Hip Hop and the Borderland 

 How you know where i'm at/

  when you haven't been where i've been/

  understand where i'm coming from!?

                                                                                                                                          -Cypress Hill-

They clownin on me/

'cause of my language/

i have to tell them/

it's called spanglish

The border, that physical and metaphorical existence that has been discussed by so many who live a hyphenated existence in the United States, is a central space of discourse in the world of Latino Hip Hop.  This world exists as a border between the United Sates and Mexico, between Latino culture and African American Culture, and between mainstream "norms" and subcultural practices.  This site serves as a small introduction the the world of Borderland Hip Hop.

My aim is not a history of Borderland Hip Hop, but a complication of the ways Borderland Hip Hop can be discussed and analyzed as a counter-hegemonic discourse.  The linguistic and visual rhetoric of this genre of Hip Hop is dynamic and is an important piece of the rhetorical landscape of the United States and of the world.  Rhetorics such as these help redefine what we see as Rhetoric and what we see as importanet, legitimate, and valuable discourse.  In the words of Jacqueline Jones Royster from "Contemporary Challenges in the History of Rhetoric," "the challenge is to be adventerous enough in our thinking to take a different path, to find a different viewpoint, and to critique the terms of engagement so that a different sense of the landscape can be made visible, can be deemed valuable, and can become instructive in the re-envisioning of what constitutes knowledge."  Word.

                                                                Words       Graffiti         Vehicles       Interview Responses      Questions

Music Video from Chingo Bling

"Like This N Like That" a.k.a. "They Can't Deport Us All"