This is a classic for Latin America. Musically it’s not that special, Rap 101; but culturally it was a huge deal. Rap in Spanish had never in the mainstream like this; there’d been collaborations and experiments, there’d even been “rappers” and “rap groups” with certain fame. But this was the first time that the mainstream fully accepted Rap in the same way as Rock.

It was a hit throughout the Spanish speaking world—i.e it was accepted—but still showed an aesthetic that many people hadn’t seen—i.e. it was weird. It’s hard to explain … At the time, most people outside of Mexico thought of Control Machete as purely Mexican. And people in Mexico probably saw this as specifically a Northern thing (Monterrey). As the years pass, everything is subsumed into a label of “Latino” or whatever inclusive term is chosen, but Latin America has always been a very broad area full of conflicting cultures and contradictions. I’d have to go into a long discussion about history and class relations but the point is that this just seemed totally new, and that’s where its value lies. ¿Entiendes, Mendes?

• Control Machete – ¿Comprendes, Mendes?