CONTANDO CONTIGO


in its pursuit of an uncompromising fluency in articulating the subject
through apparatuses of rhythm, flow, originality, and compositional
savoir. Sampling is an original methodology of rap and hip hop poet-
ics that has important compositional and critical consequences. The
internationalization of hip hop points to an identification with a world
community. Within this world community, Cuban hip hop responds
to and re-shapes its connection to North American hip hop. As one
national hip hop testifies to acute economic duress, so does the other.
Scholars writing on North American rap explicate the politically and
economically respondent modus operandi of this form, citing its rise
to public political arenas such as to the Senate and House hearings
in 1994.
 In the United States, hip hop delivers a retort against institutional-
ized poverty, racism, and youth criminalization through poetic means.
Likewise, Cuban hip hop documents the rise and promise of Cuban
rap during the special period-this contemporary era of economic
strain which confines the island to economic stringency and rations,
due to the continued U.S. embargo and the termination of Soviet subsi-
dies in 1990. The youth cultures of both countries innovate oral histo-
ries, political sciences, and ars poeticas in the shadow of economic
pressures. Danny Hoch, who directs the New York Cuban Rap Festival
elaborates on the rise of rap during the special period in Cuba. In Hoch's
article, "Chequea Mi Flow: Rap Y Revoluci6n, Hip-Hop Embraced By
Fidel and The Revolution," printed in Village Voice, October 1990, writes
that: "Because of the U.S. blockade, Cuba has become like one big,
marginalized community, and Hip-Hop tries to express that isolation
in a world context, the same way kids in the Bronx did in the 1970s.
Arguably Cuban rumba, a combination of chants, bragging, storytelling
and improvisation to African derived rhythms and instruments was
the first "rap" in the Americas."
 The Cuban rap group "Orishas," has taken Cuban subjectivity to the
global musical stage. The "Orishas" presents a poetic discourse on a
marginalized community in their song "Barrio." The following sample
forms a refrain throughout the song: "Mala vida nunca acaba, es una
calle sin salida/ It's a bad life that never ends, a dead end street."' The
rapper then performs an astute, self-conscious, and contestatory set
of lyrics:


' All English translations of the song "Barrio" by the author.