Nilo MC

Along with los Orishas, Nilo MC is one of the leaders in Cuban hip-hop, an unsanctioned music so deeply underground that only expatriates have much of a chance of being heard. Born Nilo Castillo in the rough Marianao district of Havana, he grew up in an artistic family (his mother danced at the Tropicana cabaret) and initially made his living as a painter. He listened to Cuban music growing up, but was galvanized by an encounter with Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet album, and began composing his own raps in 1989. In 1992, armed with a letter of recommendation from an art...