Rivera Critical Review

Rivera first establishes the growth of Afrocentricity in hip hop through the 80s and 90s, and then explores the difficulties Puerto Rican-Americans (and Latin-Americans in general) had in finding a place in hip hop at this time. Her investigation revealed both top-level and grassroots discrimination and exclusion from both whites and blacks. African-Americans, having had so much taken from them, musically and otherwise, were very defensive about "their" genre. In response to "not being black enough" and not seeing enough Latinos involved in hip hop, Latinos began to do hip hop their own way, creating the distinctly Latin "freestyle" genre . But this only widened the divide between African-Americans and Latin-Americans, and when the genre was no longer commercially viable, it died out. As it did so, it discredited established Latin-American MC's, pulling them down in its wake. Overall, hip hop is tragically painted as a deck stacked heavily against Latin-Americans due to biases and discrimination from many different directions, despite a wealth of shared experiences and culture.

Discussion Question: How would you compare the perception of Latin-Americans in hip hop with those of Asian-Americans, whites, etc.? How do you think these perceptions have changed or remained the same over the years?