Fat Joe Talks About Hip Hop’s Latino History

Hip Hop has always had some Latino mixed in with its African American roots. When Fat Joe tried to honor them, he got several comments that said that the culture was always only African American.

Fat Joe posted a video on his Instagram celebrating the history of Latino Hip Hop. There was a backlash to this, so he made a response video to it.

Hip Hop started in the Bronx in New York. In the ’70s, it was a dangerous neighborhood and was populated by the disenfranchised, low-income, and immigrants, especially from the Caribbean. This mix is what made the musical inspirations for hip hop, such as reggae and funk, come together.

Hip Hop is both down to its DNA

One of the massive techniques in hip hop, isolating the percussive breaks, comes directly from Jamaican dub music.

The genre came from block parties where the youth, particularly African-Americans, Caribbean and Latino, would come together to party. The DJs needed to create a mix that would please these demographics and create hip hop in the process.

Several of the founders of hip hop are directly related to the Caribbean and Latin America, such as  DJ Kool Herc, DJ Disco Wiz, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa.

Latinos are so prevalent to hip hop that in the first hip hop film, “Wild Style” in 1983, several of the main characters are Latinos.

Image Source: Ivan Sanchez/Luis Cedeno

This is not even talking about the other two major elements of the hip hop culture, break dancing and graffiti. Both of these also had a major influence from people from Latin American countries, such as Lady Pink and Shabba-Doo.

Instead of being upset that hip hop can not be completely created by African Americans, enjoy the diversity that it offers, something that could only have been created in the melting pot of America.

Written by Justin Acosta

Twitter: @hahalacka