nEW YOrk hip hop Puerto Rican and Nuyorican
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Hip Hop and New York Puerto Ricans
Raquel Rivera's chapter on Hip Hop and New York Puerto Ricans raised several questions and responses through my various readings. Immediately, Rivera makes the distinction between hip hop artists that follow the Nuyorican, African-American standard and the Boricua, island standards. She claims that because such artists as Big Pun and Fat Joe don't easily "fit the currently acceptable mold of 'latinidad,' they have virtually been ignored by most Latino-oriented media." She goes on to say that it is ironic that quite the opposite has occurred in the mainstream media outfits. Personally, I wouldn't argue that this is completely false, but I would consider to what extent that comment is true. On a typical MTV-hip hop hour, it's possible to view Latinos doing hip hop, but it's more than likely that most, if not all, of the hip hop aired will come from African-Americans.
She also comments on the supposed fact that although hip hop is a vernacular culture shared by New York Latinos and African Americans, in the case of Latinos, their participation in the hip hop scene is seen as a defection from Latinidad into the African-American ramp. This may very well be true, but what seems problematic about this assumption is that this is a generalization of all Latinos in the hip hop scene. For example, what is to be said of performers such as Jennifer Lopez? She is embraced, although at times criticized, as part of the actors pushing Latinidad, but at the same time she participates almost fully in the English, hip hop, pop scene...