‘These Stories have to be told’: Chicano Rap as Historical Source

Mausfeld, Dianne Violeta (2019). ‘These Stories have to be told’: Chicano Rap as Historical Source. Popular music history, 12(2), pp. 174-193. Equinox 10.1558/pomh.39209

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In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Los Angeles gave rise to Chicano rap, a subgenre of gangster rap that uniquely incorporated transcultural signifiers of music and language. Key characteristics included ‘oldie’ and Chicano rock samples, multilingual lyrics and the proclamation of Brown pride. The lyrics treated gang violence, police brutality and daily life in the varrio (’hood), thus articulating the artists’ alienation from white America. While strongly identifying with both LA and their Mexican heritage, artists like (Kid) Frost created a brand-new music style that inspired a whole generation of bilingual rappers. Considering Chicano rap as historical source provides a deeper understanding of the issues Mexican-American youth in the US have been facing up to the present day. On the basis of (Kid) Frost’s music this article will trace cultural and social topics as well as musical features that mirror the resurfacing of Chicano consciousness and identity during the 1990s.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg)
06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg) > Center for Global Studies (CGS)
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of History > Institute of History, Iberian and Latin American History
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Musicology

Graduate School:

Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities (GSAH)

UniBE Contributor:

Mausfeld, Dianne Violeta

Subjects:

700 Arts > 780 Music
900 History > 970 History of North America

ISSN:

1743-1646

Publisher:

Equinox

Funders:

[4] Swiss National Science Foundation

Projects:

[UNSPECIFIED] Hip-Hop as a Transcultural Phenomenon. Latin American and Jamaican Cultural Signifiers in US Hip-Hop (c. 1970s-1990s)

Language:

English

Submitter:

Dianne Violeta Mausfeld

Date Deposited:

18 Mar 2021 12:42

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:49

Publisher DOI:

10.1558/pomh.39209

Related URLs:

Uncontrolled Keywords:

hip-hop; Chicano rap; Los Angeles; Mexican American; Kid Frost

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/154227

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/154227

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