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Hip-Hop: Authenticity and Rebellion Enrique Del Risco Writer Cuban

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Hip-Hop: Authenticity and Rebellion Enrique Del Risco Writer Cuban Cuban Rap Hip-Hop: Authenticity and Rebellion Enrique del Risco Writer Cuban. Resident of the United States s with so many other things, Cuba is place that will allow this genre to avoid the the last great hope for enthusiasts of contradiction of authenticity and money. At Apure hip-hop in Cuba. It is the genre’s best, they have only a minimal idea of what Promised Land or Jurassic Park. As Sujatha authenticity is, as if a desire to become wealth- Fernandes Cites: “while the distinction ier were less acceptable than just living in between underground and commercial in the poverty and denouncing the situation. In con- United States derives from a perception of sidering vulgar materialism, one might say authenticity and commercial success as oppo- that authenticity’s basic definition stems from a sites, American rappers often accord an line of thinking, or rhetoric, more or less in authenticity or underground status to their keeping with the context in which it exists. For Cuban counterparts, given Cuba’s image as a example, this definition could address the successful revolutionary government among authenticity of a Cuban rapper whose work sections of the African American community.”1 concerns itself more with racism in the United Those who are of that mind seem to be States than in his own country (which was once guided by a much too literal sense of the observed in a U.S. documentary about hip-hop world. Perhaps they believe that if a govern- in Cuba). Even so, one might have to accept ment proclaims itself as revolutionary, it actu- that the aforementioned concern could be con- ally devotes itself to transforming society. Or, sidered consistent with a desire to please U.S., perhaps because Cuba publishes a daily news- academic tourism regarding the no less paper titled Juventud Rebelde [the Newspaper authentic anxieties of the Cuban musicians of Cuban Youth] it promotes rebelliousness being invited up North. among its youth. They haven’t stopped to con- Notwithstanding, many who acknowl- sider that the Cuban Communist Party’s offi- edge the Cuban regime’s non-exhaustive pen- cial newspaper of more than four decades chant for disaster, insist that so long as money bears the premonitory name of Granma [from is kept out of the equation and there are rea- ‘Grandma’]. sons for protest, Cuban hip-hop is meant to There are even some among those who do (re)produce the genre’s rebellious and subver- not appreciate the generosity of the “revolu- sive origins—which is actually expecting a tionary government,”a collection of individu- great deal. The country’s intolerable reality, als whose average age is akin to that of the and the absence of other forms of expression, slowly dying Galapagos turtles, that in Cuba certainly helps these rappers in their efforts to they see a place untouched by commercialism, a spell out what newspapers and the media 40 ISLAS enthusiastically silence. Yet, anyone who and noteworthy exceptions), hip-hop was offi- thinks that way is ignoring that even a total cially assimilated at a much lesser rate. Well absence of market does not prevent the (not into its first decade of development, it began just symbolic) alteration of values that take to receive official support. By 1999, the cur- the place of money. After all, money is no more rent Cuban Minister of Culture declared it “an than a representation of the things that in authentic expression of Cuban culture.” commercial societies are equally at risk. This If the authenticity the culture minister attitude also seems to reveal ignorance about confirmed seems suspicious, the Cuban cre- the fact that the last twenty years of Cuban ators of hip-hop have their own ideas about history have seen the emergence of a market the genre’s purity. According to one of them, that places Cuban rappers in a dilemma similar authentic rappers “maintain an orthodox and to that of their Bronx brothers, despite how radical stance along the lines of the genre’s ori- ridiculous the comparison of these two mar- gins and distance themselves from any possibil- kets may seem. Let us agree, then, that Cuban ity of fusion for its commercialization.” hip-hop is not authentic by nature or This sort of statement brings to mind the inevitably rebellious, even if the sound from most successful of Cuban rap groups, the every street corner seems to contradict this Orishas, whose commercial success must be notion. The condescending attitude of politi- attributed in good measure to a fusion of cal and cultural authorities in the early years of musical elements from the son (among other the rap movement did not help this issue of Cuban genres) and hip-hop. Yet, it might be authenticity either. Their lack of enthusiasm useful to ask if the lack of authenticity of a for a genre of foreign and, above all, sponta- group like the Orishas has more to do with the neous origin, was understandable, particularly fusion of musical elements (a long-lived tradi- because it was so hard to control. Most already tion without which it would impossible to established musicians saw it as a form of dis- imagine “native”genres) or its openly touristy loyal competition backed by an aura of its and anachronistic representation of Cuban newness that was benefiting from the airtime it reality. was getting from transnationals. Facing the supposedly overwhelming This protectionism against imported appearance of reggaeton, much of the debate music was not new to Cuba. Contradicting its about Cuban rap has not yet begun. A hybrid, own prohibition of foreign genres and their as its name suggests, it is hedonistic and com- assimilation into native forms, which has made mercial by nature. It is not concerned with any Cuban music one of the most influential and conflict between authenticity and commercial- listened to music in the world, the Cuban ism. It has no tendency for self-reflection and regime institutionalized the traditional resist- does not propose returning to the purity of its ance of these new genres, which not only origin, something it has never claimed. Neither brought about a yet unseen level of impover- does it seem to care about the resistance it has ishment in Cuban music but also an increased encountered among different political and capacity for it to absorb new influences— musical entities. Its success at every level is suf- something that seems even more dangerous to ficient for it to justify itself. In any event, its me than the first. Notwithstanding, unlike the unlikely acquisition of a social conscience nearly three decades it took for Cuban rock to would not constitute a return to purity, which be tolerated by official media outlets (with rare is sustained narcotrafficking support. Instead, ISLAS 41 this would be one more step in its now unpre- current circumstances, even if it is not authen- dictable evolution. tic (it must be obvious by now how suspicious Once it lost its aura as a new and trans- this term makes me). Moreover, this does not gressive genre—by nature—hip-hop is now concern the genre only. Faced with duplicitous going through a purging stage. The fact that rhetoric, like an intelligent avoidance of reali- reggaeton continues to block the possible com- ty, or a mere celebration of nothing (or less mercial success of Cuban rap, it cannot help than that), much of current hip-hop concerns but concern itself with authenticity or the dis- itself with freshening up the scene, calling creet commercial possibility of becoming a things by the names they had prior to the last scholarly object of study for U.S. academics. vocabulary changes. This obsession with clari- Two facts about this: Wikipedia’s English-lan- ty explains why a project that brought togeth- guage entry on ‘Cuban hip-hop’has no Spanish er musicians from Los Aldeanos, Maikel equivalent, only a German-language one. Xtremo, Mano Armado, Escuadrón Patriota, Additionally, much of Wikipedia’s enormous MR Huevo, Proyecto Chardo, El Libre, Complot bibliography on the subject contains publica- G, and Explosión Suprema, was called La tions from U.S. universities. Most of those Comisión Depuradora [The Purifying Posse]. who study the genre are themselves generally They resort to a direct form of poetry to create creators of it who focus specifically on its won- an image of real, contemporary Cuba. If not derful rhythm. Dancing and money are a dif- for the conviction they transmit, or because ferent concern. reality often exceeds it, the image that rever- It is no coincidence that the most impact- berates in their voices would seem to be pathet- ful Cuban hip-hop groups in recent times are ically exaggerated. Unlike early Cuban hip- also those that have been most politicized. I hop, its lyrics no longer focus on criticizing don’t mean only those who criticize different specific phenomena like racism, internal dis- aspects of the Cuban political system but even crimination, police brutality, corruption, new those who support it, like Baby Lores, head of forms of inequality, growing civic violence, the the Clan 547, who in his song “Creo”offers the exodus of Cubans, poverty, ever present repres- regime and its fossilized leaders his uncondi- sion, etc. Instead of limiting itself to pointing tional support. The difficulties the system itself out these social problems, it dares to draw con- has experienced in attempting to absorb nections amongst them, a gesture that marks a bonafide praise reveals one of the genre’s most passage from social criticism to questioning controversial virtues—a direct and unambigu- the system.
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