"it doesn't take a part prophet to figure out that in babylon, all things are political, and to ignore this truth is a surefire recipe for enslavement"

Could you give us a little background on Ricanstruction?

I and I emerged from beneath the underdog approximately four years ago with the intention of creating the soundtrack of slum sedition, subversion, and survival.

Could you elaborate on that?

When the members of Ricanstruction first came together, we were squatters from the Lower East Side of New York, survivors from Harlem, USA - El Barrio Boricuas who had experienced what Piri Thomas called "these mean streets". We knew what it was to live as a colonized people, as sufferahs, as ghetto guerrillas, and we wanted to make art that reflected that reality.

So your music was primarily motivated by the hardships of ghetto life?

We try to create based on the world we know, in the hope of keeping it honest and really "real," so the hardships do tend to shape and mold the music. There's no denying that you will be influenced by ghettos, guns, gangsters, and an absence of God. But it wasn't, and isn't, all about a hard knock life. We also knew a world where our parents grooved to bomba y plena, and our sisters danced their cares away at the salsa clubs every Friday night. And those were beautiful things, not hardships. Meanwhile, we were hip hop heads who could also be found sneaking into the hardcore punk matinees at CBGB just because we felt like it. And we were also smart enough to know that Coltrane and Billie Holiday, in their own way, were also punks. So when we came to music as a means of communication and edification , we knew it would have to reflect all these elements.

So do you see yourselves as a hip hop group or a punk band or a salsa band?

Yes.

OK, and what about the political aspects of your music, was this a calculated choice?

We never consciously persued politics in our art. As we say, Rasta don't mess wit' politricks, you know. It's just that it doesn't take a part time prophet to figure out that in Babylon all things are political. Poverty is political, ghettos is political, hungry children is political, survival is political, resistance is political. The personal is indeed political, and to ignore this truth is a surefire recipe for enslavement. 

Do you think that "political" music can change the world?

I think the world is gonna change with or without us, or within us and without us. I've always believed that music, political or otherwise, is more of a reflection of the world we live in. A mirror of what's goin' on. But having said that, I should add that it's still necessary as downpressed people to resist our downpressors in whatever ways we can, including art.

So are all the songs about guns and bitches and gratuitous violence a reflection of the world we live in?

No doubt there's a reflection of the world some of us live in. But also, it's been shown that that shit sells. As long as it's sellin', some clever capitalists will copy, co-opt and cash in on the crap. It's a reality that capitalism, and everything that goes with it, is a reflection of the world we live in. The key is not to condemn the music, but to dismantle and ultimately destroy the shistem that made these messages and this madness necessary and profitable.

But don't you think that as artists we should have some obligation to create uplifting or conscious art that's not simply about cashing in? 

I think artists should follow their muse and human beings, their consciences. But the downpressed are obligated to rebel.

So Ricanstruction chose to rebel. Why?

We are the downpressed.

Is that the only reason?

Well, it's also part of our life long mission to undermine every aspect of western civilization.

Do Ricanstruction consider themselves anarchist or communists?

We don't mess with politricks and we don't believe in titles and tags either. We try to believe that hidden, submerged, beneath all the sludge and slime of this shistem is a better, beautiful, place. And it's just our obligation to chip and bang and scream and slam and agitate, agitate, agitate, until we reach that place. Zion ain't about politricks, or ideologies, except perhaps the politics of revolution or the ideology of freedom. 

But you're Puerto Rican Nationalists, right?

It's hard to be a Nationalist without a nation. But if your asking whether or not we advocate Puerto Rican independence, the answer couldn't be anything but yes. We believe that all people have a right to be free, and we also believe that once Puerto Rico is free, Puerto Rico will free the rest of the world. Todos somos Macheteros. 

Do you use your music to get the message of Puerto Rican independence out?

When I think about Puerto Rico's colonial condition, it makes my stomach turn. We marked the hundredth anniversary of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico two years ago. That's over a hundred years of U.S. downpression, injustice, racism, sexism, capitalism, imperialism - way too many isms  and schisms. And in those hundred years, Puerto Ricans have resisted this colonial contamination and have been rewarded with exploitation, COINTELPRO, imprisonment, and assassination. Each day I think about it,  it makes me angry; each day I live it, it makes me wanna holla', it makes me wanna fight. No doubt this has to be reflected in the music,   the art, we make. I, personally, can't pretend everything is all right.  I won't become part of a shitstem who's goal it is to use us, abuse us,     and refuse us. We've gotta write about these things; talk, scream, reason, resist, revolt. Somebody once asked me why Ricanstruction's music was so loud, so angry, so "militant"… I guess this is why.

Do you find that people get the "message"?

I find that even when they don't get the message, they get it. People usually leave a Ricanstruction gathering enlightened or enraged. Pissed off or pumped up. Annoyed or armed, nobody's ever indifferent. So I tend to think they get it, like it or not.

Ricanstruction performed a couple of years ago in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Was the political climate as hot then as now?

In its own way, yes. The people of Vieques have been engaged in a David vs Goliath like war against the US military for several decades now. It's taken many shapes and forms, from fishermen and women waging battles against huge US navy ships with nothing more than tiny fishing boats, to children, like David against Goliath, throwing stones at big US marines and running away. The recent take over of US military bombing sites by Puerto Ricans and the creation of "free Puerto Rico" liberated zones is just the most recent action in this struggle of resistance. In fact, when Ricanstruction went there in 1988, it was for a "kick the US military out of Vieques" music festival. 

This may be a heavy question, but do you see the US military leaving Vieques?

Well, it's kind of a "heavy" question for a simple Puerto Punk like myself, but I believe that it's not a question of whether they'll get out or not, but simply a question of when. I returned to Vieques this year, and the compañeras y compañeros had the same fire in their stomachs that I remembered witnessing the first time I was in Vieques.  Yo, and the folks in the liberated zones are no joke. They're in for the long haul. They've built barrios in these bombing zones. Churches, classrooms - they've made themselves into human shields against US bombs. The military isn't gonna leave 'cause they want to, but because they have to. What did Albizu say, "the day comes when justice arms the weak and puts the giants to flight".

So you're confident that that the Viequenses will "put the giant to flight"?

Yes, David will prevail and revolution is in the air. But I still want to know what happens after the revolution.

What do you mean?

Well, it's not just a question of kicking the US military out. Once you've kicked the US military out, you've still gotta boot the US completely out of Vieques. And then the rest of Puerto Rico. And all them capitalist have gotta say adios as well. You've still gotta make sure the land is returned to the people, and not the real estate vultures and capitalists vampires that are waiting to pounce on those white sand beaches. Puerto Rico has been struggling and searching and starving for freedom for a very long time now. This is not just about Vieques, or about whether the US military should be allowed to bomb or not. This is about whether or not the US will be allowed to continue to maintain its colonial control of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican people. This is about political, cultural, physical, economic and spiritual liberation. This is about getting free, plain and simple. We've gotta reach the point where we're thinking with revolutionized minds and not colonized minds.

And then?

And then start another revolution, man.