Speaking Out for Latinos - Hip Hop

Abstract

The rise of discrimination against the Latino community is a scary problem occurring in the United States. Alongside outside discrimination, complex negative issues within the community are also rising with no active solution. I have read about these issues, and I have decided that the best way I can bring attention to these problems is through music, specifically hip hop. My goal for my project is to explore whether instrumental hip-hop can be used as a tool to build self-efficacy, critical consciousness, and cultural pride for Latinos, the same way it has been used for Black communities in the United States. To approach this, I combine scholarly research on Latino discrimination with close listening to influential projects like To Pimp a Butterfly, Illmatic,  Things Fall Apart, etc., and treat them as seriously as any academic source. Using these insights, I plan for my project to result in a 16-20-track beat tape that blends hip-hop styles with Latino/Hispanic sounds and samples. The intended outcome is to create a meaningful, thoughtful, and recognizable musical space for Latinos to see themselves reflected and to spark pride, reflection, and creativity within the Latino community