Negro HP is a Dominican rapper. He belongs to the generation that built Dominican rap in the 2000s, and inside the scene he is named far more often than he is written about outside it.

Ensanche Libertad

He is from the ensanche Libertad, in Santiago de los Caballeros, and he started at fourteen. His first partner was a beatboxer called Melvin: the two of them made the sound with their mouths and rhymed over it in the alleyways of the barrio, which at that point was the whole apparatus.

His first group was Block de Gánster, with Melvin and Joe López. He moved on to Bélico Records, the company run by Carlos Tatoo, and cut his first record there — producing it himself. He has described that meeting as the point where the foundations of a movement were laid.

Sin Fronteras

In 2014 he appeared on the Sin Fronteras: Quisqueya bill alongside Canserbero, RMS and Dkano, and played a festival in Bogotá the same year. He has spoken about how easily rappers from different countries found a common footing on those stages — Dkano, RMS, Norick, Canserbero and Lápiz Conciente among them.

That run is what put him in the international conversation about Dominican hip hop rather than only the local one.

The records

Barrio Soy is the one with a proper video, produced by Djoss and shot by Kamaleon Films, released through Solo E Group with RM Music Publishing behind it. The title is the argument: the barrio as identity rather than as setting.

He also cut Corazones Crudos with Arianna Puello, which puts him on a record with the rapper who left the island and broke Spain — one of the few times the two scenes met on the same track. He turns up in the same rooms as Mozart La Para, and rappers still quote his verses in cyphers two decades on.