Charlie Chase

Charlie Chase is known as one of the founders of the hip-hop movement as he was a member of the Cold Crush Brothers who were one of the first rap groups to come out of New York in the mid 70s. Born to parents from Mayaguey, Puerto Rico in El Barrio in the 1950s, Charlie Chase moved form one Puerto Rican and Black neighborhood to another. As a teenager, Chase was a bass player and played in a variety of bands including a meringue band, a salsa band, and a Latin rock band to just name a few. He eventually became interested in hip-hop and began to “chase” his idol, Grand Master Flash (33).  This is why he nicknamed himself Chase, whereas Charlie is an Americanized version of Carlos, his real name.

The Cold Crush Brothers were highly influential in the spreading of hip-hop through the word of mouth and were one of the first groups who perfected the hip-hop style. Although Sugarhill Gang is credited for making rap the world-wide word it is today, their number one single, Rapper’s Delight, propelling them to stardom, was partly taken from Grandmaster Caz , another member of the Cold Crush Brothers.  Although the Cold Crush Brothers did not produce a full lengthy CD, they released many singles and regularly battled famous MCs such as Grandmaster Flash (34).

Charlie Chase being the only Latino in The Cold Crush Brothers was constantly looked down upon due to his race. In the book, From Bomba to Hip-Hop, he comments, “A lot of Blacks would not accept that I was Spanish. You know, a lot of times because of the way I played they thought I was black, because I rocked it so well.” (35). According to Chase, the hip-hop movement was not a racial but as he put it, “It’s like a street thing.” (36) as both Latinos and Blacks lived in the same neighborhoods and were socially and economically discriminated against. Although Chase faced opposition within the hip-hop movement, his talents and role within the Cold Crush Brothers proved that Latinos would influence this emerging genre of music (37).