Taboo, "I was called a race traitor"

Que lio the Black Eyed Peas have gotten themselves into. Here’s the thing, as much as music critics (including myself) say their songs suck, you have to give it up to will.i.am. He’s got beats! But when you’re making money hand over fist in a recession, do criticisms still get under your skin? Let Perez Hilton talk his s**t, y’all know it doesn’t affect your record sales. With that said, check out my second part of my Taboo interview below. He gets into his solo album, his Mexican roots and racism.

Uno,

Jesus

SITV.COM: What can we expect to hear on your solo album?
Taboo: You’ll get to hear me more. You’ll get to hear my influences as a Latino kid growing up in East L.A. from the oldies to rancheras to cumbia to hip-hop. My album will be more focused towards the Spanish market. People have heard little [snippets] of my capabilities on songs with David Rolas and Kumbia Kingz but they don’t know my full capabilities.

SITV.COM: What makes you proud to be Mexican?
Taboo: They aren’t a lot of us doing what I do in hip-hop. I’m blessed to be part of the biggest hip-hop group in the world. I’m showing kids whether they’re underground or mainstream or Tijuaneros or Chicanos that sí se puede. I went from being told I shouldn’t do this black music because I’m Mexican and it goes against the race…don’t be a race traitor. I was like, “Hey, it’s all about skill and technique.” I was brought up in Boyle Heights, a predominantly Mexican community, a lot of eses who were racist against Black people and whenever I brought my friends around they really didn’t feel that. I always knew I was proud to be Mexican but I wanted to do it on a different tip. I didn’t want to be Kid Frost, I love Kid Frost and what he did for the Latino community but I loved De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest and that’s how I wanted to represent myself.

SITV.COM: Yep, Tribe and Cypress Hill did it for me.
Taboo: Cypress paved the way for me. These Latino dudes are doing it and nobody’s telling them that they’re selling out or that they’re acting like a Black dude. Because they were doing it with Latin lingo and with a Latino twist to it.

SITV.COM: How have you overcome stereotypes in your life?
Taboo: I started doing martial arts when I was 12 years old. In my neighborhood they would stereotype you—if you were doing hip-hop you were trying to be Black, and they would always say, “Yo, homes you trying to be like a chino with all that martial arts shit.” I’d be like, “Nah, I want to do it to better my skills and incorporate it in my dancing.”