Cuban hip-hop is a genre of hip-hop. Hip-hop arrived in Cuba via radio and TV broadcasts from Miami. During the 1980s, hip hop culture in Cuba was mainly centered on breakdancing. By the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the onset of the Special Period, young rappers, exposed to foreign tourists whose wealth highlighted their struggle, turned to rapping to affirm their heritage and advocate for further revolutionary reforms.
Early days: Importation The importation of Cuban rap is debated, but many argue that it was brought from Miami. Rap hit Cuba approximately a quarter century ago, gaining popularity in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. However it existed among young moneros, who had a tremendous oral ability and linguistic creativity. At the beginning of establishing Rap in Cuba rap like rock was perceived as a foreign import and while it was never forbidden, neither was it promoted or encouraged" Pacini-Hernandez, Deborah and Reebee Garofalo."The emergence of Rap Cubano: An historical perspective." In music space, and place, ed. Whitely, Bennett, and Hawkins, 89-107.BurlingtonVt. Ashgate, 2004 The Cuban government changed its perceptions about hip hop during 1999 when they declared it as an authentic expression of Cuban culture. In addition the government formed the Agencia Cubana de Rap (The Cuban Rap Agency) that provides state-run record label and hip hop magazine, and began supporting the annual Cuban Hip Hop festival. Cuban rappers injected a renovating energy into Cuban music that was taken from hip hop culture.https://moodle.brandeis.edu/file.php/3404/pdfs/baker-hip-hop-revolucion.pdf Rap in Cuba began to emerge precisely during the gangsta rap period in the United States which included artists like 2Pac, Notorious B.I.G, Ice-T, Snoop Dogg and many more influential gangster rappers.
Gradually this began to change as raperos began to express their own reality and make use of traditional Cuban culture. One sentiment expressed involved how Cuban politics were not keeping pace with social reality. All Cubans are discouraged from visiting government-designated 'tourist zones,' such as the fancy restaurants and night clubs in Old Havana, and police will ask most who show up there for ID. But statistics show that the police arrest Afrocubans all over the island more often than Whites. Many Afrocubans believed government assumes Blacks are more likely to be involved in criminal activity.Wunderlich, Annelise. "Cuban Hip-hop: Making Space for New Voices of Dissent." In The Vinyl Ain't Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 167-79. London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2006. This exclusion from night life led to the importance of house parties where raperos were able to establish their own "underground" hip hop scene. The financial constraints of tourist geared night clubs that only accept dollars or venues that cost up to the equivalent of a standard monthly Cuban salary for entry also aided in the significance of house parties in the Cuban hip hop scene.Baker, Geoffrey. 2006. "La Habana que no conoces: Cuban rap and the social construction of urban space." Ethnomusicology Forum 15, no. 2: 215-46
In the mid-1990s, the music scene was one of the most promising for Cubans to meet tourists and gain possible access to much needed hard currency. Hip-hop developed new dance moves involving the 'solo' female body: the despelote (all-over-the-place) and tembleque (shake-shudder) and the subasta de la cintura (waist auction). These moves define a solo female dance style which involves fast movement and turning/swirling of the area from below shoulders and chest to pelvis (as if one was hula hoop-ing or belly dancing). Often accompanied by hand and body gestures mimicking self-pleasuring, it constituted a noticeable change in dance style, of women dancing to be 'looked at' both by their partners, by other prospective partners, and by other spectators, using their body as a major asset. This was in contrast to traditional dancing such as normative couple dancing.https://moodle.brandeis.edu/file.php/3404/pdfs/fairley_dancing_reggaeton.pdf
Birth of a Cuban scene American Influence The change in both attitude towards hip hop and the move towards home grown expression was in part facilitated by the involvement of New Afrikan Revoluationay Nehanda Abiodun,see Tanya L. Saunders's 2008 dissertation from University of Michigan Ann Arbor The Cuban Remix: Rethinking Culture and Political Participation in Contemporary Cuba a U.S. Black Liberation Army activist in political exile in Cuba. Upset with what she saw as blind imitation of commercial US rap culture with its depiction of thug life, violence, and misogyny, Abiodun began working with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in the US to bring progressive US hip hop artists to Cuba. This led to the Black August benefit concerts held in New York City and Havana, which have featured artists such as Erykah Badu, David Banner, Common, dead prez, Fat Joe, the Roots, Jean Grae, Les Nubians, Chuck D, Gil Scott-Heron, Dave Chappelle, Tony Touch, Black Thought, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, La Bruha, and Imani Uzuri.
The Black August Collective that was formed, and the concerts these progressive US artists gave in Cuba, played a key role in expanding and raising the profile of conscious, politicized rap within Cuba. Many Cuban rappers felt an affinity to the revolutionary aspects of the work these artists created.Saunders, Tanya L. : Black Thoughts, Black Activism: Cuban Underground Hip-hop and Afro-Latino Countercultures of Modernity in Latin American Perspectives, first published on December 1, 2011 The Black August Hip Hop Collective Statement of Purpose offers that "Our goal is to bring culture and politics together and allow them to naturally evolve into a unique hip hop consciousness that informs our collective struggle for a more just, equitable and human world".Baker, Geoffrey. 2005. " Hip Hop, Revolución! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba". Ethnomusicology 49, no. 3: 388 Despite the movement's association with an identity other than Cuban, the government supported The Black August Collective and allowed the rappers to perform as they were supportive of the revolution. The youth of Cuba were fascinated not only by this style of music, but also by the Black Pride of the performers.Wunderlich, Annelise: "Cuban Hip-hop: Making Space for New Voices of Dissent," 'The Vinyl Ain't Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture,' Basu, Dipannita and Lemelle, Sidney ed., London: Pluto Press, 2006, page 172. This consciousness of struggle and achieving the goals of revolution are a key characteristic of a majority of Cuban hip hop today.Baker, Geoffrey. 2005. " Hip Hop, Revolución! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba". Ethnomusicology 49, no. 3: 383, 388
The Underground Scene Music production technology was either unaffordable or simply not present during the early days of Cuban hip-hop, making it virtually impossible to duplicate the exotic sounds found within the genre. This lack of technology led to the private gatherings of very devoted fans called bonches. These bonches can be considered the beginning of today's Cuban rap community. Only the most dedicated fans would be in attendance and they would receive an understanding of rap's evolvement and fame outside of Cuba.
Eventually, the gatherings attracted an unsustainable amount of listeners, forcing them out of their private homes. In 1994, rap entrepreneur Adalberto Jímenez was able to get a public space for Cuban hip-hop gatherings. This public space was known as, El local de la Moña. This place soon became a popular social hub for fans of Cuban hip-hop. Moñas were so popular that it became the Cuban word for rap and Moñeros for rappers or rap enthusiasts.
La Moña moved around a great deal and became a sort of traveling party in Old Havana. La Moña charged a 5-peso admission charge (20 cents USD.) In January 1999, La Moña moved to a tiny club called La Pampa and they had raised the price of admission to 20 pesos. La Moña still remains the only place for moñeros to hear the latest underground rap in Cuba.Pacini-Hernandez, Deborah and Reebee Garofalo. "The emergence of rap Cubano: An historical perspective." In Music, Space, and Place, ed. Whitely, Bennett, and Hawkins, 91-93. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004.
In the underground scene of Cuba, freestyle becomes a manifestation of a communal establishment (usually the community of rappers and audience come to form a cycle) where those who are not rapping provide vocalized "backing track", opened for anyone to jump it for a freestyle. Cuban scholar Geoffrey Baker argues that those music-making circles "enable a community to generate (rather than simply embody) a different social order and a distinct set of moral values."Baker, Geoffrey. 2006. "La Habana que no conoces: Cuban rap and the social construction of urban space." Ethnomusicology Forum 15, no. 2: 215-46.
Government Support Hip-hop arrived in the public eye with the launch of the "Festival de Rap Cubano" in 1995, a joint effort by Grupo Uno and the state-run Asociación de Hermanos Sais (AHS). Despite poor promotion and the remote location, it became a huge success. Rap cubano emerged as a distinct genre when Amenaza (now known internationally as the Orishas) incorporated Afro-Cuban bata percussion into their performance at the 1996 festival, winning them first place in the competition. The same year, Cuba's first all-female rap group, , secured second place for their energetically charged rap flow and performance. By 1999, through the aid of the Hip Hop Manifesto (written by DJ Ariel Fernandez), rap cubano and rock music (another marginalized musical genre in Cuba) was declared "an authentic expression of Cuban culture" by Abel Prieto, Cuba's Minister of Culture. Fidel Castro deemed hip hop music to be at the "vanguard of the Revolution" because of its revolutionary message.Baker, Geoffrey. 2008. "The Politics of Dancing." In Reading Reggaeton (forthcoming, Duke University Press). This resulted in the formation of the Agencia Cubana de Rap (Cuban Rap Agency), the state's organization that runs a record label and hip hop magazine, Movimiento.
In 2002 the government formed the Agencia Cubana de Rap (Cuban Rap Agency) with its own record label and hip hop magazine to help promote the art form on the island. Weekly radio and TV shows were launched. With the creation of the Cuban Rap Agency by the Cuban government, this group encouraged and endorsed various rappers and created their albums. However, there was a down-side to this agency that affected the popularity of the CRA. Getting artists and bands radio time and fame, came at a slight price; there were limits as to how artists could express themselves. Thus, the CRA would only endorse groups that were willing to change their lyrics and music styles to those that were accepted by the government and community. As a result, not many groups or artists were willing to give into the CRA expectations.
However, that early support waned in the mid 2000s, drawing criticism from raperos who felt robbed of their platform to address social problems. In 2006, after ten years of hosting popular Cuban raperos, the AHS disbanded the "Festival Cubano de Rap" showing the real mission of the CRA.