walking upstream…
Control Machete
photo: armando sosa · cc by-sa 2.0 ↗Control Machete
Control Machete formed in Monterrey in 1996 when Patricio "Pato Machete" Chapa Elizalde, Antonio "Toy" Hernández, and Fermín IV built a rap crew loosely modeled on American hip-hop collectives. Their 1997 debut, Mucho Barato, anchored by singles like "Humanos Mexicanos" and "¿Comprendes, Mendes?," fused Cypress Hill-style boom-bap with cumbia and norteño textures and made them the breakout face of Monterrey's Avanzada Regia scene, selling hundreds of thousands of copies across Latin America before going on hiatus in 2004.
the sound in question
1997
Humanos MexicanosControl Machete
walk the tributaries ↓
Cypress Hill1990s · Hip-hop / West Coast hip-hop / Gangsta rap
Members of Control Machete have cited "raperos estadounidenses como Cypress Hill" as a founding reference for the project, and Fermín IV later collaborated directly with Cypress Hill on the track "Siempre Peligroso."
listen: upstream & heresource: Sopitas — "La historia del hip-hop en México ↗
1991
How I Could Just Kill a ManCypress Hill
1999
Sí SeñorControl Machete
listen forThe murky loop and deep-voiced, half-sung hook of "How I Could Just Kill a Man" reappears almost one-to-one in the menace of Control Machete's own "Sí Señor."
Beastie Boys1990s · Hip-hop / Alternative hip-hop / Hardcore punk
Pato Machete has said plainly, "una de las influencias más grandes que tuvo Control Machete siempre fue Beastie Boys," pointing specifically to how the trio sampled and built beats from scratch rather than looping full records.
listen: upstream & heresource: Sopitas — "La historia del hip-hop en México ↗
1994
SabotageBeastie Boys
1997
¿Comprendes, Mendes?Control Machete
listen forThe chopped-up samples and shout-along group hooks on Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" match the collage-like, everybody-yells-the-hook energy of Control Machete's own "¿Comprendes, Mendes?"
Run-D.M.C.1980s · Hip-hop / Old-school hip-hop
Accounts of the group's formation list Run-D.M.C. alongside Cypress Hill and Beastie Boys as one of the American rap acts the members pointed to "en principio" (early on) as they were finding their sound in Monterrey.
listen: upstream & here
1983
Sucker M.C.'sRun-D.M.C.
1997
Humanos MexicanosControl Machete
listen forThe bare drum-machine-and-scratches backbone of "Sucker M.C.'s" is the same skeletal foundation Control Machete built "Humanos Mexicanos" on, just swapped from English braggadocio to Spanish border commentary.