of konpa, which he dubbed kadans rampa or rampart rhythm.
With the arrival of small-group rock bands that began to emerge in the 1960s,
konpa-style ensembles began to favor a smaller guitar-based instrumentation. The
new instrumentation (electric guitars, drum set, and one saxophone), combined with
a new interpretation of konpa, provided a more relevant form of jazz-influenced
dance music for 1960s Haitian youth. Tabou Combo was perhaps the most suc-
cessful group to come out of this movement, not only in Haiti, but also among the
Haitian diaspora in the United States and Paris, where in the latter, the group’s hit
“New York City” became a top seller for the band in 1975.
Mizik twoubadou is a different type of smaller, guitar-based genre that originated
from the influences of Cuban son ensembles from the 1920s. With the influx of
the newly developed transportable music medium of phonograph recordings, Hai-
tian musicians began experimenting with Cuban song styles that used two guitars,
maracas, and hand drums. The texts, sung in Creole, generally have romantic love
and relationships as their theme. The contexts for music twoubadou are flexible,
but they are most commonly heard in places where tourists gather (hotels, beaches,
etc.), where the musicians may approach a small group who becomes the tempo-
rary audience, and who will provide a gratuity for the group’s musical attention.
Influenced by the Jamaican roots rock movement reggae, in the late 1970s and
early 1980s there developed a genre of roots music called mizik rasin, which bor-
rowed elements from traditional Afro-Haitian music, including rara and Vodou,
and incorporated them within popular music styles. The texts of the songs were also
sung in Creole, and musicians would often incorporate instruments used in Vodou
and rara celebrations. Important contributors of mizik rasin artists include Bouk-
man Eksperyans, Foula, and Sanba-yo.
Haitian hip-hop, or Kreyól hip-hop, has developed in Haiti and abroad since the
1980s and mixes American-style hip-hop beats with Haitian popular styles, such as
konpa, and uses lyrics sung in Creole. Artists such as Papa Jube and Original Rap
Staff have enjoyed successful careers in Haiti and abroad. The most internationally
successful Haitian artist to emerge from hip-hop is Wyclef Jean, who after enjoying
success in the American group The Fugees, went on to be an influential solo artist
whose career in the United States has had a strong influence on Haitian youth, and
who has developed his musical style beyond hip-hop to include diverse styles and
musical influences.
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Further Reading
Averill, Gage. A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in
Haiti. Chicago studies in ethnomusicology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Bilby, Kenneth M, Michael D. Largey, and Peter Manuel. Caribbean Currents: Carib-
bean Music from Rumba to Reggae. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006.
Fleurant, Gerdès. “Haiti.” In Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Encyclo-
pedic History, edited by Malena Kuss, 251–64. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
Largey, Michael. “Haiti: Tracing the Steps of the Meringue and Contredanse.” Creoliz-
ing Contradance in the Caribbean, 209–30. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press,
2009.
George Torres
Harp. See Arpa.
Hip-Hop
Latin American hip-hop, a recent addition to transnational Latin popular music
(e.g., salsa, merengue, samba), has been influential as a subculture since the early 1980s, predominantly among dispossessed youth. Rapping has been incorporated
into Cuban salsa and timba, and gave rise to fusions such as reggaetón, Dominican merenrap, Colombian cumbia-rap, and Brazilian embolada-rap and samba-rap.
Although hip-hop has come to be regarded as a black music, its Latin roots are
too frequently overlooked. Born in New York’s South Bronx neighborhood in the
early 1970s, hip-hop’s early vanguard—poorer African American and Puerto Rican
youths—put aside gang enmity to initiate the artistic elements that have come to
be associated with the world of hip-hop: spray-painted graffiti murals on subway
trains and the fascia of overpasses, breakdancing (b-boying/b-girling, popping),
MC-ing (rapping), and DJ-ing (scratching or sampling). Puerto rocks, Nuyorican
youth involved in hip-hop’s nascence, were innovators of the iconic graffiti and
breakdancing of early hip-hop culture. Crazy Legs and the Rock Steady Crew, but
one example of Latin hip-hoppers who rose to international prominence, were fea-
tured in hip-hop films Wild-Style (2002), Breakin’ (2003) and Beat Street (2003).
Hip-hop vocabulary, attitudes, and fashions serve as important identity mark-
ers for many Latin American youth, especially in locales such as Cuba where
the scarcity of spray cans and sound systems severely prevented the development
of graffiti and DJ-ing. Similar to the rock, heavy metal and folk music genres
that permeated Latin America markets, certain features of North American rap
music and hip-hop culture have been adopted by Latin American raperos/as (rap-
pers), while others have found little favor. Rap-recording labels are found in most
194 | Hip-Hop
metropolitan areas, where rap is also featured on radio stations and television
shows. Vibrant Latin hip-hop scenes—Latin rap, chicano rap, or urban regional—
can be found in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and cities in the southwestern
United States, and have led to the inclusion of Latin hip-hop as a category of the
Latin Grammy Awards.
Stylistic Infl uences
The regional distinctiveness of the various forms of rap music in Latin America
are often circumscribed by the use of local vernacular and popular genres as well
as resident musical traditions and their instruments (e.g., trés, guitarrón, conga, and batá ). Some Chilean rappers, for example, recycle nueva canción lyrics and
samples and rap cubano cites nationalist poetry over samples of timba, nueva
trova, son, and rumba. The first mainstream Spanish-language rapper, the Puerto Rican Vico C who was known for his 1989 hit “La Recta Final,” incorporated Dominican merengue into New York hip-hop beats in the early 1990s. Brazilian, Ven-
ezuelan and Cuban rap artists are as likely to reference African-derived religious
traditions such as Candomblé and Santería as they are Christianity.
Rap music has been effectively available in Latin America through the sale of
commercial and pirated CDs since the 1990s. Major influences for early Latin
American rappers include: Cypress Hill, a U.S. rap group featuring Spanish-
speaking members Sen Dog and B-Real, Cuban American Mellow Man Ace
(brother of Sen Dog), Puerto Rico’s Latin Empire and Vico C, Public Enemy,
Salt n’ Pepa and TLC (for Latina raperas), various North American political and
Latino rappers, and reggaetón artists. Molotov and Caló, two early Mexican rap
groups, were influenced by Chicano-American rapper Kid “El Jefe” Frost, whose
1990 album Hispanic Causing Panic promoted nationalist Chicano pride, the Caló
dialect (Hispanicized American English), Pachuco esthetics, and the return of
Aztlán.
The Advance of Hip-Hop in Latin America
As early as 1982, hip-hop emerged in the urban barrios (neighborhoods) of Ar-
gentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela, which were often over-
crowded and impoverished. North American hip-hop films and rap music, such as
Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight,” inspired small communities of Latin
American youth to embrace hip-hop’s new forms of artistic production. In Caracas,
Perucho Conde remixed Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” into “La Cotorra Cri-
olla,” while Kid “El Jefe” Frost spearheaded the Sindicato Argentino del Hip Hop
(Argentine Hip Hop Syndicate) in Moron, a city west of Buenos Aires. In 1984, a
lively hip-hop scene exploded in the barrio Las Cruces of Bogota, Colombia, with
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rap group La Etnnia and breakdancing-graffiti group, New Rapper Breaker. Colom-
bian hip-hop then migrated to Cali, Medellín, and Baranquilla. By 1984, De Kiruza
released the first Chilean rap album, and within four years, hip-hop was flourishing
with rap groups such as Panteras Negras and Los Marginales.
By 1988, Cuban rap groups appeared in Alamar, a marginalized Havana suburb,
after a popular breakdancing movement was formed in underground gatherings
( bonches) in the earlier part of the decade. Brazil’s hip-hop movement, born in São
Paulo favelas (slums), emerged in the early 1980s, coinciding with the end of Bra-
zil’s brutal military dictatorship (1964–1985). Hip-hop had reached Rio de Janeiro
by 1992 with Gabriel o Pensador’s “Tô Feliz, Matei o Presidente” (“I’m Glad, I’ve
Killed the President”), a rap song addressing the corruption scandals, resignation,
and impeachment of former president Fernando Collor de Melo.
Both Havana and Caracas hosted their first rap festivals in 1995, the same year
that hip-hop culture ostensibly materialized in Uruguay and Mexico City (before
spreading to Guadalajara, Durango, and Guadeloupe). The presence of hip-hop
could be felt throughout South and Central America by the late 1990s.
Hip-Hop Themes in Latin America
Latin American hip-hop culture and regional rap subgenres are often delineated
on a continuum of commercial and underground styles and social themes. Rap
lyrics are likely to address issues of identity, violence, racism, gang warfare, drug
trade, social inequality, political marginalization, imperialism, globalization, pov-
erty, marginalization, and homelessness, though with varying objectives. In Cuba,
Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, raperas (female rappers) such as Mágia and Las Kru-
das (Cuba), and Cris (Somos Nós A Justiça, Brazil) use the medium to denounce
sexism, machismo, and biological determinism. The rap lyrics of Tina, a São Paulo
hip-hop, funk and R‘n’B artist, promote an inspiring Christian message popular
among young, Afro-Brazilian women.
Irrespective of stylistic distinctions, this music has empowered marginalized
youth, providing a medium to address their disaffection. For this reason, Latin
American hip-hop has been compared to the nueva canción movement of the
1960s. This is especially true in Chile, as well as Cuba. And, some Latin American
hip-hop movements have gone on to attain state and nongovernmental support for
their social activism. Near Calí, Colombia, the Aguablanca Cultural Network has
provided a neutral space for 25 rap and breakdancing groups since 1994. In Cuba,
rap cubano was formerly acknowledged by the State in 1998, constituting an un-
official dialogue with the government to address issues of racism, sexism, pros-
titution, and police violence (Fernandes and Stanyek 2007). In 2002, the Cuban
government founded the Agencia Cubana de Rap (Cuban Rap Agency), a state-run
recording studio, label and magazine devoted to hip-hop.
196 | Hip-Hop
Many Latin American youth afflicted by urban decay and gun violence are
drawn to North American gangsta rap music, in spite of its superficial and com-
mercial character. The hit song “Diário de um Detento” (“A Convict’s Diary”), by
São Paulo rappers Racionais MC’s, details a convict’s daily routine in prison and
sold the most copies of any independently released record in Brazil. The video, fea-
turing clips from inside São Paulo’s infamous Candiru prison, won MTV Brazil’s
Video of the Year award (1998). In countries like Cuba, however, gangsta rap is
criticized for its violence and explicit American content.
Rap, like commercial salsa, tends to hypersexualize both men and women. Latin
Rap’s early mega-hits, “Rico-Suave” (1991) and “Mentirosa” (1989), explicitly
detailed themes of womanizing and the stereotype of the scornful, lying woman,
while early reggaetón delivered even more explicitly sexist lyrics: El General’s “Tu
Pum Pum” (1991), a notable example, made unambiguous references to women’s
buttocks. While some female rappers accept this sexualized image, other Latin
American raperas demand an end to such treatment.
Due to the association between rap and African American culture, Latin Ameri-
can hip-hop has undoubtedly provided many Afro-Latins with a means to proudly
endorse their African heritage. Like the Brazil’s samba schools and blocos afros, São Paulo’s Movimiento Hip-hop Organizado (Hip-Hop Movement Organization)
acts as an Afro-Brazilian community and educational center (Fernandes and Stan-
yek 2007). Since 1998, rap cubano has been involved with the annual Black August
concerts. Inspired by North America’s black power movement and icons such as
Malcolm X, these concerts have encouraged an Africanized identity, which many
rappers endorse through their lyrics or Africanesque sartorial flair. Conversely, nu-
merous North American Latin rappers contest such overt African pronouncements,
defending their own brown pride and tackling exclusion from the increasing domi-
nance of African Americans in the hip-hop arena.
Further Reading
Chalfant, Henry, director. From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale. 58 mins.
DVD. 2006.
Diccionario de Hip-Hop y Rap Afrolatinos. Coordinated by Zona de Obras. Madrid:
SGAE, 2002.
Fernandes, Sujatha and Jason Stanyek. “Hip-Hop and the Black Public Spheres in Cuba,
Venezuela and Brazil.” In Beyond Slavery: The Multilayered Legacy of Africans in Latin
America and the Caribbean, edited by Darién J. Davis, 199–222. Lanham, MD: Rowman
and Littlefield, 2007.
Forman, Murray and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. That’s the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies
Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Perkins, William Eric, ed. Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop
Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.
Talia Wooldridge
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Honduras
Honduras is a Central American country with a population of about 8 million. Of
the population, 90 percent is mestizo and 7 percent Amerindian. One of the more
significant contributions to Honduras’s music culture comes from this Amerindian
population, out of the coastal culture of the Garifuna peoples who speak the Ar-
awakan language.
In the realm of popular music, older traditions like the marimba ensembles
found in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and southern Mexico are popular within the
country, as are guitar-based performances of traditional styles such as the corrido.
Honduran punta emerged in the late 1970s from a type of Garifuna music with
strong Caribbean influences. Through the modernization of punta instrumentation
and performance practice, many punta bandas emerged and acquired much suc-
cess throughout Honduras. Most notable among these is Banda Blanca whose 1991
hit “Sopa de Caracol” (“Snail Soup”) became an international success and earned
the group an international following. The song is sung to a bilingual text with the
verses in Arawakan and the chorus in Spanish. The group’s instrumentation has
modern banda influences consisting of several horns, keyboard and rhythm sec-
tions of electric bass, electric guitar, and drums.
Other significant forms of popular music demonstrate contemporary influences
from popular music from other western influences such as the United States.
Singer-songwriter Guillermo Anderson has become a popular singer abroad, yet
many of his biggest successes reference his native homeland such as “En mi País”
and “Mi Carguito,” the former becoming a type of unofficial alternative national
anthem for Hondurans. Rock bands have also become very popular in Honduras
and several have gained an international reputation among Spanish-speaking audi-
ences with groups like Diablos Negros and Khaoticos. Currently reggaetón enjoys
popularity among younger audiences with artists like Ragamoffin Killas experienc-
ing an international reputation.
Further Reading
Greene, Oliver N., Jr. “Ethnicity, Modernity, and Retention in the Garifuna Punta.”
Black Music Research Journal 22, no. 2 (2002): 189–216.
George Torres
Huapango
The huapango is a son-based, traditional Mexican family of related musics from
Northeast Mexico, blending elements of folk and indigenous musical practice, and
developing into distinct regional varieties, including the highland arribeño trio
198 | Huapango
style and the norteño dance. All musical forms of the huapango feature falsetto
Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 35