Thursday, March 28

Rap ‘underground’ shows its teeth in Mexico City


The boys are having a good time. They huddle in a circle and in the middle, the center of their universe. The battle to win. Rhymes fly from side to side that cut the air, fill the space between them. His world is focused on that moment: the most ingenious reply, the fastest, the most scathing wins. Pure mental athletics. Like sparring partners dancing in a ring, taking blows and trying to respond with a more accurate right hand than his opponent’s. The tension simmers with each round and ends up exploding at the end, when it seems that the bad vibes could get worse and at any moment someone is going to throw the first punch. Instead of that a laugh, a hug and all such friends. What happens on stage, or rather, on the floor of the square, stays there. Rap improvisation battles are not something new, but against all odds the years go by and they continue to maintain a loyal audience and young blood that renews the scene. In Mexico City, the epicenter is in the monument to the Revolution.

It’s the second Saturday of 2022, and the weather is cooler than usual in the capital, with a shy winter sun in the sky. Starting at two in the afternoon, dozens of young people begin to gather in Revolution around a bench where someone writes down the inscriptions for the battle. It starts to smell like weed. A group of teenagers improvise as a warm-up around a loudspeaker they have brought from home. More than 110 freestylers they will compete today, although the judges will do a big purge and to the next round, the round of 16, only 32 of them will pass. The aesthetic has not changed much since the origin of the genre: skates, wide jerseys of American basketball teams, others with letters graffitied, jeans three sizes too big, tracksuits, flat caps, sneakers.

The public watches a rap battle in the plaza of the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City, on January 8, 2021.
The public watches a rap battle in the plaza of the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City, on January 8, 2021.
Gladys Serrano

Here the street is a creed to follow. And plaza rap, as they call it, the purest, most underground form. The event is organized by Venom League, which is something like the second division of the world of improvisation. Prestigious enough for the next promises to come from here, but still underground. The step before making the leap to the professional circuit. “4 years ago I started with the concept of Venom, there was a lot of frustration, they always supported them and there is a lot of talent in the square here. The idea is to promote all kinds of people”, summarizes Cristian Torres, Abstract Verse, a 29-year-old industrial engineer who fell in love with rap when, a decade ago, a friend gave him a CD with classic songs. He is the brain behind the competition, and behind him he has albums, collaborations and many battles. “The magic of freestyle It is not compared to anything else, it is a unique adrenaline rush. In addition, we do events with a cause. During the strong stage of covid we collect face masks and medicines. At Christmas, food and toys.

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Many are not of legal age. And the atmosphere is that of a meeting of old friends: greetings, hugs, fraternity. It is a small scene and most of them know each other at least by sight. Those who already manage to live from their music are mixed with pre-adolescents who write and improvise their first sentences. They face each other, there are no categories. You can tell who’s more polished by tone of voice, confidence, ease, and presence on the cobblestones when it comes time to rap. Garcés is 16 years old, but he already has enough boards: “I like square concerts more, there are more people and it encourages you more”. The other day he improvised in an exhibition of Venom in a local. Today he will reach the final rounds.

“I would like to leave a mark, to be remembered”, confesses Luis Esteban Montejano, Kamui, a young man of 18 years, with a fine body and nervous gestures. Four months ago he had his first battle. “The emotion that improvisation generates is unique, how pure things come out,” he adds. “It impresses me how they rhyme and they respond so quickly, they must be people who read a lot to give such good answers” ​​expands Tamara Bermúdez (20 years old), who does not rap, but today she has come as an audience for the first time, and timidly observes some meters away a battle. The majority of those registered are men, although in recent times women have managed to break through. Venom League A new category has started amazon, which has the objective of promoting female rappers who are just starting out. “The purpose is to make women known because in the square they were always branded as the worst”, he synthesizes Abstract Verse.

Korayma Garcia (17 years old), Kory, He has competed in all three editions of amazon that has been up to now. From Nezahualcóyotl (State of Mexico), he has been rapping for two years. “Being a woman it is difficult to shine, I remember battles with 180 registered in which we were only two women. You try to stand out in an area highlighted by men. Women know what it’s like not to have any support in the freestyle, and now we’re all standing out together. At most we are like 20 women and we all get along, that’s why there is that respect. amazon It has helped a lot of girls who have started now, ”she narrates sitting on the steps of Revolución, wrapped in a flannel shirt five sizes too big. She started improvising at her institute two years ago, “and when I left, I looked for it on the street”. She intends to make a living from this, but for the moment, she is focused on her laboratory studies.

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The rappers 'Trovador' and 'Reisar', in a battle of roosters at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City, on January 8, 2021.
The rappers ‘Trovador’ and ‘Reisar’, in a battle of roosters at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City, on January 8, 2021.
Gladys Serrano

He is a professional rapper, but far from the glamor of the video clips of hip hop American, here it means interspersing concerts and events with playing in the subway. jesus cross, Troubadour, 28 years in the world and 11 in music, coming from La Merced. He started improvising “by accident” when he saw some kids doing it at his high school, and he turned it into his life. “You have to have a lot of stamina. Rap gives so you can support yourself, but you have to invest a lot in it, invest in my dream, but that often leaves you with nothing. Suddenly I came to a state [a un evento], had just to eat, the inscription and let’s go back, it was lightning. There are days when he gives you a lot and days when he gives you nothing. For him, practicing every day is key, “the brain is like a lazy person, if you get used to doing the same thing, it will limit itself to that”. He prefers free improvising to battles, “you develop ideas more, you don’t just encapsulate yourself in shooting at an opponent. They made it a sport, sadly they don’t see it as a culture anymore.”

Face to face

On December 29, 2021, to end the year, Venom League introduces a new format: face to face (face to face), an exhibition to which he has invited a handful of freestylers They will be measured one against one. The battle is a clothing store hip hop, on the third floor of an old building in the city center. The improvised concert hall begins to fill with young people, teenagers and even children who come with their parents. Before starting, classics by Violadores del Verso and Tote King are heard. The DJ plays for the camera, makes scratch about a song by Mala Rodríguez. All the bases that will sound during the battles are original, produced by the beatmakers Erik Elorza y ​​Jizzy MJH.

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There are several battles throughout the afternoon. In one of them they face Topis, in his thirties, and Mario Shackur Trujillo, Wizard, (16 years). The teenager, who looks more like an altar boy than a kie, receives every thrust from his stoic opponent. He seems defeated, but in reality he mentally points out each attack, sharpens the fang, and when his turn comes he responds mercilessly, spitting the phrases straight into the jugular in an aggressive style, into the gum. In the audience are his little brother and his mother, wearing a T-shirt with his face on it, holding a phone through which his father Wizard follow the battle by video call. “Reading helps me a lot, the more words, the more bullets,” he explains in a smiling voice, radically opposed to his personality on stage. “Am punch liner, a little crude, I hope they tell me something so I can answer loudly. Sometimes adrenaline wins us, on stage you say things that you wouldn’t say outside, but it’s a character”.

Rappers 'Kory' (left) and Sandra face off in an improv battle on December 29, 2021 in Mexico City.
Rappers ‘Kory’ (left) and Sandra face off in an improv battle on December 29, 2021 in Mexico City.
Gladys Serrano

Today more women improvise than men. The last battle of the day has heated up, and the two opponents have literally ended face to face, almost spitting on each other, feeling each other’s sweat. For someone new it may seem that they are going to end up in blows, they are saying everything and each answer is harsher than the previous one. But in the end, as always, they embrace. The public runs to take photos and ask for autographs from one of them, Marlen Alejandra Rosales, Azuky, 16 years old. Her appearance is far from being that of a normal rapper. He wears big glasses and braces on his teeth, but when he improvises he strings together brutal rhymes with a ease and coherence that burn whoever gets in front of him. His voice, shrill and aggressive, gives him a style markedly his own.

“I like to battle, release everything, you can say what you want and channel everything. Sometimes things get tense at the moment and the heat, you’re yelling in your face, spitting, but the battle stays there,” he says. The event ends and people leave until the next appointment. A group stays drinking beer, laughing and listening hip hop American.

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