31 March 2013

Andalusian rap. Seville's case

Sevillian rap artists (raperos) are the true spokespeople of the pueblo (people, society in general) speaking out about everything from politics to religion and from economy to morality. Out of all of them I suggest you to study closer the following performers: DEKOH, SFDK, Zatu, ToteKing, Shotta, Zeropositivo, Juaninacka, Xinkoa, DJ Makei, Puto Largo, Acción Sánchez, La Alta Escuela, and El Tralla. You can find information about them all on the Internet, but mostly in Spanish. Therefore there is no point in adding all the links here for your consideration. Though, I have the whole thing stored.

I have tried to cover the entire metropolitan area (area metropolitana) - including the localities up to 10-15 km from the city, which is everything there is between Rinconada and Dos Hermanas, Sanlúcar la Mayor and Alcala de Guadaira - for not leaving the rap artists from smaller towns out, like Dogma Crew from Mairena del Aljarafe for example.

I'm not a rap addict myself, but I can't deny the poetry of the lyrics sung by the Spanish-speaking raperos, especially by those from Spain. They are the best lyricists in the Spanish music industry (no ofense). The examples I give you are a good way to listen to the sound of Castilian spoken in Andalusia as well as to see what are the streets of Seville and homes of Sevillians like. You should watch the videos for that reason alone. It would be, of course, better if you understood Spanish to appreciate these guys and to enter into their mentality. But maybe you do.

Anyway, what they all have in common is that they are committed to their city and their neighbourhoods. Here you have just a piece to prove my point. Then, they often show themselves in their videos with a local graffiti artists (grafiteros) and tattooists (tatuadores), and they use from time to time the English words you can only understand knowing their dialect (e.g. harcor for "hard core").

Sevillian rap, here it comes:

There is also a documentary made about the rap and graffiti artists from Seville called Sevilla City! Día a Día de los Mejores Raperos Sevillanos! that was awarded in 2006. It's available on YouTube in Spanish in about 10 minute parts: 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5 and 5/5.

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