Cuban MC, Rxnde Akozta, in BCN

Amazing live performance and interview to Cuban MC Rxnde Acozta, done by catalonian indie collective Fauna Nocturna. Enjoy!

Hip hop in spanish

Hip Hop music was created by African-American New Yorkers in the late 70s and early 80s. But in that early scene a couple of puertoricans like DJ Disco Wiz, Prince Whipper Whip, Prince Markie Dee and Wise from Stetsasonic made their contribution to the growth. By 1985, the first rap in Spanish arrived with Vico-C, born in New York and raised in Puerto Rico. His influence in the spanish-speaking world is undeniable in the late 80s and early 90s. All latin american countries as well as Spain by the 90s developed a hip hop scene in their own kind of way.

In Spain, hip hop evolved into a popular genre between their youth with major acts like Violadores del Verso, Nach, SFDK or Tote King along with minor acts like Los Chikos del Maíz, Jesuly, Shogun XL or Dogma Crew. These acts are not millionaire celebrities like the major north american rappers or the reggaeton artists but have the respect of the entire spanish-speaking community with their good lyrics, great beats and non-gangster attitudes. Any of these spaniard acts goes to Latin America and sold-out their shows to loyal fans.


In Latin-America has remained very underground. Events like Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos or the Hip Hop Summits/Festivals in Venezuela, Colombia or Dominican Republic have created a sense of unity between the countries in the Caribbean, Central America, South America and the latinos in the US.

Puerto Rico is a unique case because of three reasons:
1-Reggaeton's huge impact in the population helped Hip Hop became a reactionary underground movement rebelling against the status-quo in the late 90s with rappers like Ovrdoze (Tek-1 and J-Mo), Conciencia Poética (Luís Díaz, 79 and producer Yall'zee), EA Flow, Ciencia Fixión (Dr.Who, Centro, Dreuxifer and DJ Nature from the Texas), Mad Steelo, Velcro, Welmo, Nebula, No Mel Syndicate, Gunzsmoke, etc.
2-The majority of these rappers grew up on Cable TV (Yo! MTV Raps for example) as the same time of stateside americans.
3-The constant flux of puertoricans between New York and Puerto Rico because of the US citizenship of puerto ricans helped create an understanding of hip hop culture very early on unlike the rest of spanish-speaking countries.

The result is a tight scene of great mc's/producers/dj's with an US/Early spanish rap pioneers like Vico-C influence who can flow well in both spanish and english. Their lyrics are intelligent as most of them are middle-class and college-educated (Velcro is a Harvard grad and Luís Díaz has an MA degree, for example) or self-educated in socio-political themes. Also, most of them have communication with stateside puerto ricans who are involved with hip hop in their own states (Babalú Machete, Joell Ortiz and Thirstin Howl III from New York, Yeyo of "The Dey" from Miami, Temperamento from Rhode Island, Chino XL from New Jersey or Termanology from MA, for example). These stateside puertoricans collaborate with the islanders (Tropical Storm compilation of the late 90s made by Babalu Machete, for example) very often helping to create a sense of unity between puerto rican rappers in both places.

Cuba is another unique case because of their socio-political status. They have created the most fierce, well-read and real hip hop since the glory days of hip hop in the late 80s and early 90s. Acts like Randy Acosta, Papá Humbertico, Los Aldeanos, Los Paisanos and Anónimo Consejo are praised by fellow spanish-speaking rappers around the world. Their most famous export is Orishas, who moved to Europe and gained success in countries like Spain and France although their style is more commercial. Hardcore-Rap icon Randy Acosta, now living in Finland, with two great albums under his wing like "Jodido Protagonista" and "Zangre, Zudor y Lagri+" made huge impact in latin america. Other notable export is Mahoma from Explosión Suprema, married to andalusian rapper La Mala Rodríguez, and one of her hypemans. In all, Cuban hip hop is mostly underground, political and very real.

Other countries like Chile (Makiza, Tiro de Gracia, Némesis and ZicutaEjecuta)
and México (Boca Floja, Cartel de Santa and Control Machete) have big rap artists. Also there's hip hop culture in Dominican Republic (led by Lápiz Consciente, Espadasofia, Circuito Negro, etc.), Argentina (Frescolate; winner of the Red Bull battle in 2005), Colombia ( the most famous being Tres Coronas and La Etnnia) and the rest of latin america.

To conclude, hip hop in spanish began in Puerto Rico in 1985 but did not evolved into a full fledged culture because of the reggaeton virus. It remain underground with high-level artists with no media exposure. Stateside puerto ricans have helped the scene but not that much to compete with the radio-friendly reggaeton. In Spain, it became a great youth culture with major acts that can live from the music and are icons in Spain and Latin America. Cuba remains as the purest form of the genre and mainly reflects the reality of cuban life. Mexico and Chile have greater hip hop scenes but don't transcend to the whole lot of spanish-speaking countries. And the rest of the countries have small scenes but serves as the outlet for the youth to fight against their social inequalities.

Post Scriptum: Highlighted are the most important artists but feel free to lookout for any of these spanish-speaking rap artists through their official webpages or myspaces. Very recommended.

Che Part Two: Guerilla

Guerilla is the second part of Steven Soderbergh's film about argentinean revolutionary , Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Benicio del Toro plays the role of Che's final months (1967) in the bolivian andes where he formed a small guerilla to overthrown the bolivian military government. In this second part, as well as in the first part, we have Demián Bichir (Weeds) as Fidel Castro, Rodrigo Santoro (300 and Lost) as Raul Castro and Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) as Aleida March de Guevara. Also we have actors like Gaston Pauls (Nine Queens) as argentinean painter/guerillero Ciro Bustos, Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba) as Secretary General of Bolivia's Communist Party Mario Monje, Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) as only-female guerillera Tania, Óscar Jaenada (Noviembre) as bolivian guerillero Darío and Matt Damon as parish priest Father Leo Schwartz.

In general this part of the film has more action but does not have any good character development other than Che's character. Also, the editing sometimes made it difficult to differentiate between who was from the guerilla or who was from the bolivian army. Del Toro's performance was great as he transformed literally to become the charismatic leader. The other actors were ok, some did not pull out the correct accents (i.e. puerto rican actors speaking like puerto ricans instead of cubans) but Franka Potente stand out in a perfect argentinean accent (she is german) and puertorican actor Norman Santiago (Maldeamores) spoke a good cuban accent. The story was a bit sloppy in occasions but overall was not boring. At least, we got to see the final months of Che's struggle to bring communism to latin america. Not Soderbergh's greatest piece of work but one of the best performances by the puertorican actor, Benicio del Toro.

Benicio del Toro recently won the spaniard award Goya for best actor for the first part of the film, The Argentine. As well as the best actor award in Cannes 2008 for both parts of the movie.

The Argentine

Benicio del Toro estelariza y produce la nueva película del director norteamericano Steven Soderbergh titulada "The Argentine". La historia del médico argentino, Ernesto Guevara, luego convertido en líder revolucionario latinoamericano, El Che, desde que conoce a Fidel Castro en Ciudad de México para los 50s hasta que lucha en Cuba para derrocar el régimen de Fulgencio Batista. Los revolucionarios del Movimiento 26 de julio batallan desde la Sierra Maestra hasta llegar a la Habana donde acaba esta primera parte de la saga que tiene como segunda parte, el otro film "Guerilla". Además se intercalan los discursos de El Che en la ONU.

La actuación de Benicio del Toro es excelente y por tanto obtuvo el premio al Mejor Actor en el Festival de Cannes de 2008. Tanto el y otros de los actores son puertorriqueños por tanto el acento de la isla caribeña está presente en muchas ocasiones. Destacan las apariciones de Norman Santiago (Maldeamores), Eugenio Monclova (hermano de René Monclova), Catalina Sandina Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), Victor Rasuk (Lords of Dogtown), Rodrigo Santoro(300), Israel Lugo (El Clown), Julio Cesar Morales (Y No Había Luz), entre muchos otros. Algunas de las localizaciones son en Puerto Rico, como por ejemplo la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. Es una tremenda película, que te adentra en las hazañas de este héroe revolucionario de culto, durante su estancia en la Revolución Cubana. Además presenta otras figuras claves como Camilo Cienfuegos (interpretado por el venezolano Santiago Cabrera), Fidel (por el mexicano Demián Bichir) y Raúl Castro (el brasilero Rodrigo Santoro).

Hardcore Punk Cubano

Arrabio es un grupo hardcore punk del centro de Cuba, se formaron en el 2001.


Eskoria es otro grupo punk de Santa Clara, Cuba formada para 1994.

Cuba Rebelion: Escena Punk/Rock en Cuba

Video documental sobre el punk y el rock en Cuba, para mis panas del excelente blog Almacen Oi!