If you also like this stuff, check out the video blog --VODHAVANA 2008 --
which has a lot of exciting musical vids on Clan 537 and the Cuban Hip Hop scene.
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Major media attention has been given to Cuba's version of Hip Hop culture-a culture originally developed in the Bronx, New York in the late 1970's as a vehicle of expression for disenfranchised youth. Serving the same purpose within the socialist Cuban society, Cuban Hip Hop is both defying numerous misconceptions anti-Castro propaganda has lead foreigners to believe about censorship in Cuba (via its highly critical lyrics), and also reaffirming certain limitations the Cuban society faces under Castro's regime (i.e. the lack of commercial success for artists). International attention to Cuban Hip Hop grew after the first annual Cuban Rap Festival, held in 1995, however this film indicates that the foundation for the growth of Hip Hop in Cuba was set in the 1970's, contemporaneously with the US. Based on first-hand investigation carried out over the course of four years, including observation of and participation in Cuban Hip Hop concerts and colloquiums at the eighth annual Cuban Hip Hop Festival in Havana, and interviewing the most influential Cuban Hip Hop artists and producers, this documentary traces Cuban Hip Hop step by step in a way that has yet to be formally recorded or published.
