I'm looking to do some photography not of salsa and traditional dancers/musicians, but of hip hop/rap things going on. “We are waiting around for an angel to come from abroad who recognizes our talent and is willing to invest a lot of attention and money in our project,” Maigel says. I can unsubscribe any time using the unsubscribe link at the end of all emails. One is tall and languid, the other shorter and in constant motion.

Hip hop and rap clubs, while scarce today in Cuba, have emerged as an open and affordable gathering space for lower and middle-class Cubans who are increasingly excluded from other forms of Havana nightlife due to rising prices, dollarization of popular clubs and increasing segregation on behalf of tourists and the wealthy Cuban elite. Viva la Revolución is a refrain in his songs and a Che Guevara T-shirt is a staple in his wardrobe.When they met eight years ago, Maigel, then 13, and Yosmel, 17, were just kids looking for fun on an island so depressed that scores of their countrymen were building rafts out of everything from styrofoam to old tubes to take their chances at sea. There was nothing in Cuba that sounded like it.”,There also wasn’t anything in Cuba that talked about the same issues that have challenged black Americans for decades.

They wear baggy jeans and oversized T-shirts, and sprinkle their songs with “c’mon now” and “aw’right.” But while they might emulate American hip-hop style, Yosmel Sarrías and Maigel Entenza, who make up the duo Anónimo Consejo, rap about a distinctly Cuban reality.“This is so that you understand that all young people aren’t garbage,” Yosmel and Maigel shout in Spanish.
They huddle with Magia, one of the few women rappers in Havana and also their mentor. Time to go in.Santaurio, a group visiting from Venezuela, is the first to storm up to the microphones. It’s for listening,” says a kid wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey. Cuba has long welcomed black American activists and intellectuals, and many of them have reached out to Afro-Cubans youth. The next morning they were released with a warning, and it’s clear that, at least for now, they are heeding that warning. They excitedly snap photos of one another and different rapper friends, laughing to disguise their nervousness.

“And for Cubans, believe me, it takes a lot to keep us from dancing.”.The two raperos are a study in contrasts—the writer and the star. In the song “Appearances Are Deceiving” they rap: “Don’t crush me, I’m staying here/ Don’t push me, let me live/ I would give anything for my Cuba, I’m happy here.”,Despite their lyrics about staying put in Cuba, Yosmel and Maigel want more. I know "Club Las Vegas" used to, but it doesn't look like that's around any more from what my Googling can tell...And I suspect that there are few venues that play a specific genre every day - more likely there are places that have a night a week something like that.This topic has been automatically locked due to inactivity. “Even though about 70 percent of the girls we know do it, we don’t, and we’re sick of them judging us.”.The next Friday, outside Club Las Vegas, the girls are giddy. Answer 1 of 7: I’m going to Cuba next month and enjoy all genres of music but is there a specific club that plays hip hop or pop music Havana Flights to Havana In addition to responding to the music, Cuban youth were also attracted to the visitors’ obvious pride in being black. In their songs, they often warn young Cubans against the temptations of American-style capitalism. Rap groups like dead prez and Black Star have been traveling to Cuba since 1998 as part of the Black August Collective, a group of African American activists and musicians dedicated to promoting hip-hop culture globally. But the highlight of Yosmel’s life so far has been meeting some of the biggest names in the U.S. rap underground. “What you’re seeing is Cuba’s underground. “Banal lies cover up the truth/ just like the killing of Shaka Sankofa,” Yosmel raps, referring to the execution last year of an African American on death row.

And if Cuba’s top rap producer likes them, he’ll groom them just as he has Maigel and Yosmel.Pablo Herrera, the producer who can make them—who already made Orishas, the first popular Cuban rap group—is in the DJ’s room looking down. In a week, they will perform in public for the first time at Club Las Vegas. "Only 3 cucs for the entrance, you enjoy a full night of dancing until 3am with the perfect mix of Cuban reggaeton and top 40 spanish music." Though they add that police rarely do more than question them on the street, the stigma of being a young black man in Cuba wears on their nerves.Maigel, Yosmel and others in Cojímar felt it, and like any disaffected youth, they looked for role models who made them feel proud. After performing a song about the police and racial profiling, they were arrested and thrown in jail. “In school they taught him about slavery, but they didn’t go into depth,” his mother says, standing in the dirt yard in front of their small wooden house.
“The idea is to improve what is already in place.” These efforts were rewarded in 1999 when Abel Prieto, the Minister of Culture, officially declared rap “an authentic expression of cubanidad” and began nominally funding an annual rap festival.