Trotter Review Volume 7 Issue 2 A Special Issue on the Political and Social Article 10 Relations Between Communities of Color

9-23-1993 Rappin', Writin', & Breakin' Juan Flores CUNY Hunter College

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Recommended Citation Flores, Juan (1993) "Rappin', Writin', & Breakin'," Trotter Review: Vol. 7: Iss. 2, Article 10. Available at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review/vol7/iss2/10

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a new idiom, young blacks and Puerto Ricans discarded Graffiti-writing also began to become widespread in rural trappings and nostalgic “down home” references, but those years of the early I970s. and I would associate this retained the African rhythmic base and improvisational, movement of naming and identifying with the assertive participatory qualities of their inherited cultures. In so political tenor of the times. Despite the decidedly personal doing. black and Caribbean peoples came to recognize the and turf-oriented cast of early graffiti, the political and complementarity of what seemed to be diverse origins. social context of this practice should not be overlooked. One such intersection of the popular cultures was The same is true when considering the later development. evident in rhythm-and-blues music of the late 1950s. when writing moved to the subways and iconography Although both Fats Domino and Bo Diddley had already became a public art form. Though the represented content infused Latin and Caribbean beats into their influential often derives from cartoons and television commercials, rock-and-roll sounds, New York was really the site of direct those samples of mass culture take on a transformed black and Puerto Rican musical interaction. There several meaning when posted in defiance of established rules. street-based groups. like the Harptones and the Vocaleers, Most of the New York graffitists have been black and combined black and Latin members, as did the hugely Puerto Rican youth, and whatever becomes of graffiti in successful Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. The music its commercial and elite transmutations, the movement is itself was basically black rock-and-roll, but with a good part of the ongoing cultural convergence of those deal of mambo and other Afro-Caribbean features blended communities, So, too. is breakdancing. the first in. The same is true of the boogaloo craze of a decade later, recognizable signs of which also appeared as far back as though in this case it was mostly Latin musicians like Pete the early 1970s. This may seem surprising, since the more Rodriguez, Joe Cuba, and Joe Bataan who were current style—floor rocking and electric boogie—are responsible, and the Latin influence was even stronger. indeed phenomena of the past few years. But some Of course this is only to mention the music that came experienced breakers, like Dennis Vázquez (the original to be recorded, the studio version of what thousands of Rubber Band Man), often hark back to the days of “up- young Puerto Ricans and blacks were singing in the rock,” danced to James Brown’s “Sex Machine” and streets. schoolyards. and hallways. Starting in the late Jimmy Castor’s “Just Begun.” as the initial innovation in l950s and extending through the 1960s, doo-wop or popular dance style. Still part of break routines, up-rock harmonizing prevailed in the same neighborhoods that was first danced as an alternative to violent street fighting. later gave rise to rap music. Despite obvious differences This social function of breaking as a surrogate for in style. and the accompaniment of rap rhymes by destructive and self-destructive physical confrontation has ingeniously manipulated sound systems. harmonizing remained. It is also one of the links between the clearly prefigures rap musical practice in significant ways. contemporary North American style and Brazilian And like rap. doo-wop was a form of black urban music capoeira, another African-based dance bearing striking that was accessible to young Latin musicians, as a recent similarities to breakdance and initiated over three recording of Totico y Sus Rumberos singing “What’s centuries ago as a response to slavery. Your Name” illustrates. It’s a “doo-wop rumba,” and as Such, then. are but a few of the many forerunners and Totico and his group recall. it fits perfectly. early manifestations of the triple-form style called hip By the late l960s the political implications of this hop. which is not to say that rap, graffiti. and cultural interaction were becoming more evident. The breakdancing are not qualitatively new modes of cultural civil rights movement and the black liberation struggle practice. On the contrary, the innovations brought to each sparked the organization of the Young Lords party. The area of popular expression are substantial indeed. Gaining cultural affirmation following from the work of the Lords a sense of historical background is mainly important in and the Panthers needs to be emphasized. since the counteracting the sense of miracle attached to these assertion of racial pride and black and Puerto Rican rights phenomena as they are represented in the dominant, inform the social stance of hip-hop. It is no accident that mediated culture, which portrays these practices and today’s rappers and breakers adore James Brown, whose stylistic novelties as though they sprang up suddenly out unforgettable “Say it Loud. I’m Black and I’m Proud” has of thin air. Rather, all aspects of hip-hop belong to the resonated ever since the late l960s. ongoing traditions of black and Puerto Rican experience. Around this time. too, black and Puerto Rican poets and to their convergence and crossfertilization in the New began to join forces: Felipe Luciano. later a leader of the York setting. Young Lords. was one of the original Last Poets, and For example, there is some ground for emphasizing the Victor Hernández Cruz was with the Third World impetus lent by Puerto Ricans to the origins of breaking. Revelationists. The reliance of “Nuyorican” writing and The speedy footwork, elaborate upper-body movement public readings on the language and cadences of black and daring dips in up-rock rested on a formative poetry was evident then, and it still strong today in poets background in rumba and guaguancó, and was to some like Louis Reyes Rivera and Sandra Maria Esteves. As extent also anticipated by the Latin hustle. It is indicative with the popular music, black forms of verbal expression that the Rock Steady Crew, the most accomplished of the lent themselves perfectly to articulation of Nuyorican many breakdance groups, is composed almost entirely of experience, and are enriched by the inclusion of Spanish Puerto Ricans. Input from other sources having more to and bilingual usages. do with Afro-American experience has been duly noted—

27 such as martial arts. the jitterbug, tap dancing. and essay “The Faith of Graffiti”: “Your presence is on their African social dance. And the performance styles of presence. your alias hings on their scene. There is a James Brown and Frankie Lymon were, of course, key pleasurable sense of depth to the elusiveness of meaning.” models. But. I’ll say with all necessary caution, the Mailer was accurate, too, in pointing out that it is also a impulse toward a radical change in the physical center of matter of color and ecological aesthetics. Another pioneer gravity in popular dance and toward a “break” in the of the Puerto Rican migration. the poet Juan Avilés. told formalizations of couple dancing seems to follow largely me recently that when he first came to New York in the from developments in Latin dance styles. 1920s you could always tell where the Puerto Ricans lived With rap music, of course, the relative contributions are because they were the only ones to put plants in their the opposite. Rap belongs squarely in the blues-derived windows. Similarly. Mailer seems to have been thinking tradition of black vocals and relies upon rich verbal of the Puerto Ricans when he described graffiti art as “a dexterity in English. Here the cultural confluence consists movement which began as the expression of tropical of Puerto Ricans joining in the extension of Afro- peoples living in a monotonous, iron-gray and dull brown American styles. But the distinctive Puerto Rican brick environment, surrounded by asphalt. concrete and dimension is not absent here either. Recital of décimas clangor.” Graffiti for Mailer, and he might as well have and aguinaldos in the Puerto Rican tradition involved been anticipating the whole hip-hop ensemble. “erupted methods of improvisation and alternation much like those biologically as though to save the sensuous flesh of their typical of rap performance. while the tongue-twisting inheritance from a macadamization of the psyche. save (trabalengua) style of some plena singing is an even more the blank city wall of their unfed brain by painting the direct antecedent. More important. perhaps. just as with wall over with the giant trees and pretty plants of a doo-wop and rumba, there is a fascinating “fit” between tropical rainforest.” Puerto Rican dave and characteristic rap rhythms. One of Precisely because of its grounding in black and Puerto the Puerto Rican rappers. Rubie Dee (Ruben Garcia). who Rican street culture. hip-hop harbors a radical appeal. started off in street music as a con guero and a lover of Despite the momentous hype with which the dominant salsa. illustrated this congruence to me. and he was commercial culture would doom it to quick oblivion, that convincing. Dee. the Puerto Rican emcee from the appeal promises to carry and to flourish. Fantastic Five, even raps occasionally in Spanish. and is appreciated as a valuable component of the rap repertoire. References His brother Orlando has composed bilingual. “Spanglish” Castleman, Craig. Geuutg (v: Subway Grafjin in New York. Cambridge: MiT Press. 1982. rhymes for the Funky Four, which indicates how close rap Coibn. Jesus, A Puerto Rican in New York.New York: International. 1961 is contemporary to Nuyorican experience. Cooper, Martha and Henry Chalfant. Subi,ai Art. New York. Holt. Rinehart and Determining the relative ethnic sources of subway Winston, 1984. George. Nelson, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker and Patty Rornanowskt. Fresh: Hip graffiti is the most complicated of all, party because the Hop Don’t Stop. New York: Random House. 1985

first subway writer to attract media attention was Taki. Groia. Philip. They All Sang on the Corner. New York: Philice Ccc. I91(3. who is Greek-American, and because some of the best Guervara, Nancy. “Women Wrtttn’ Rappin’ Breakin’ .“ The Year Left. London: Verso, 1987. 160-175. subway artists are youths of Italian and other national Hager. Steve. Hip’Hop: The Illustrated Hisorv of Break Dancing. Rap Music, origins. There is clearly an important working-class basis and Graffiti. New York: St. Martin’s. 1984. to the graffiti movement that should not be overlooked. Holman. Michael. Breaking and the New York Cur Breakers. New York: Freundlich, 1984. Nevertheless, a majority of the practitioners are black and Kochman, Thomas. ed. Rappin’ and St’s’Iin’Out. Urbana: University of Illinois. Puerto Rican, and graffiti experts like Henry Chalfant and 1972. Manny Kirchheimer agree that most of the early styles Kohl. Herbert. Golden Bar as Anthons’ (‘aol: A Photo Essay on Naming and Graffiti. New York: Dial, 1972. originated with the Puerto Ricans. Craig Castleman in his Mailer. Norman. ‘The Faith of Graffiti.” Esquire (1974). book Getting lip indicates a similar view, though he does Mr. Fresh and the Supreme Rockers, Breakdancing. New York: Avon. 1984. not speculate as to reasons and rightly argues against the Nadell. Bonnie and John Small. Break Dance. Philadelphia: Running Press. 1984. Roberts, John Storm. The Latin Tinge. New York: Oxford. 979. futile attempt to treat it as an exclusively Puerto Rican Tate. Greg. et al. “Hip Hop Nation.” Village Voice (i9 January 988): 21—37. movement. Toop. David. The Rap Attack: African Jive to New YorkHip’Ho. Boston: South End, 1984. But I think Herbert Kohl had good reason to center his Vega. Bemardo. Memoirs of Bernard,s Vega. New York: Monthly Review. 984. discussion of the graffiti impulse on Johnny Rodriguez. the young Puerto Rican who went to him for reading lessons and from whom he came to learn so much about naming and identity. Felipe Luciano would public Juan Flores has worked with CENTRO’s Culture Task Force associate the vitality of the pictorial medium with the and is currently a professor in the Department of Latin Puerto Ricans’ remote Taino legacy. and call to mind the American and Caribbean Studies at City College (CUNV)and mural movement as in the Sociology Department of the graduate school. More Chicano and placa parallel recently, the author has published an updated look at related indigenous experience. More pertinent, in my view, is the themes in his article titled “Puerto Rican and Proud Boyee’: Nuyorican preoccupation with language in its semantic Rap, Roots, and Amnesia,” in the Winter 92 — 93 issue of would Henry manifest a CENTRO. The author like to thank Chalfant. and graphic aspects. and the need to sense of Manny Kirchheimer, René Lopez, Felipe Luciano and idiosyncratic presence in the face of imposed anonymity. especially Rubie Dee (Ruben Garcia) and Dennis Vazquez for Norman Mailer captured this motivation well in his 1974 their helpful conversations.

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