The Musical Routes of the Spanish Black Atlantic: The Performance of Identities in the Rap of Frank T and El Chojín

Abstract

On account of the immigration boom at the turn of the 21st century, the various ways in which cultural production in Spain has engaged with and been shaped by residents born overseas and the issue of ethnic difference now comprise a significant field of academic study. In this paper, I examine the self-representation of artists of African origin on the Spanish rap scene. To this end, I draw on and adapt Paul Gilroy's conceptual space of the “black Atlantic” and Simon Frith's understanding of the musical performance of identities in an analysis of the work of the two most prominent black Spanish MCs, Frank T and El Chojín. In view of their exclusion from dominant notions of what it is to be Spanish (as they detail in several of their lyrics), these two rappers construct alternative identities in dialogue with the international black diaspora by borrowing and sampling from African-American and African musical styles and voices.