Friday, July 29, 2005

the myth of reggaeton

Here is an interesting piece from Davy-D's Hip-Hop on the racial politics of reggaeton called The Myth of Reggaeton by E-PROPS. However, what seems bizzare to me is that, reading between the lines, the author seems to resent the success of reggaeton and sees it as a tool for "Hispanics of European descent" to take something away from Black dancehall reggae artists. But in reality many of the reggaeton artists (starting with El General, who performed the first reggaeton song "Pum Pum Mami Mami") are themselves Latinos of African descent. And reggaeton itself grew out of the cultural synthesis which occured when West Indians moved to Panama (where El General is from) and Puerto Rico. So although the piece from E-Props probably makes some valid points, I'm still concerned that in the name of defending Black cultural ownership of reggae, he may really just be defending ethnocentrism and pitting one group of people of African-descent against another.

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