Chapter 1—Introduction
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NOTES CHAPTER 1—INTRODUCTION 1. See Juan Flores, “Rappin’, Writin’ & Breakin,’” Centro, no. 3 (1988): 34–41; Nelson George, Hip Hop America (New York: Viking, 1998); Steve Hager, Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Breakdancing, Rapping and Graffiti (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984); Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1994); David Toop, The Rap Attack 2: African Rap to Global Hip Hop (London: Serpent’s Tail, 1991). 2. Edward Rodríguez, “Sunset Style,” The Ticker, March 6, 1996. 3. Carlito Rodríguez, “The Young Guns of Hip-Hop,” The Source 105 ( June 1998): 146–149. 4. Clyde Valentín, “Big Pun: Puerto Rock Style with a Twist of Black and I’m Proud,” Stress, issue 23 (2000): 48. 5. See Juan Flores, Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity (Hous- ton: Arte Público Press, 1993); Bonnie Urciuoli, Exposing Prejudice: Puerto Rican Experiences of Language, Race and Class (Boulder, CO: West- view Press, 1996). 6. See Manuel Alvarez Nazario, El elemento afronegroide en el español de Puerto Rico (San Juan: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña,1974); Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cam- bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993); Marshall Stearns, The Story of Jazz (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958); Robert Farris Thompson, “Hip Hop 101,” in William Eric Perkins, ed., Droppin’ Sci- ence: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), pp. 211–219; Carlos “Tato” Torres and Ti-Jan Francisco Mbumba Loango, “Cuando la bomba ñama...!:Reli- gious Elements of Afro-Puerto Rican Music,” manuscript 2001. 7. Torres and Mbumba Loango, “Cuando la bomba ñama...!” 8. Thompson, “Hip Hop 101.” See also Robert Farris Thompson, Dancing Between Two Worlds: Kongo-Angola Culture and the Americas (New York: Caribbean Cultural Center, 1991). 9. The artists who rhyme over hip hop beats were originally known as MCs. With hip hop’s commercialization, the term “rapper” gained favor. 198 NEW YORK RICANS FROM THE HIP HOP ZONE However, many hip hop enthusiasts—among them Q-Unique—still prefer to use the term “MC.” B-boys and b-girls, also known as break- ers, specialize in the hip hop dance form known as breaking. 10. D-Stroy, a solo hip hop lyricist, is a Brooklyn-raised Puerto Rican and former member of the Arsonists. 11. For explorations of latinidad as a pan-ethnic category, see Juan Flores, “Pan-Latino/Trans-Latino: Puerto Ricans in the ‘New Nueva York,’” Centro 8, nos. 1 and 2 (1996): 171–186; Michael Jones-Correa and David Leal, “Becoming ‘Hispanic’: Secondary Pan-Ethnic Identification Among Latin American–Origin Populations in the United States,” Hispanic Jour- nal of Behavioral Sciences 18, no. 2 (1996): 214–254; Suzanne Oboler, Eth- nic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re)Presentation in the United States (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995). 12. Rodríguez was for several years a regular contributor to the Baruch Col- lege newspaper The Ticker. His often-controversial column, “Sunset Style” (now published on the web at ourswords.com), is a “hip hop edi- torial” named after Rodríguez’s working-class and heavily Puerto Rican Brooklyn neighborhood. 13. The advantage of using a rather cumbersome term like “ethno-racial” (rather than “ethnic” and/or “racial”) is that it acknowledges the racial dimension of ethnic categories as well as the social constructedness of racial classifications. See David Hollinger, Post-Ethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism (New York: Basic Books, 1995); Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial For- mation in the United States (New York: Routledge, 1994). 14. See Edward Rodríguez, “Sunset Style,” The Ticker, May 8, 1996, p. 26. Emphasis added. 15. See Edward Rodríguez, “Hip Hop Culture: The Myths and Misconcep- tions of This Urban Counterculture,” manuscript 1995. 16. See Linda Chávez, Out of the Barrio: Towards a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation (New York: Basic Books, 1991); Flores, “Pan-Latino/Trans- Latino”; Robert Smith, “‘Doubly Bounded’ Solidarity: Race and Social Location in the Incorporation of Mexicans into New York City,” paper presented at the Conference of Fellows: Program of Research on the Urban Underclass, Social Science Research Council, University of Michigan, June 1994. 17. See Nazario, El elemento afronegroide en el español de Puerto Rico; Juan Giusti Cordero, “AfroPuerto Rican Cultural Studies: Beyond Cultural negroide and antillanismo,” Centro 8, no. 1 and 2 (1996): 57–77; José Luis González, El país de los cuatro pisos y otros ensayos (Rio Piedras: Ediciones Huracán, 1989); Isabelo Zenón Cruz, Narciso descrubre su trasero (Hu- macao: Furidi, 1975). 18. See Coco Fusco, English Is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas (New York: The New Press, 1995); Gilroy, Black Atlantic. 19. See Flores, “Rappin’, Writin’ & Breakin,’”; Rose, Black Noise; Thompson, “Hip Hop 101.” NOTES 199 20. See Frances Aparicio and Susana Chávez-Silverman, “Introduction,” in Frances Aparicio and Susana Chávez-Silverman, eds., Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad (Hanover, NH: University of New England, 1997). 21. Although it is most common for hip hop culture to be defined in terms of these art forms, many participants also include the dances known as popping, locking and uprocking. Others argue that there are also hip hop–specific takes on fashion, poetry/spoken word, fiction, journalism, theater, video/filmmaking and language. 22. See Dawn Norfleet, “Hip Hop Culture” in New York City: The Role of Ver- bal Musical Performance in Defining a Community, Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 1997. 23. See Peter McLaren, “Gangsta Pedagogy and Ghettoethnicity: The Hip Hop Nation as Counterpublic Sphere,” Suitcase 1, nos. 1 and 2 (1995): 74–87; Rose, Black Noise. 24. See Andre Craddock-Willis, “Rap Music and the Black Musical Tradi- tion,” Radical America 23, no. 4 (1989): 29–39; Toop, The Rap Attack. 25. See Dick Hebdige, Cut ‘N’ Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music (New York: Methuen & Co., 1987); Flores, “Rappin’, Writin’ & Breakin’”; Rose, Black Noise. 26. Ibid. See also Daisann McLane, “The Forgotten Caribbean Connec- tion,” New York Times, August 23, 1992, p. 22; Thompson, “Hip Hop 101”; Torres and Mbumba Loango, “Cuando la bomba ñama.” 27. Cyphers are spontaneous and informal gatherings where participants arrange themselves in a loose circle to rhyme or dance and where impro- visational skills have a primary role. See Tony Bones, Queen Heroine and MFW, “The Cypher: Add Water and Stir,” Stress, issue 10 (December 1997): 44, for an assessment of the cypher’s importance in hip hop: “It goes beyond rhyming, conversation and other means of communication. It’s the ultimate brainstorming session. Everything from playing congos to African spiritual dances to after school fights to group therapy to ring around the rosie to the Nation of the Gods and Earths all get down in ciphers.” See also Norfleet, “Hip Hop Culture” in New York City, for a re- flection on cyphers as performance. 28. See Oscar Handlin, “Comments on Mass and Popular Culture,” in Nor- man Jacobs, ed., Culture for the Millions?: Mass Media in Modern Society (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968); Andrew Ross, No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture (New York: Routledge, 1989). 29. See Juan Flores, “Puerto Rican and Proud, Boyee!: Rap, Roots and Am- nesia,” Centro 5, no. 1 (1992–93): 22–32; Norfleet, “Hip Hop Culture” in New York City. 30. Island-based underground music is different from the New York–based “underground” rap scene. The latter, a realm whose borders are in con- tention within hip hop insider discourses, can be loosely described as the gatherings, performances, practices and recordings that tend to be 200 NEW YORK RICANS FROM THE HIP HOP ZONE organized and produced by independent parties with minimal or no connection to the most dominant and profitable sectors of the rap music industry. 31. See Cristina Verán, “Knowledge Droplets from a B-Boy Rainstorm,” Rap Pages 5, no. 8 (September 1996): 42. 32. See Norfleet, “Hip Hop Culture” in New York City. 33. New York has been regarded as a hip hop hot spot, not only because of its place in hip hop history but also because of its continuous creative contributions to hip hop’s development. 34. Bobbito García has been a key figure in New York hip hop culture for many reasons. Not only has he, for years, hosted some of the most im- portant radio shows and “open-mic” events in the city, he also has been a regular contributor to various hip hop–oriented magazines, has served as a panelist in many hip hop conferences and has been the founder and owner of two small but influential independent record labels, Fondle ‘Em Records and Fruitmeat Records. CHAPTER 2—ENTER THE NEW YORK RICANS 1. See Juan Flores, “Pan-Latino/Trans-Latino: Puerto Ricans in the ‘New Nueva York,’” Centro 8, nos. 1 and 2 (1996): 171–186. 2. See Angelo Falcón, Minerva Delgado and Gerson Borrero, Toward a Puerto Rican/Latino Agenda for New York City (New York: Institute for Puerto Rican Policy, 1989). 3. Figures provided by the Lewis Mumford Center for Urban and Regional Research at the State University of New York-Albany. 4. Puerto Ricans are not only the largest Latino group but also one of the largest ethnic groups in New York City. 5. See Linda Chávez, Out of the Barrio: Towards a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation (New York: Basic Books, 1991); Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, “Trends in the Residential Segregation of Blacks, Hispanic and Asians,” in Norman R. Yetman, ed., Majority and Minority: The Dynam- ics of Race and Ethnicity in American Life (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1991); Robert Smith, “‘Doubly Bounded’ Solidarity: Race and Social Lo- cation in the Incorporation of Mexicans into New York City,” paper pre- sented at the Conference of Fellows: Program of Research on the Urban Underclass, Social Science Research Council, University of Michigan, June 1994.