Latino Rap's Insane In The Brain

experienced great commercial success. These rappers, unlike previous Latino rappers, rapped solely in English and focused on common hip-hop themes at the time. Whenever they did decide to use Spanish in their songs, it was limited to basic vocabulary. When they wanted to use more spanish, they created songs entirely in Spanish, such as “Latin Lingo” and “Tres Equis”. In their 1993 #1 Rap hit “Insane in the Brain”, B-Real, the head rapper of the group, starts off by saying: “Who you trying to get crazy with, ése? / Don't you know I'm loco?”. The trio recorded their greatest hits album in Spanish, titled “Los Grandes Exitos en Espanol.” B-Real states in a 1999 interview that “"It's always been a struggle for Latin artists within hip-hop...Even

though we started it with everybody else, we never really got the props for doing so. Now you have Spanish artists breaking out on every level, whether it's hip-hop or R&B with kids like Marc Anthony.” (Baker). These artists strived to create songs solely in one language, and this made it clear to the audience as to which demographic was being targeted. The garnered appeal from English and Spanish speakers alike, and this is seen through their commercial success. The Beatnuts were a duo of Latino producers and rappers from Queens, who were the only Latino members of the famous collective The Native Tongues, which included groups such as A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. Similar to Cypress Hill, they rapped primarily in English, although their beats often contained Latin influences, as shown by the song “Watch Out Now.” Here, this duo incorporated their Latino roots without compromising on their target audience members. By using Latin beats, rather than Spanish words to show their heritage, they were able to adhere to the principles of hip-hop rather than completely change them.
Solo artists of the late 1990s also started to gain popularity while incorporating elements of their heritage. Christopher Rios, a Puerto Rican rapper from the Bronx known as “Big Punisher,” was amongst these famous artists, becoming the first solo Latino rapper to attain platinum status. Unlike, rappers such as Mellow Man Ace or Kid Frost, Big Pun “managed the tricky balancing act of infusing his music with Puerto Rican culturally-specific elements but still being perceived as having excellent and innovative artistic skills, holding on to hip hop authenticity among African Americans and Latinos and having wide commercial appeal” (Hip Hop and NY Puerto Ricans 132). According to Raquel Rivera, Big Pun’s success was attributed to his talent. He was not perceived to only be targeting the latino community and garnered respect from rappers of all races for his rhyming technique. Rios rapped in English, but still incorporated references to his upbringing as a Puerto Rican. For example, in his biggest hit, “Still Not a Player”, he raps “Puffing the lye from my Twinzito / Up in the Benzito with my kiko from Queens nicknamed Perico.” The song ends with the singer Joe singing “Boricua, Morena” repeatedly, referencing the slang word for a Puerto Rican individual. He continues affirming his Puerto Rican background on the posthumous song “100%”, with a hook sung in Spanish by Tony Sunshine. Despite Big Pun’s clear Puerto Rican identity in his music, he resisted being labeled as a Latino rapper, saying that “What makes us special, is that we’re Latino, not Latino Rappers. We mastered Black music -Hip Hop - not the Latino style of Hip Hop” (Hip Hop and New York Puerto Ricans 132). It’s important to consider how Rios viewed Hip-Hop. He saw it as a black form of music, and basically identifying it as that was a prerequisite to master it. Furthermore, Big Pun emphasized other cultural identities in his life, not just the Latino or Puerto Rican aspects. For example, his song “Carribean Connection” features the Haitian singer/rapper Wyclef Jean and samples a song by the Jamaican reggae artist Jimmy Osbourne. The Bronx, where he was born, is another cultural identity that appears frequently in his music. He even adopts an Italian mobster persona in his song with Fat Joe, “Twinz (Deep Cover ‘98).” By accentuating all of his influences and different social identities, Big Pun was able to appeal to a wide audience and achieve mainstream success, as evidenced by his first album achieving platinum certification and his 2nd posthumous album achieving gold. Fat Joe continued to craft his pieces in a similar style after Pun’s death, ultimately signing to a major label (Atlantic), working with the top producers at the time (Scott Storch, Irv Gotti, Timbaland, etc) and featuring high-profile artists on his records (Lil Wayne, Nelly, Ashanti). Having other artists in their music gives Latino artists more credibility in the music industry and can help with developing hip-hop techniques and practices, which has been instrumental in achieving success.
Victor Santiago, otherwise known as N.O.R.E, changed his entire genre to tailor to his artistic interests. After being a member of the east-coast hip-hop duo CNN, the artist with Puerot Rican heritage soon pursued a solo career and worked with the Neptunes to produce and score hits with the songs “Superthug” and “Nothin”. However, rather than continuing with his established style, he decided to embrace his Latino roots and make reggaeton music. As he stated in an interview in 2004: “‘Reggaeton is in my blood like hip-hop is in my blood because I am half Latino-American,” said N.O.R.E. “I fell in love with this music. I did this joint originally for a mixtape. The Latino people haven’t been spoken to in a while, since[Big] Pun died.’” (Hall). His transition from hip-hop to reggaeton went smoothly, as his song “Oye Mi Canto” hit #12 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. It is important to recognize, however, that this success was achieved through a different genre of music. He had to switch to reggaeton, which had a higher acceptance of Spanish language use in music. Within hip-hop, there are also several established rappers who are Latino, but do not make an effort to explicitly display their ethnicity, such as Lloyd Banks, AZ, Fabolous, Joell Ortiz and Jim Jones. These artists perform completely in English, and do not emphasize their heritage in their music. Fabolous does go by the nickname “Loso” occasionally, short for the Spanish word “Fabuloso.” In addition, he has once rapped “‘Half my roots is Dominican / Faboloso mi gusto los Benjamins." in the song “Not Give a Fuck”. The lack of Spanish in the music of these artists indicates that it would be more favorable to record in English, as well as that some Latin-American rappers may feel more comfortable using English:

“If Latino rappers use English in their rhymes it is because rap is an Afro-diasporic oral/musical form of expression that originated in the United States among English-dominant Afro-diasporic youth...the Caribbean Latinidad of New York Puerto Ricans involved in hip-hop culture is not necessarily defined through the use of Spanish or other cultural markers commonly coded as ‘truly’ Latino” (Hip Hop and NY Puerto Ricans 137-138).
Language, the means in which rappers express themselves, forms a huge role in the way that audiences are receptive to music.
The Cuban-American rapper Pitbull does not make any concessions in regard to Latino cultural markers in his music.

Although his career began when working with southern crunk producer Lil Jon, Pitbull soon branched out to working with more Spanish-speaking artists and introducing influences from the music of other nations. For example, in a review of Pitbull’s 2009 song” I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)”, Billboard writer Michael Menachem states “Pitbull delivers some Little Havana to the club scene with "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)." The mix of reggaetón with Euro dance music signals what looks like a multiformat smash.” (Menachem). Pitbull’s nickname of “Mr. Worldwide” is particularly apt due to his international success, as he has scored several top charting songs in many different countries, and collaborating with a wide range of international stars, such as Marc Anthony, Jay Sean, and Enrique Inglesias. His song “We Are One (Ola Ola) featuring Jennifer Lopez and Brazilian artist Claudia Leitte was used in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, further serving as evidence for his global reach. Pitbull’s career trajectory from a southern crunk rapper to “Mr. Worldwide” shows that there is a considerable market that exists for party music that can appeal to both English and Spanish-speaking audiences. However,

Pitbull has sacrificed the hip-hop influences of his early albums for more of a dance influenced sound, explaining his career change with: "Look, Pitbull is a product . Don’t get it fucked up—I’m a businessman. This industry is 90 percent business, 10 percent talent” (Russell). Pitbull has achieved by far the most mainstream success out of any Latino rapper, and as with the example of N.O.R.E., adapted his music to appeal to a larger , more global audience.
After analyzing several past rappers, it becomes clear that there are several paths a Latino rapper can take in order to reach mainstream success. In the case of rappers like Fabolous, Jim Jones and Lloyd Banks, they released many mixtapes in New York, aligning themselves with well-known personalities in the hip-hop scene (DJ Clue, Cam’ron and 50 Cent) and made chart-topping music without emphasizing their Latino backgrounds. Some rappers were able to achieve both mainstream success and frequently referenced their Latino culture, such as Cypress Hill, Fat Joe and Big Pun. Others changed their style of music completely to appeal to a different audience, in the case of N.O.R.E. and Pitbull. By using the previous Latino rappers who have accomplished success as blueprints, pinpointing up-and-coming rappers who possess certain qualities that are indicative to future success is much easier. First, though, it is essential to identify how the newest crop of rappers are crafting their mainstream -focused music. Currently, on the top 25 Hip-Hop/R&B Billboard Chart, includes artists like G-Eazy, Post Malone, Cardi B, and Lil Pump. For these artists, the internet has been a crucial vehicle for success. For example, Lil Pump used soundcloud to release two of his singles “D Rose” and Boss”. These became unexpected hits on SoundCloud, amassing over 70 millions streams. He released a music video on Youtube that received 64 million views by October 2017. When he released another single “Gucci Gang”, it hit Billboard’s top 100 in November of 2017 at number three, and is still prevalent at number two on top 25 hip-hop/R&B list. Similarly, Post Malone, G-Eazy and Cardi B all have large followings on SoundCloud. This shows the importance of being able to have a platform for one’s music that is easily accessible, as well as a strong online presence. In the eras prior to the 2000s, the main media platforms for music and entertainment were CD players and radio stations. Now, within a few seconds, you can do a web search and have access to all songs ever released. The new presence of online media has forced many artists to be more fluid with their musical approach and more accessible via social media.