When Hip-Hop and Reggaeton Collide

Check out Allison Desir's piece "When Hip-Hop and Reggaeton Collide" in The Mantle: A Forum for Progressive Critique. The article pays close attention to issues of race and ethnicity, and features interviews with music industry executives. Plenty of fascinating stuff here!

Parodiando la cultura urbana latina

Tato Torres just posted this on my FaceBook page:



And this is the conversation that followed:

Raquel Z. Rivera
Annoying, smug and misinformed... yes. And at the same time I had to laugh out loud a few times. It also had a few witty moments. I can't help thinking how we ("Latinos" in the US, urban music artists and fans...) leave ourselves open to this kind of caricature for falling into cliches... por cabezones.


Tato Torres Sáez
It is exactly the point he is making, he very clearly and cleverly states in the beggining: "por suerte hay hermanos latinoamericanos viviendo en NY... y gracias entonces a nuestros hermanos anglosajones en los EEUU que toman de ellos la cultura latina, la embasan y la difunden poco a poco hoy en nuestros barrios, podemos ver lo latino presente..."

yet you gotta love the "perreo simulator" LOL

"mi verdadero nombre es Mariano Grumberg Hollester Junguersen Smith, pero soy Latino" ¡JA!


Raquel Z. Rivera
Wow... I somehow missed the "la envasan y la difunden poco a poco hoy en nuestros barrios" criticism. Now I like this even more. I initially thought it was a simplistic caricature. But now I see it's more. And, yes, the perreo simulator was one of my favorite parts. And also the "papá cómprame las zapatillas blancas" bit.


Tato Torres Sáez
exactly!.. the guy is geniusly making a joke about the commercially distributed "packaged" generic concept of "Latinos," which is obviously formed on a stereotypical "Nuyorican" image.