The
Fourth Annual Latin Rap Conference took place last week in New York City.Latin
MCs, producers, marketing firms, radio stations, and label execs joined forces
Oct. 12-13 for the two-day Latin Rap Conference, which focused on strengthening
the rapidly growing Latin Hip-Hop, urban, and reggaeton communities."My
main goal was just to try bring the Latin rap and reggaeton industry together
for the purpose of empowering it," Jesse "Shysti" Perez, founder
of the Latin Rap Conference told AllHipHop.com. "I knew that there is strength
in numbers and if we can get united we can actually make plans for getting major
labels to recognize the genre [and] that we would help the music grow.
"The first
conference we spoke about major labels noticing our genre, and by the second conference
there was Bad Boy Latino, Wu Tang Latino, [and] Machete," Perez continued.
"There’s all these divisions opening up in the major labels from one year
to the next, and that just inspired us to keep on moving."During
last week’s independent artist showcase, Latino artists from around the world
came together to showcase their talent. A panel of industry executives also gathered
to speak about the state of Latin Hip-Hop.According
to Los Angeles radio personality Khool Aid, one of the biggest hurdles facing
the Latin Hip-Hop genre is the alienation created by sub-genres, which may have
divided the Latin Hip-Hop community."You’ll
hear a lot of people talk about reggaeton, Spanish rap, Chicano rap they’re all
sub-genres of Latin Hip-Hop," said Khool Aid, who hosts the nationally syndicated
Latin Hip-Hop show Pocos Pero Locos."Unfortunately
the Latino wasn’t the normal face in Hip-Hop so it wasn’t what Hip-Hop was supposed
to look like, according to the face that was painted to mainstream media. So it
was really hard for a lot of Latino artists to break the doors down in radio and
in media."Despite
the many challenges facing the genre, most attending the conference agreed that
progress has been made.As
for what’s to come in Latin rap, label executives think the next major movement
will come from a Mexican MC. Rich
Isaacson, once president of Loud Records, predicted another breakthrough for the
Latin rap industry."Whatever
it’s going to be is going to come from the West Coast or Texas, and then were
going to see another major earthquake in the genre," said Isaacson, who has
worked with Latino artists such as Fat Joe, Big Pun and the Beatnuts. "It’s
going to happen–it’s just a matter of when."