Alert Fox News: Rappers are now promoting a lifestyle that includes masa and habanero-fortified salsa. While tamales may not be as viscerally Red State-terrifying as, say, hos and crack, there is a certain unseemly, louche street association hanging in a greasy haze over authentic tacos.
Enter Chingo Bling, MC of the tamales and tunes movement, who recently got the star-treatment in the Gray Lady for his quirky, joyous take on what he sees as Latin American immigrants’ sweet-tasting, innocuous ticket to survival: hard work, home cooking and cornmeal (not to mention chorizo, scrambled eggs and tortillas).
As he told the Times, “I’m Mexican-American. Don’t pay any attention to the stereotypes. Our real hustle is selling tamales, our white powder is masa. I just try to represent that.”
Check out Señor Bling’s music video/faux docudrama of a hardcore, street tamales deal, “Walk Like Cleto.”
TOPICS: Eat to the Beat, Kathleen Willcox