Spanglish & Latin Hip-Hop, Is There A Market For It?
Published: Tuesday - May 15, 2007
Words by Hector "Heist" Alvarez of Perrealo.com
As Americans we all know that the United States is the largest melting pot in the entire world, that we have every language spoken throughout the globe right here in our own America. Now the thing is this, if we have so many diverse cultures and languages being spoken, why do we have a problem in allowing them on the air? Young Latin Americans speak predominantly a broken language we have all come to know as Spanglish, which is a combination of Spanish and English and used more as slang than a real language. But we all have used it at one point or another. We are faced with our youth not always learning Spanish completely and having to substitute words in English to make up for not being able to carry out a full Spanish conversation.
Pitbull; Photo: TVT Records
What I am seeing is a big transition over to the same use of Spanglish, not only in our every day lives, but now a lot of our new young artists are also using more in their music. If you listen to a lot of our artists, they are really bringing out some HOT music, and not only doing it in Spanish and English, but Spanglish as well. I have always felt that we can grow this genre if we use this to our advantage. Our generation of Latinos are all pretty much in the same boat, we each partake in this use of our language and do it pretty well and a lot of the times, it's so customary for us we don't even notice were doing it. It's a normality to our lives and in bringing together this one key feature into our music, we add a special tone that can bring out some unique and hot music that can not be overlooked when marketed properly.
I have heard a lot of music coming out of the Latin hip-hop community and many are doing this and some have had huge success in doing so. Just to name one big name, we would have to look at Pitbull. This young man has taken the Spanglish use to a new level in music by always kicking in some Spanish in all his songs or at the least a lot of his songs. If you look at his success, you will see there is a market for it and that success can come out of it. Now lets take it back to 1990 and we can see that even back then we had an opportunity to move on this particular style of music and although Gerardo had a big hit with his album, Mo' Ritmo, and although many do not see him a key artist in the game, you can not deny that in 1990 you weren't saying "Rico Suave." We didn't see this movement coming, but it has been there for many years and it is now truly evolutioning.
T-Weaponz
The underground has T-Weaponz, a hip-hop outfit of young Latinos in Brooklyn, which has had huge underground success in doing the same thing. They had "Mira Mira," which went on to gain national accolades and accumulated over 26,000 National Radio Spins. It featured Pitbull amd Notch and was in English, Spanish and Spanglish. If you listen to this song, not only will you hear a fierce group of rappers, but a song that was done exactly what so many before it have, been successful. Catchy hook that combined English and Spanish to a perfect blend.
Many don't feel that this is something plausible. I disagree only because I have seen the success of it and see that there is a huge potential in taking this to another level and really making something happen. Now we can actually have songs played regularly on all radio supporting hip-hop and not just those that we decide to change over because of some little success that were allowed to have.
If we actually make music that is enjoyable for everyone, guess what? They will accept, listen and buy. So is there a market for this? YES! But is it feasible? That's the main question, which is one that has due justice to be asked, because can we really expect something out of the ordinary to work? I honestly feel that we can, because if Dora the Explorer can be a cartoon show targeted to our kids in English and Spanish, why cant our music?
TV knows there is a market out there, so when are radio and music labels going to realize the same thing? I love my culture, my music and hip-hop. I think we have a perfect combination when we have them all intertwined and this is something that if implemented correctly can outdo so many other genres that have come and gone, and we can actually remain. By doing so, you not only open up doors for those who don't understand Spanish to enjoy, but now you open doors to radio stations that wouldn't usually play it because it was a Spanish song. We can make headway if we actually examine a lot of what is already being done out in the market. Lets not wait until were told when our music should pop, lets choose when we have our time.
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