“Latinos in Hip Hop to Reggaeton”

For the past year, reggaeton has bumped and grinded its way to the forefront of Latin music–pushing aside traditional favorites such as salsa and pop to become the most popular Latin style in the country. Daddy Yankee started off 2005 at the top of Billboard’s ranking of Latin albums, beating out international superstars Juanes and Luis Miguel, among other Latin music staples. In hip hop, this summer’s anthem came from New York via Puerto Rican MC Fat Joe with Lean Back. At the same time, Cuban American rapper Pitbull of Miami brought Spanglish rap to the masses, and in California, Chicano acts like Akwid, Jae-P and Baby Bash have been selling unprecedented numbers of CDs with lyrics in both languages. Even rap and urban groups from México, such as Control Machete and Molotov, are moving more than 100,000 albums in the U.S.

Clearly, the world of hip hop is changing, not just in the underground scene where this type of diversity and Latino contribution have been recognized for years, but in the popular conscience and the mass media.

“The Latin Hip Hop community is becoming stronger and stronger,” said producer and DJ Tony Touch, a member of the New York scene since the 90s. “That’s the direction it [hip hop] is going in … the Hispanic community in the U.S. is growing and more Latinos are listening to hip hop now, especially reggaeton–we kind of got the best of both worlds.”

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Anotha Banga. Holla.