Reggaeton

Raquel Z. Rivera is a Researcher at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is the author of New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone and many articles for magazines and newspapers including Vibe, Urban Latino, El Diario/La Prensa, El Nuevo DÍa, and Claridad. She blogs at reggaetonica.blogspot.com.Wayne Marshall is the Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Ethnomusicology at Brandeis University. He blogs at wayneandwax.com, from which a post on reggaeton was selected for the Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 anthology.Deborah Pacini Hernandez is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University. The author of Bachata: A Social History of a Dominican Popular Music and a co-editor of Rockin’ Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America, she has written many articles on Spanish Caribbean and U.S. Latino popular music.

“Reggaeton is a truly important contribution to our understanding of the most pervasive and perhaps most misunderstood Latin musical genre at the turn of the 21st century. The blend of academic and journalistic writings with artistic statements, interviews and visual art offers the reader an extraordinary window into the complex landscape of reggaeton. . . . Raquel Z. Rivera, Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernadez have established the foundation for the rich and productive academic conversation that the genre will still generate.” - Alejandro L. Madrid, Dancecult "This collection of essays is the first attempt to critically engage with the phenomenon, and wisely hedges its bets with a broad collection of writings—earnest academic appraisals are effectively offset by punchy location reportage from Latin America, Q&As with major protagonists and landmark magazine pieces from the music's early days. . . . [A] largely informative and sometimes exhilarating survey of a multinational phenomenon."- Derek Walmsley, The Wire “Reggaeton is an excellent collection which itself occasions many surprises. Overall the book is structured in much the same way as its subject (reggaeton), as a series of overlapping, interconnected and often contradictory layers. . . . This book is a tour de force of criticism and analysis which is relevant not only to the study of reggaeton but to the study of popular music in general.” - Cameron White, Transforming Cultures “The admirable book Reggaeton . . . invites us to carefully ‘read’ this extraordinary musical and social phenomenon of our times. . . . The authors in this volume extensively document the crossing of geographic, racial, ethnic and linguistic borders. . . . As the essays in this book skillfully demonstrate, the ‘reggaeton nation’ constantly moves between numerous countries and cities, between Spanish and English, between Caribbean and African American rhythms.” (Translated from the Spanish) - Jorge Duany, El Nuevo DÍa “I cannot overstate how critically important this volume is. It captures the synergies of a musical and cultural movement that few have seriously grappled with, even as the sounds and styles of reggaeton have dominated the air space of so many urban locales.”-Mark Anthony Neal, author of Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic “It’s about time academia dared to include reggaeton. This might mean that we’re finally understanding that all of us are los de atrÁs (the ones behind): our country, Puerto Rico, and the whole Caribbean. I hope people support this book so it can be translated into Spanish, and kids in Puerto Rico and Latin America can read it. Because we Caribbean people, even if we don’t want to, even if we don’t like it, even if it hurts, we come from behind . . . and there’s a value to that. There’s a beauty to being los de atrÁs.”-Residente, frontman of the Grammy and Latin Grammy award-winning duo Calle 13 “The kinetic contributions in Reggaeton melt false borders-ones wrapped like straitjackets around peoples, knowledges, and cultures-and move the crowd. More than an exciting, exhaustive treatment of this vital musical culture, this anthology is a fine blueprint for engaged cultural scholarship right now.”-Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation “This anthology opens a chapter in hip-hop history that brings it all back home, back to our transnational Afro-Spanish-speaking countries and diasporas and ’hoods where young people are going through their hip-hop ecstasies and traumas, but in their own language, and in their own unique and hitherto-unknown style.”-Juan Flores, author of From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity, from the foreword to Reggaeton “Reggaeton is a truly important contribution to our understanding of the most pervasive and perhaps most misunderstood Latin musical genre at the turn of the 21st century. The blend of academic and journalistic writings with artistic statements, interviews and visual art offers the reader an extraordinary window into the complex landscape of reggaeton. . . . Raquel Z. Rivera, Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernadez have established the foundation for the rich and productive academic conversation that the genre will still generate.” - Alejandro L. Madrid (Dancecult) “Reggaeton is an excellent collection which itself occasions many surprises. Overall the book is structured in much the same way as its subject (reggaeton), as a series of overlapping, interconnected and often contradictory layers. . . . This book is a tour de force of criticism and analysis which is relevant not only to the study of reggaeton but to the study of popular music in general.” - Cameron White (Transforming Cultures) “The admirable book Reggaeton . . . invites us to carefully ‘read’ this extraordinary musical and social phenomenon of our times. . . . The authors in this volume extensively document the crossing of geographic, racial, ethnic and linguistic borders. . . . As the essays in this book skillfully demonstrate, the ‘reggaeton nation’ constantly moves between numerous countries and cities, between Spanish and English, between Caribbean and African American rhythms.” (Translated from the Spanish) - Jorge Duany (El Nuevo Día) "This collection of essays is the first attempt to critically engage with the phenomenon, and wisely hedges its bets with a broad collection of writings—earnest academic appraisals are effectively offset by punchy location reportage from Latin America, Q&As with major protagonists and landmark magazine pieces from the music's early days. . . . [A] largely informative and sometimes exhilarating survey of a multinational phenomenon."- Derek Walmsley (The Wire)

• List of Illustrations viiForeword: What's all the noise about? / Juan Flores ixAcknowledgments xiiiIntroduction: Reggaeton's Socio-Sonic Circuitry / Wayne Marshall, Raquel Z. Rivera, and Deborah Pacini Hernandez 1Part I. Mapping Reggaeton From MÚsica Negra to Reggaeton Latino: The Cultural Politics of Nation, Migration, and Commercialization / Wayne Marshall 19Part II. The Panamanian Connection Placing Panama in the Reggaeton Narrative: Editor's Notes / Wayne Marshall 77Reggae in Panama: Bien Tough / Christoph Twickel 81The Panamanian Origins of Reggae in EspaÑol: Seeing History through "Los Ojos CafÉ" of Renato / Interview by Ifeoma C. K. Nwankwo 89MuÉvelo (Move It!): From Panama to New York and Back Again, the Story of El General / Interview by Christoph Twickel 99Part III. (Trans)Local Studies and Ethnographies Policing Morality, Mano Dura Stylee: The Case of Underground Rap and Reggae in Puerto Rico in the Mid-1990s / Raquel Z. Rivera 111Dominicans in the Mix: Reflections on Dominican Identity, Race, and Reggaeton / Deborah Pacini Hernandezq 135The Politics of Dancing: ReggaetÓn and Rap in Havana / Geoff Baker 165You Got Your ReggaetÓn in my Hip-Hop: Crunkiao and "Spanish Music" in the Miami Urban Scene / Jose Davila 200Part IV. Visualizing Reggaeton Visualizing Reggaeton: Editors' Notes / Wayne Marshall and Raquel Z. Rivera 215Images by Miguel Luciano 218Images by Carolina Caycedo 221Images by Kacho LÓpez 222Part V. Gendering Reggaeton (W)rapped in Foil: Glory at Twelve Words a Minute / FÉlix JimÉnez 229A Man Lives Here: Reggaeton's Hypermasculine Resident / Alfredo Nieves Moreno 252How to Make Love with Your Clothes On: Dancing Regeton, Gender, and Sexuality in Cuba / Jan Fairley 280Part VI. Reggaeton's Poetics, Politics, and Aesthetics Chamaco's Corner / Gallego (JosÉ RaÚl GonzÁlez) 297Salon Philosophers: Ivy Queen and Surprise Guests Take ReggaetÓn Aside / Alexandra T. Vazquez 300From Hip-Hop to Reggaeton: Is There Only a Step? / Welmo Romero Joseph 312Black Pride / Tego CalderÓn 324Poetry of Filth: The (Post) Reggaetonic Lyrics of Calle 13 / Frances NegrÓn-Muntaner 327Bibliography: Selected Sources for Reading Reggaeton 341Index 345