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.
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).
[7] 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,[8] 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.
[9] 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.
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.
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.
This inspired a renewed interest in independent concerts and festivals and a revival of the underground scene at events like Project Almendares in the Vedado district of Havana, hosted by prominent local DJ Alexis "D'Boys" Rodriguez and financed by international backers.
Under these divisive socio-economic conditions, hip hop and rap concerts have now come to represent a space of open debate and social and political discussion for many young Cubans.
Some see it as dominant if the women dance in front of the men in a "doggy style" position, but critics see it as a way of letting the male take initial control over the female.
[5] The lyrics being addressed recently by Cuban hip hop artists stand as a rebellion against the many downfalls, such as poverty and racism, that their nation is currently fighting.
This has given rise to the problem of children, 16 or younger, hearing and singing the lyrics found in Cuban hip hop and reggaeton, which often make reference to sexual activities.
[26] Reggaetœn –whose lyrics emphasize sensuality, individualism and sex, in graphic and sexually explicit terms– stands in sharp contrast to the tradition of Cuban underground rap, the content of which is more often characterized by social commentary on inequality and injustice.
It's driven many within the socially conscious rap scene to paint reggaetón as the "enemy" due to its focus on mindless dancing rather than community reflection.
The guerilla marketing of reggaetón with its homespun production value, bicycle taxi advertising[30] and the informal mass distribution in urban areas [31] has led to its accessibility to the Cuban community at large.
Socially conscious hip hop was nationalized into Cuba "as a process of engagement between artists and audiences mediated by the state, rather than by the music industry or by recording technology.
[34] Politics is so deeply rooted in the hip hop scene in Cuba that the revolutionary image of Che Guevara is frequently seen, as the late figure represents the early stage in the Revolution and embodies youthful idealism.
Here, Ramirez pinpoints the importance of hip hop in Cuban culture—even more so than other native musical styles: "In Cuba, where teenagers and young adults see their world torn by social ills including street hustling and racism, there are worse things to worry about than power outages.
When the state and its nationalist perspective plays such a large role in the production and promotion of Cuban hip hop, artists must make careful decisions about how much criticism they really want to offer of the regime.
When they rap about the realities of race or the sense that poverty and economic hardship are not being alleviated by the state, they risk breaking the close ties they have to the government and thus put their success on the line.
Some groups have gone too far and faced sanctions or censorship [37][38] However, many Cuban artists seem to have reached a consensus with the state's involvement in rap, accepting that the government's role may lead to better production, more support, and more commercial exposure.
First, the state supports hip hop culture as a vehicle of progressive revolution which is openly accepted in the midst of a polarized socio-political shift from Communism to Market Capitalism.
Secondly, young Havana artists realize that their government provides free health care and education, as well as a generally more equitable distribution of resources.
Jineterismo, a form of prostitution for tourists, affords poor Cuban women access to American dollars that they cannot earn working for the state.
As Afro-Cuban men attempt to re-insert race into public conversations, their female counterparts simultaneously advocate racial and feminist discourses.
This is seen in "Vamos a Vence," a Las Krudas song which incorporates rhetoric first used by Fidel Castro to inspire community, pride, and a revolutionary spirit within the Cuban people.
[41] Today, current and former members of Las Krudas live in the United States, where they continue to advocate for gender and sexual equality through North American tours, Internet campaigns, and trips to Cuba to support up and coming artists.
This practice continues today alongside the pakete, a curated collection of entertainment including international rap music drawn from YouTube and other Internet sources.
Starting off under the name "Amenaza" or "Threat," the group was the first to deal with issues of race and challenge Castro's idea of colorless, or "color-blind," society.
They constitute a Cuban hip-hop voluntary exile community that utilizes more widely available Internet resources and exposure to voice socially-conscious messages.