Travel the country’s regional rap circuit — Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans — and you’d be hard pressed to find a local scene that is as saturated with as much cultural, diasporic multiplicity as Oakland.
The area boasts a tradition of artistic diversity and independent hustlership: within the span of a few miles, you’ll encounter rappers who are IndoFijian, Jewish, Filipino, Black, Japanese, and Panamanian. From self-starting entrepreneurs who have launched their own music labels to Grammy-winning songwriters, rappers from Oakland and surrounding cities exist in every shape, size, and style.
And yet, for all of its depth of talent, it’s rare to find one particular class of Oakland emcees: bilingual Mexican American lyricists. One could even argue that the visibility of Mexican rappers is severely underrepresented relative to the community’s size. (According to the census, people of Mexican heritage make up about 18% of Oakland’s population)…