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PASS THE MIC! IN MIGENTE.COM |
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On March 17th, 2003 MiGente.com Interviewed Director/Producer Richard Montes. To view the interview, on MiGente.Com's website Click Here!
by Synbad Ontiveros
It has been a labor
of love for four years, but on February 11th, Pass the Mic was released
to show the world some of the struggles, stereotypes and obstacles that have
kept Latino rappers in the underground.
A joint production between
Safada Y Sano Production and Digital Aztlan, Pass the Mic showcases the
culture of Latino Hip Hop. Since the beginning of Hip Hop Latinos from the
Barrios of Aztlan to the Boroughs of New York have been a part of the Hip Hop
scene. Yet the media has all but ignored the voice and history of the Latino
rapper.
Richard Montes, writer, editor, producer and director of Pass
the Mic, has given a compelling look at the Latino Hip Hop underground.
Through interviews with rappers from Molotov, Delinquent Habits and many more,
Montes uncovers the problems, stereotypes, lack of radio support and other
obstacles that have kept Latino rappers out of mainstream Hip Hop for the past
twenty years. Pass the Mic shows how the recording industry has
disenfranchised rappers and has made them even more determined to succeed on
their own terms. I sat down with Montes and this is what he had to
say:
Synbad Ontiveros: How did you come up with the concept for
Pass the Mic?
Richard Montes: Well, it started for years ago when
we were getting BrownPride.com off the ground and one day we were sitting around
and started talking about Hip Hop and a documentary called Rhyme and Reason. We
noticed that there weren`t any Latino rappers shown or mentioned in the
documentary. So we decided that there needed to be a Latino Hip Hop documentary.
SO: Now you kind of kept it in the family, but who were the other
people that were involved in the making of Pass the Mic?
RM:
Initially it was Sal Rojas, my brothers George and John and me. Carlos B. Lopez
was there at the beginning, and then he went on to work on other projects.
Jessica Martinez joined the project as Associate Producer, and produced many of
the bonus features. Cesar Avalos, Chris San Paolo, and the 5th Battalion were
also involved.
SO: How hard what it to get the rappers involved in the
project?
RM: There was no difficulty in getting the rappers, they all
wanted to have their stories told. The only problems we had were scheduling
problems. We wanted to interview Kinto Sol from Chicago, but they were unable to
make it to California. We worked around the rappers schedules the best we
could.
SO: Why do you think that it`s so hard for the rappers to get
the support from the media they deserve?
RM: Well, it is getting better.
MTV.com did mention Pass the Mic under their new releases. I admit that
it is hard, even now there are radio stations (in California) that claim to be
big Latino Hip Hop supporters but they won`t promote certain CD`s or DVD`s that
they don`t have stake in. That`s another reason why we did the DVD. Hopefully it
will force some of the media to respect us and support us.
SO: What
type of support have you received from the media?
RM: Well, KGGI in
Riverside and Divine Forces Radio in LA are giving away copies of the DVD. A
couple of local Fox and UPN affiliates have reported on the DVD and covered some
events. The DVD was shown at the 1st Annual Hip Hop Odyssey Festival in the
Bronx. They also showed the film from Vee Bravo called Estilo Hip Hop, which
covered the East Coast scene. And we`ll actually be interviewed by MUN2 for one
of their shows.
SO: This project almost didn`t get finished, can you
explain why?
RM: It was really hard to finish the project after my
brother George died. I mean my brothers George and John invested their money in
the project. When we started Sal and I didn`t have any money and they gave us
the money. My brother died in a car accident. I have seen many of my friends die
since I was fourteen and this was the last straw! I didn`t want to finish the
project even though we were following our dream. You know, we had been around
Hip Hop all our lives but it didn`t matter and for about four months the project
was dead. I didn`t have the motivation to complete it. But, my friends helped me
through some of the grief and I knew that George would have wanted us to
complete our dream.
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Link to:MiGente.com
Above Photo originally published on MiGente.com. The Photo is of Krazy Race, The Psycho Realm, and Bugzy.
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Contact us at:info@passthemic.net |
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