Following a recent show in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Snow Tha Product spoke with HotNewHipHop in an interview about being a Latina in Hip Hop and how she got her start as an emcee.
Asked about one of her first publicly released tracks, Snow described the initial reaction from friends to her performance. “Oh fuck this,” she said with a laugh. “‘Hood Hop’ was the first track that I ever remixed. Hold on, mind you, when I was talking about this interview I didn’t know ya’ll were gonna bring out all the fucking details. ‘Hood Hop’ was the first thing I ever remixed and it was, yeah, my first line was fucking stupid, ‘I’m the whole enchilada,’ some shit. And it made everybody kinda be like, ‘Oh, you should be a rapper.’ I really took that word and just ran, here we are, I’m a rapper now.”
Talking about a later period, she explained her early sound as similar to DJ Mustard’s production style. “If you go listen to it it’s on that West Coast type tip,” she said. “You know I used to be on that DJ Mustard type style beats way before the whole shit popped off because I’m originally from the Bay Area and that style was just Bay Shit and now it’s known as L.A. shit. It’s like whatever it’s Cali, I’m proud of it regardless.”
Speaking on her disposition towards Hip Hop instead of Chicano Rap, Snow explained how she feels as a Mexican-American within the industry and wanting “to make a hybrid of both.” “Chicano Rap is a genre in its own and its got its own fan base and it’s respected,” she said. “When I grew up I knew it was there and I listened to it and everything because it represented who I am. But at the same time I listen to Hip Hop just as much. And it was almost like I’m not stepping away from that, I’m not trying say that that’s not a good representation of Latinos but at the same time I just grew up listening to this. So it’s like this is the route I’m taking and you can’t criticize me or say I’m less of a Hispanic person for not being into that. I’m not, I’m into Hip Hop and there’s a lot of people like me that are Mexican-American that don’t wanna listen to…cholo shit, they wanna listen to fucking Hip Hop and I’m repping for them. But at the same time I respect everybody that’s doing their thing, Pocos Pero Locos obviously was one of the first people that showed me support and they’re a big representation of that culture. I’m just trying to make a hybrid of both and trying to make everybody understand that I come from a different culture but I’m repping this so let’s mix it up.”
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During the interview the Atlantic Records signee detailed how her active participation within the Latino community as a child has influenced her up to this point. “I was President of the Latino Club,” she said. “I got my little jacket and everything. I got to stand up and talk about it and kind of tell everybody what we were gonna do for the agenda as far as the program was concerned. It’s so weird how things that I did when I was little are affecting…it’s so weird, it’s things that you kind of forget about and all of a sudden it pops up and you’re like, ‘That really did matter.’ My stance on immigration and kind of everything that concerns Latin people and Hispanic [and] Mexican-American people, I guess it all comes down from me being a little-ass kid and just being taught all these things, it’s dope.”
Speaking more generally about her career, Snow expressed gratitude for the opportunity to extend her success. “It’s thank God been able to pay off debts of mine, my Mom, my family,” she said of her music. “It’s been able to employ my family, my cousin, my brother, all my friends, I’m trying to bring them into this thing so that I can—in an economy that’s all fucked up and not everybody’s guaranteed a job I’m trying to have everybody have a career. That whether I make it or not they still learned a skill and they can still take that shit further. To this day, I’m so grateful for music.”
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