Cuban Hip Hop grew on the back of the Soviet collapse as much as on the Miami airwaves. The economy, previously cushioned from the privations of the USA trade embargo, fell to ruin. In response Fidel Castro ushered in the ‘Special Period’ whose panacea was tourist development and the introduction of the US dollar.

The ‘Special Period’ may have partially succeeded in its economic aims but with it came inequality. Doctors and teachers, once the pillars of society, were displaced in earning power by waiters and taxi drivers, those with access to the tourist dollar. Black Cubans were largely excluded from dollar jobs. Prostitution, hustling, police harassment and racism returned to the streets. Raperos had something to sing about.