mami el negro esta rabioso (el africano)

This post has been rattling around in my brain for a couple days now (or longer depending on how you count) but Kismet "made me" finish it a little bit more quickly due to her comment on negro bembon. If anyone wants to look at how race shows up in Latin music, "El Africano" by Wilfrido Vargas (actually written by Calixto Ochoa, but Vargas went further with it) is a necessary "text". In one version, the song lyrics are:

Mami el negro esta rabioso, quiere bailar/pelear conmigo, decicelo a mi papa. Mami el negro me echa miedo, me tapo la cabeza y el negro me destapa. (or alternatively) Mami, yo me acuesto tranquila me arropo de pie a cabeza y el negro me destapa. CORO : Mami que sera lo que quiere el negro? (repeat)

Wlfrido Vargas: El Africano  

 The classic merengue tune is about a "rabioso" (angry, literally "rabid") black man uncovering the innocent girl who has little experience with "lo que quiere el negro" (what the black man wants). On one level it is a festive party anthem, but on another it pretty clearly perpetuates certain alarmist attitudes towards Black sexuality. (e.g. see race and sex) DJ Laz made heavy use of a Vargas sample and updated the song musically, if not lyrically. While more recently, Cuban-American rapper Pitbull came out with "The Anthem" featuring Lil' John as an homage to the original. Miraculously, he manages to make the lyrics more lascivious (the girl is certainly not calling her daddy for protection) and racist (adding typical Latin stereotypes of Black female/"morena" sexuality to stereotypes of Black male sexuality). 

 DJ Laz: Mami El Negro

   

 Pitbull: The Anthem 

 So far, my favorite piece in this lineage is "Mami El Negro" by the 'conscious' Spanish (as in from Spain) rapper El Chojin. To be honest, I never heard of El Chojin until working on this post but he is growing on me. I also like the Grenada-esque anti-bling anthem Si Mi Chica Se Llamara Shakira /If Shakira was my girlfriend. But in "Mami El Negro" he is the most explicit in terms of breaking down the racist content of the original song, along with the ignorance and prejudice he faces in his everyday life. El Chojin: Mami El Negro  

  Lyrics to "Mami El Negro" by El Chojin

Alguien me pregunto de donde soy! hombre no es la misma cancion

pero si es un poco mas de lo mismo racismo,

he crecido como muchos han crecido

escuchando la cancion de los conguitos, la del negro negrito

y payasadas por el estilo

y me las he comido siendo un niño

pero amigo he crecido y tanta estupidez me ha convertido

en un hombre orgulloso y decidido

a no aguantar ni una broma mas,

me cago en el payaso de George Dan,

los del colacao, los de la Warner y todos los demas,

retrasados, que yo nunca me he reido de un blanco por ser blanco,

tanto tonto tan simpatico, tan asno rebuznando

\"ah tu no tienes que tomar el sol en verano\"

me daban pena pero ya estoy arto,

me dais asco, tontos que sois tontos

y lo curioso es que se creen graciosos

pues mami ahora el negro esta rabioso

otro tonto y monto el pollo gordo,

bobo te cojo y te pongo rojo,

avergüenzate si alguna vez creiste que de veras un blanco

con taparrabos gritando en lo alto de un arbol podria ser el rey de algo, no

a Tarzán se lo comio el miedo al hombre negro,

un desconocimiento inmenso te ha hecho ciego, terco, memo y no tengo porque entenderlo,

ser bueno paciente y toda esa mierda,

al proximo que me venga con la ingeniosa idea

de decir que me parezco a Jordan, Eddie Murphy o al que sea se la lleva,

ea o sea que esta es vuestra manera de hacer que me sienta en vuestra tierra integrado,

pues lo siento pues la habeis cagado,

yo no me quiero sentir integrado

tengo mi peña, mi micro, mi dj y los platos

y bastante interesado que paso,

que ni somos iguales ni tenemos que aparentarlo,

mami ahora el negro esta rabioso

pero es porque tu le has cabreado

¿Mami sabes tu que es lo que quiere? Que el negro esta rabioso de oir a tanto lerdo

¿Mami sabes tu que es lo que quiere? Que el negro esta rabioso es hora de exigir respeto

¿Mami sabes tu que es lo que quiere el negro? No hay ningun problema mientra veas donde termina el juego

¿Mami sabes tu que es lo que quiere el negro? Pues que le dejes simplemente ni mas ni menos

Es cierto, las cosas son mucho mas sencillas de lo que parecen

no tenemos porque andarnos con estupideces,

ya somos mayores, mira, no somos iguales,

no te escandalizes el racismo existe

es real y esto no es una llamada a la reconciliacion

es simplemente informacion

porque sabes que?

lo cierto es que no me importa una mierda lo que tengas en la cabeza,

simplemente callatelo, no hagas comentarios,

no intentes ser gracioso y ya veras como asi a todos nos va a ir mucho mejor,

que yo no tengo porque ser mejor persona que tu,

que no te he pedido de ningun favor, simplemente digo las cosas como son,

soy realista y tener esta actitud la que me han hecho tener a lo largo de mi vida,

ha hecho que incluso haya gente que me llama racisma,

es la risa, o sea que me vigilan, hacen chistes, cancioncitas,

no me quieren en sus familias y encima yo soy el racista

pues nada hombre cuidado que te tengo discriminado,

a ver si voy a hacer que te sientas marginado o algo,

mira cuando alguien dice lo que todos piensan pero no lo dice,

se le decalifica pero bueno asi es como funciona esto,

pero bueno yo soy el que tiene el micro, tengo un disco y consigo

que lo que digo se te meta en el cerebro

ahora piensa por ti mismo firmado el Chojin 1999 a diez meses del 2000.

also: shakira and wycleff at the grammys

shakira and wycleff at the grammys

A friend recently put a YouTube clip of Shakira and Wycleff at the Grammys on her blog, which I thought was rather Grenada-esque and so I decided to "steal" it. (Actually I wonder how much consideration to give the fact that she was introduced as a "Latina superstar" as opposed to an "Arab superstar"?)

In any case, what follows is my own weak attempt to justify the sudden increase in the booty-shakin' quotient on this side of the blogosphere...

For a while now, I've been thinking about doing some kind of "deep" post about the cultural significance of Shakira, but honestly how deep I can make her. But in "Let Us Be Moors": Islam, Race And "Connected Histories" (the same paper which I use for the opening summary of Planet Grenada, Hisham Aidi makes a noble effort. He writes:

In the past two years, Islam and the Arab-Muslim world seem to have entered even more poignantly into the Latin American imagination, gaining a presence in political discourse and strongly influencing Hispanic popular culture. This Arab cultural invasion of Latin America, which has reverberated in mainstream American culture, is often attributed to the Brazilian telenovela El Clon and Lebanese-Colombian pop icon Shakira.

[...]

Through the Latino back channel, the impact of Shakira in bringing Arab culture to the MTV audience has also been considerable. The Lebanese-Colombian singer was bombarded with questions by the media about her views "as an Arab" on the September 11 attacks, and advised to drop the belly dancing and the Arabic riffs from her music because it could hurt her album sales, but she refused. "I would have to rip out my heart or my insides in order to be able to please them," said the songstress, and expressed horror at hate crimes against "everything that's Arab, or seems Arab." [18] During the run-up to the Iraq war, Shakira's performances took on an explicitly political tone, with her dancers wearing masks of Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Fidel Castro. Backdrop screens flashed images of Bush and Saddam Hussein as two puppets playing a sinister game of chess, with the Grim Reaper as the puppeteer. She also undertook a highly publicized tour of the Middle East (though her concerts in Casablanca, Tunis and Beirut were postponed), during which she visited her father's ancestral village in the Bekaa Valley.

Interesting... but honestly if I find more serious discussion of Shakira's significance online, I'll probably add some links. I promise this won't just turn into fan site.