the good folks at Cabezas under. compiled the whole flick in one post. Enjoy.
RAPERA´S DELIGHT: D.F. via Monterrey rapper Niña Dioz tears it down at the Spanish Cultural Center in Downtown Mexico City.
I just read a post over at the always interesting Mija Chronicles regarding hip-hop culture in Mexico, or maybe its lack thereof. A topic I´ve been focusing on for almost half a year.
Let me first say that the Mija is a friend of mine, so in no way am I trying to clown her, but when I read these graphs:
I haven’t read a whole lot about why hip-hop isn’t big here, but I wonder if it has to do with the fact that in Mexico, there seems to be a culture of quiet acceptance when things go wrong. Politicians stealing again? Sigh, shake of the head. Yep, that’s what they always do. No water? Yeah, but that’s just the way it is. The general notion seems to be to keep your head down, and make sure your family is fed. Not strike back at The Man through politically aware lyrics.
That still doesn’t answer the question about why American hip-hop culture hasn’t seeped in more. Mexicans have embraced plenty of other aspects of American culture — fast food, sneaker boutiques, Wal-Mart.
I was like oh, boy (rubbed my hands together like a plotting mad professor) gotta get to back to blogging.
Before I continue, let me just give you a little context:
See, back in 2005, ya boy was sitting in the dungeons of a newspaper (clocking decent loot), wondering to himself: How can I get the heck out of here? And it dawned on me…write. So I wrote. And I wrote about hip-hop, because, frankly I listened to enough 89 Tech 9, been to enough Rock Steady Crew reunions, the Apollo, Summer Jams, you name it to know more about this music and culture than, perhaps, your average person who writes for a newspaper. At least that´s been my experience.
That said, I thank every reporter who didn´t realize Snoop dropped the Doggy Dog years ago, didn´t know Ceelo Green had a career before Dangermouse, doesn´t know who Paul Wall is, can´t tell me which rapper sampled in the opening of Biggie´s “Ten Crack Commandments”, or tell me what sippin syrup refers to. Thank you oh peddlers of popular culture. Thank you, you helped me find my way.
Back to Mija´s blog.
Hip-hop culture vs. rap music…yes, it´s more clear cut than the “I´m Black” vs. “I´m African-American” debate.
The Mexican embrace … of sneaker boutiques is totally hip-hop culture. So, if we just look at that BAM! we got hip-hop culture in plain view. Other than that..commercial radio out here is more apt to play Zoe than Jay-Z, but if you blast ” Big Pimpin ,” most Mexicans in their 20s will start bobbing their head to this familiar jam.
I won´t get into it all right now, because I´d like to give this all more thought. And more posts, dig.
There´s a lot of evidence that hip-hop culture is as part of the mainstream fabric of Mexican society as anywhere. Now, the economics here are different, so you don´t see hip-hop pushed into people´s faces like you do in the States. I don´t know, maybe it´s the lack of suburban white people in Mexico that keeps hip-hop at a more humble existence here. But it´s here. And don´t worry, I lace you with the knowledge. I´ve got some adventures to post about, female emcees, and the rest. Stay tuned.
Wow. Huge lapse in the blogging. Sorry about that, my (very) few keeping count.
Shout to Google for keeping me somewhat relevant, and for the kind soul who shared a post on Bocafloja with their Myspace posse. Let’s keep this rap en Español convo going. I really believe that the next frontier of hip-hop is going to be popular rap in a language other than English (or French). As our Latino population grows (while not at the same time as our ability to speak Spanish) I think people will come to appreciate the different mix of ideas and the stretching and pulling of rap music in the form of other tongues. Maybe I sound crazy, but if you told a B-Boy rapping in a cipher circa 1985 New York that one day, not only would the South run rap, but also Chicago and even England a little bit, they would laugh you out of the Bronx. Now hasn’t that come to pass?
With that said, I want to keep everyone interested in my explorations of hip-hop culture out here in Mexico, which I hope explains the title of this here post. I attended an automobile expo this past weekend (July 3rd-5th, 2009) in Santa Fe, known as the business-y part of Mexico City. Utterly amazing architecture in this part of town. I learned two things at the expo that had nothing to do with the ‘car girls’ running around, 1.) Hip-hop isn’t going away here. And, 2.) Although it’s not the money-making operation it once was and sometimes can be here in the U.S., there’s still a culture with deep roots and dedicated practitioners.
Now, the car show existed long before rap. And somewhere along the line, hip-hop culture became infused with car culture and now the two are one. Of course cars and sex have always gone together, so somewhere hip-hop gets tossed into the mix.
In this installment of Automobile Erotica and Rap, I’ll just give you a little sample of what went down at the 3rd Tuning expo in Mexico City this weekend.
Rapper Zw (pronounced Swoo) from the Iztapalapa/Neza crew Manicomio Clan was there to show his freestyle skills.
Reggaetoneros/rappers 330 Studio showcased their blend of styles after a wet bikini contest. What’s car show without the wet bikinis?
WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Jumbo screen flashed the name and mug of one of the most anticipated performances at El Evento 40 held earlier this month at Aztec Stadium in Mexico City.
Felix Danilo Gómez was going by “Flex” as he collected his 8 trophies at last night’s Latin Billboard Awards (list of winners here). He beat out all the competition to take home the top Latin album and song of the year. Nevermind that everytime he accepted an award, the “N”necklace he sported swung back and forth like a reminder of his more popular nom de plume. You can check out post-show coverage from AP and Miami Herald.
One of the highlights of the awards show had to be the grouping of bachata crooners Aventura, Akon and reggaeton kings Wisin & Yandel. Take a look:
channibalsmith.com 