Chicano ideology revisited: Rap music and the (re)articulation of Chicanismo

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Abstract
The author argues that rap music functions as a vehicle to express oppositional politics. As a result, Chicano rappers appropriate the musical genre to (re)articulate Chicano ideology. Examining the products of several artists, the author argues that Chicano rappers rhetorically reproduce several common elements of Chicano ideology. These rappers use cultural and ideological elements to again empower Mexican American audiences to conceive of themselves as a unified, politically engaged bloc. The author concludes that Chicano rappers open a public space that offers Chicanismo to a contemporary mass audience but with traditional Chicano nationalist messages embedded in the lyrics. Rap music is also discussed as a vehicle for presenting nationalist and critical discourses from the margins.