Friday, March 8, 2013

A call for artists - for the new "AmericanPupusa" show on Radio CPR!!!!


Later this month, the mighty Radio CPR will present The AmericanPupusa show, hosted by Hugo Najera aka “Selecta.” The weekly show will feature the latest riddims and beats in Tropical and Global Bass; a hybrid of classic riddims, samples, technology, and current dance culture outside of the Western margins. As part of a family of musical genres rooted in Dub Soundsystem culture such as Hip Hop, Kuduro, Jungle, Tropical, House, Baile Funk, etc., each can trace their origins to the mobile sound systems of 50s and 60s Jamaica. It was in these soundsystems where music, wordplay, bass, and technology began to synergize and create a culture that strove for escapism, liberation, and celebration – achieved by manipulating music production with the echo, rewind, scratch, juggle, delay, and bass; creating fashion and language that we see with B-Boys and B-Girls; competition among chatters/MCs/toasters who lively up the crowd on day-to-day issues that speak directly to the community. It’s musical futurism for us workers, strivers, sufferers, and survivors.


A Call for Features:

A strong part of the AmericanPupusa show is creating a space for others to highlight and provoke along these same lines of futurism. One of my biggest frustrations with our cultures is how we tend to get stuck in formerly-outsider art, thinking it is still provocative, but in fact has been co-opted by society and given back to us as a Trojan horse. What hurts is how we make icons of our heroes, removing their life and spirit, and turn them into museum pieces that we can no longer touch. It is great to celebrate our past; I have all the love for Kahlo, Guevarra, Chavez, ATCQ, Basquiat, and Dondi – but where are our new code-breakers, innovative thinkers, and our new provocateurs?

The AmericanPupusa Show is calling for all artists (words, visual, sound, and performance) to submit their name/website/sample for future interviews or features on Radio CPR. Please send an email to hnajera@gmail.com, tweet @juicenajera, or inbox me on Facebook. I can include you on a list for potential artists to feature. This is open all year, so please feel free to drop a line anytime.

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