Akwid: the new sound of Mexican regional music

Latin Beat Magazine, June-July, 2004 by Jesse Varela

It's Saturday night and El Reventón, a Mexican nightclub in Oakland, CA., is hosting Akwid, a Spanish-language rap duo fusing traditional banda with hip-hop beats. Made up of brothers Sergio and Francisco Gómez from South-Central Los Angeles, the group is not the usual brass banda ensemble or squeezebox accordion but a rap group.

At El Reventón it's around midnight and DJ Mugre (Dirt) is busting out fat beats behind his crate of CD players and mixers. Calling the tribe to gather around the stage, a line of chicas takes up the front. Laser lights dance to the beat as Sergio and Francisco step in with MTV attitude. Wearing basketball jerseys, baggy jeans, clean running shoes and black gloves, they hit with Es Mi Gusto (It's My Liking), a tune with a pulsating tuba that defends their street lifestyle.

Delivered in clear Spanish peppered with street slang, the crowd hollers as they do a bit of macho chest pounding to their critics. Perhaps it's that sense of rebelliousness end defiance that makes Akwid pertinent to their audience. Listening to their verses, one finds something organically poetic and metaphorically meaningful. The first tune ends abruptly, like someone pulling the needle off a record, and the brothers turn around to mad dog DJ Mugre and yell to the crowd: "This 'buey' does that to us all the time ..." Everybody Laughs!

Awkid's debut album has sold a quarter of a million copies in the Hispanic market. The brothers were recently featured on El Show de Don Francisco on Univision and have garnered Grammy, Billboard and Premio Lo Nuestro Award nominations. Francisco and Sergio Gómez are reinventing traditional Mexican music. What follows is an interview with the Gómez brothers.

JESSE VARELA: How did the idea of fusing hip-hop with Mexican regional music occur?

SERGIO GÓMEZ: Pretty much it was something that had been brewing by just hanging out. We would kareoke and sing verses by Javier Soils. Alli empezamos a meter el hip bop (there we started adding the hip-hop). It was something we really liked. Then we met this guy Nelson who had the same ideas we did but needed a group and we needed his ideas. That's how Akwid came about.

FRANCISCO GÓMEZ: The idea is to write from our life experiences. Everything that we write about is a true story about us, what we've seen or been through. It's reality. Things that happen to everybody, that people identify with. I think people can draw something positive from our music and that we did something with our lives, instead of choosing the wrong route and doing things that could have landed us somewhere else. I think young genre just need to focus on doing something positive with their lives and going through with it. That's what we did.

SG: We were raised in South Central L.A. around gangs, violence and everything. A lot of our friends did choose to gang bang and do drugs. We would always be in the circle, and those are our homies, but within yourself you have to know what you are about. Our thing was music. You have to find what's you and what you like and want to do for the rest of your life.

JV: Describe the Akwid sound?

SG: There's something that regional music does for us. For me personally, I like the sound of the banda, the instruments and everything. People have this quick identification with our style of music. We are fitting a piece of music that was missing from this generation that was formed by Mexicans with Americanized families. It's within our culture to mix. We talk Spanglish to each other and our music reflects that. We don't change words to try to get on the radio but we don't get explicit or cuss people out. We disrespect no one. It's real music with hardcore hip-hop that's right on the edge.

JV: How was it when you first started performing at the Mexican Regional shows?

SG: When we started doing what we're doing, we didn't know how the public was going to take us. But we weren't going to change our way; it's who we are. When we did our first performance with a bunch of (Mexican) Regional artists; it was a hardcore Mexican crowd. Then we went up with bald heads and jerseys with a banda behind us. At first they stared at us ... what the hell is that? We felt some heat, but we knew they were either going to accept us or tell us to hit the road. Fortunately it worked out and we didn't have to change our ways and get all cowboy. That's not what we're about. We know where we come from and the kind of music we like, and how we dress up is how we represent.

JV: How has your family reacted to your success?

SG: My mom is really proud of us.

FG: My aunts are our biggest fans. They tape all the stuff we do on TV and when we go over, they play it for us and tell us what we did and said. They remember everything.

JV: When is the new album being released?

FG: As we speak, we are working on our next album, which is due out June 14th. It's not diverting too much from what we've started doing.

JV: Any message to the juventud?

SG: To all young gente: We've been there. We crossed the border from México with a coyote and were raised in South-Central L.A. But we were able to see things through without despair. Whether you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a Laker or an Akwid, you got to be able to take it one step at a time. Stay focused and before you know it, you will accomplish.