In a hip-hop and flamenco combination, the Fowler Museum will showcase Thursday a holistic image of Latin music through traditional and modern fusion and passionate movement.
Olmeca, an MC of underground South Central hip-hop fame, will fuse street rap with traditional Mexican vocals and melody while a UCLA-connected flamenco group will bring the heart-wrenching sense of loss associated with the Spanish dance to the outdoor stage.
A master of duality in both his bilingual lyrics and combination of traditional Mexican music and hip-hop genres, Olmeca puts forth a unique musical perspective.
“My music is able to exist in the American hip-hop culture, while reaching out to the Spanish-speaking audience, which includes everyone from your mom and pop to the younger generation,” Olmeca said. “I try to reach out and break through that language barrier, putting the song’s sentiment across.”
Appealing to different demographics, Olmeca brings up relevant world issues in his lyrics while offering ideas for solutions instead of merely complaining about global injustices.
The content of his music is about things that affect people worldwide, including indigenous struggles in Latin America, globalization and capitalism, and war and genocide.
“Talking about the problem is one thing,” Olmeca said. “Finding the culprit is another, and the third thing, on which rappers don’t tend to focus, is creating alternatives for the problem. We talk about the good things that are happening in life besides the bad.”
Addressing the L.A. immigration march of 2006, Olmeca rallies together immigrant workers in his lyrics, bringing up the strength of numbers and the importance of media representation.
“News reporters said “˜the giant has awoken’ when the march happened,” Olmeca said. “But no. That’s a myth. The giant wasn’t sleeping at all. You just never saw us because we were working.”
Accompanied by a band which includes ethnomusicology graduate student Alexandro Hernandez, Olmeca raps about his own experience as a child of immigrant parents and the problems with a lack of resources and poor education in his Chicano community. His experience with hard manual labor and continuing poverty is also addressed in his lyrics: “Twelve hours in the maquila and barely surviving?”
Olmeca’s inspiration lies both in the traditional Mexican songs he grew up listening to and in the hip-hop artists of the surrounding L.A. scene.
Though he certainly draws elements from these genres for his own eclectic musical mix, it is the Chicano culture that has the most impact on his beats.
“Don’t ask what music influenced me,” Olmeca said. “It’s my people’s movement that motivates me.”
Also celebrating the music and movement of people is a flamenco group, the other half of the Fowler performance.
These flamenco artists performing the heartfelt and sensual music and dance have a number of UCLA connections: Dancer Lisa Webb is a recent alumna of the world arts and cultures department, and guitarist Jeremy Althouse is a current geology graduate student.
“We started performing together about a year ago,” Althouse said. “Since then it’s been a labor of love for all of us.”
The set to be performed at Fowler is a blend of traditional flamenco dances and other Spanish songs.
Flamenco is characterized by rapid musical passages and audible footwork. The rhythm, much like in jazz, is felt internally by the dancer instead of counted mechanically as in classical music.
The dancers wear bright, extravagant costumes reminiscent of the persecuted Spanish gypsies who started the art form hundreds of years ago.
Structurally, traditional flamenco is broken down into palos. Each palo has an associated key, tempo, dance and lyrics. The group will center on a few of these strictly traditional palos, with some fusion of Spanish songs.
“It’s fun to throw in something a little different,” Althouse said.
The knowledge of these flamenco traditions stems from historic Spanish origins. The dancers of the group all studied flamenco in Spain and the group is actively learning new skills in the art.
“It’s a very passionate art form ““ very intense,” Althouse said. “There is a lot of thematic material that deals with loss and pain. Though there are certainly other emotions involved in the dance, this is the most distinctive and associated.”
Exploring different music fusions, global events and the Latin culture, Olmeca and the flamenco group promise to bring emotion to Fowler entertainment.
“This is a unique opportunity for students to come listen to what this mesh of music sounds like,” Olmeca said.