We got another one. Bolivia has joined this thing of ours. There is something about being of color, poor and exploited by capitalism that makes you “wanna holla’ and throw up both your hands.” Yes, yes ya’ll. We got Bolivia now. Like Jazz in Europe during the 50’s and 60’s Hip Hop is being embraced world wide. What makes the observation worth noting is that the pattern seems to remain the same – the carriers – poor, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and angry. The original critique that sprung out of New York in the late 1970’s is now being carried world wide. STOP BEING SO DAMN GREEDY. The rest of the world would like to eat too.
EL ALTO, Bolivia, May 24 - This sprawling city on Bolivia's windswept high plains, home to nearly 800,000 Indians, is a tradition-bound place where the language is Aymara, the women wear derby hats and layer-cake skirts and families relax to centuries-old Andean music, which is heavy on pipes but devoid of lyrics. In other words, not exactly the place you would expect to find a thriving, politically charged rap culture. But El Alto - a flash point for protest and the capital of indigenous Bolivia - is seething, and a growing number of young Aymara are expressing their anger in a hard-driving rap, complete with rapid-fire lyrics excoriating Bolivia's leaders and venting about the dire social conditions of the country's Indian majority. Adopting the trappings of American hip-hop, young Aymara wear baggy pants and baseball caps and strike the pose of urban America, hand signs, cocky talk and all. Their inspiration, though, comes straight from Bolivia's recent tumultuous history: the fall of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in October 2003 after protests in which 60 Indian demonstrators were killed, the bitter struggle over development of Bolivia's huge natural gas reserves, the indignation over the Washington-financed eradication of coca and the desperate poverty.
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