In the Time of Sky-Rhyming

Abstract

In the Time of Sky-Rhyming: How Hip Hop Resonated in Brown Los Angeles tracks the reception of Hip Hop by Latines in Los Angeles, when it first arrived there. The era when Hip Hop was first transposed onto the West Coast context, what this book calls the “time of sky-rhyming,” was an important step in Hip Hop’s global expansion, and Brown Los Angeles participated in its adaptation. Many creatives from Brown Los Angeles found their place in early underground expressions of Hip Hop, including in breaking, rhyming, DJing, and graffiti elements. The movement resonated in Brown Los Angeles through channels of cultural exchange, especially the regional histories of Black American and Latine interaction, transregional connections of Caribbean-origin migrants, and Borderland legacies of resistance and innovation. During this period, Central American immigrants were settling in the urban corridors of the region, young Chicanos were coming of age in the post–civil rights era, Caribbean migrants carried resources from east to west, South American immigrants established networks across cities, and Latines were interacting with other minoritized populations such as Black Americans, ethnic Samoans, Filipinos, and Koreans. At sites like Club Radio and Radiotron, at church events, and in neighborhoods around the Los Angeles basin, spaces that often included Latines, West Coast Hip Hop was being defined. Though West Coast Hip Hop is often cast as a deleterious movement, based on original oral history interviews, the chapter demonstrates demonstrate how Hip Hop empowered Latine creatives in the greater Los Angeles area to positively address societal challenges.