Dr. Marco Cervantes, the veteran rapper known as Mexstep, doesn’t think he’ll ever stop rapping. He’s built a successful career in academia, presently as a Ph.D’d associate professor in the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Mexican American Studies Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. So, he doesn’t have to rap; but, then again, he does.
“I just keep doing it. I mean, I’m going to keep doing it ‘til I’m done. Like, I’m gonna be 80,” he said with a laugh. “Some people might say, ‘Man, you’re still rapping? You’re 50 years old.’ Yeah, I can’t not rap. I got to get it out and I’ll keep on doing it.”
That’s a good news, bad news scenario for listeners. Good news because Cervantes is creative and innovative with his music, finding fresh ways to bring it to listeners. The latest example is Tráfico, a six-song EP released late last year which teams the San Antonio (by way of Houston) rap artist with producer/DJ Principe Q. Mexstep will be performing songs from the album, backed by a full band, at Dan Electro’s Sunday, August 16. Gracie Chavez of Bombón and Austin reggae cumbia band Rico-ico round out the show.
“I’m just really excited. I’ve been telling my family about it. I’ve been wanting to play in Houston, it’s been a while,” said Cervantes, who grew up in the Aldine area. “I released a project with Principe Q, who is a producer out of Corpus Christi. He’s also A.B. Quintanilla’s son, so he’s Selena’s nephew, and he’s kind of carrying on that cumbia tradition, but with more updated sounds. We put that project out in September of last year, but I haven’t played in Houston to share the project and I’ve been talking to Gracie about coming out to Houston and playing because the project itself has a big influence from Houston rap. The beats are real slowed down. There’s like a cumbia sound. There also like a Houston screw sound to it as well. And I had just been wanting to play the project in Houston and I haven’t been able to.
“I met Principe a while back. I want to say I was still working on my Vivir album. I’m trying to remember the year, but we did a show in the valley, so that’s where I met him, we had a show that we were both on the bill, in the valley, in McAllen, and I already knew his music. Actually, it was through Bombón because he had done a lot of work with Bombón. I went up to him and talked to him about doing a project and the next day he sent me about 20 beats.”
Cervantes is also a prolific writer, building rhymes for his solo work and as part of the acclaimed rap group, Third Root. He said it took time and Principe Q’s relocation to San Antonio to get Tráfico moving.
“I had been recording and had been sending him the songs that I’d been working on and stuff. So, we had stuff that we were just sitting on,” Cervantes said, “but whenever he moved to San Antonio, we started talking more like, let’s get this thing done. And, you know, there’s just been a lot of stuff going on. I mean, since the last time we talked, we still got a lot of the same social injustices that we’re facing, a lot of the same marginalization, discrimination, anti-Mexican sentiment, anti-immigrant sentiment, and we can even say it’s worse. It’s more pronounced, it’s more out there.”
That’s sort of the bad news scenario to Mexstep’s fervent need to rap. His socially-conscious rhymes often reflect on the injustices and oppressions of the world, challenges which are likely to exist well beyond his days as an octogenarian rapper. Even in that “bad news,” it’s good to know artists like Mexstep will continue to speak truth to power.
“One thing that motivates me is if I do feel angry, if I do feel emotional about something going on out there. His beats just really fueled a lot of that. We finished a lot of songs, but the one song we put out first was ‘The Eagle.’ That’s really a commentary on how the eagle goes back and forth no matter what kind of man-made border is set up there. Eagles going back and forth. And you know, there’s also indigenous references to the eagle, the power of the eagle, and the eagle’s really become a big symbol in a lot of cultures. It felt like that was a really powerful song to come across with and also take a step back and just look at how unjust some of these approaches to the border or securing the border are. When we think about, not just nature and the eagle moving back and forth, but people have been moving back and forth for centuries.
“We got a lot of great feedback from that. And then we finished some more songs like ‘Lifted Up,’ with Apaso and R.E.L., who are San Antonio MCs, and ‘Blessings and Curses.’ I’ve got a song in Spanish, which I don’t have a lot of songs in Spanish, but I felt that this project, because of the slowed-down cumbia, I wanted to be able to write a (Spanish) song, so I have a song called “Cumbia de la Lucha,” which is about the unification of people from various parts of Latinidad, the Latino diaspora. I thought it was pretty critical. I mean, not just here in the US but globally, but definitely here in the US, as we’re targeted in these really unique ways.”
Like any good rapper or college professor, Cervantes sees the pliability of words, how they’re bent and shaped to a specific agenda. He addressed and employed the notion on the title track.
“Tráfico, just the concept of taking that that term and how it’s been used to create negative connotations towards different Latino people and kind of flip it and use it and play with that word because it does have so many multiple meanings. We felt we could use that as a concept to talk about the traffic of streaming platforms, the traffic of social consciousness and ideas, the grind of being stuck in traffic, and just playing with that word, tráfico, was something that we wanted to do with this project.”
Listeners might notice a sonic shift from Mexstep’s last couple of solo albums, 2021’s Vivir and 2018’s Resistir.
“The beats are different. You know, I mainly have worked with Adrian Quesada over the last 10 years or something and, I mean, there’s nobody like him, you know? He’s the genius of our times, for sure. I love working with him. I can’t wait to do more stuff with Adrian. And it’s been cool as well to work with Principe, who is a different type of producer, there’s more of an electronic feel to what he does, there’s more trap elements.
“There’s more, what he calls ‘screwmbia,’ like the mixing of cumbia and screw music, and I know that Gracie and Bombón have also, in a lot of ways, helped to propel that style. I mean, I think even growing up in Houston, people like The Choppaholix came out with mixtapes that were just slowed down, chopped up cumbia, and I think this was like in the late ‘90s or something like that. So, I wanted that sound and I know that Principe has just really perfected that sound. He’s an amazing producer in his own right.
“He’s just really motivated me with his energy, with his style, with his work ethic. And I’m just really happy with the project. I’m really proud, which is another reason why I wanted to extend the life of it a bit and play it in Houston and also let people know that this project is out there and it’s been so influenced by my own upbringing in Houston and those sounds that I’d hear growing up.”
Those sounds are the backbeat to the important things Mexstep has to say, things about physical, ICE-driven assaults and political attacks on immigrants and Latinos. Things about gender, sex, class and race that continue to be frustratingly misunderstood, ignored or weaponized.
“It does feel like an uphill battle. Sometimes, it can be really discouraging. You can get really demoralized, you know, especially with these newer Texas laws. Yeah, it can be really tough,” Cervantes admitted, before saying he also felt hopeful, motivated and inspired by a number of things.
“One of them is when another artist will come up and let me know that a lyric of mine inspired them, especially if they’re younger artists who are out there doing things. I remember The Tiarras from Austin told me that they were impacted by my work, some of the songwriting, which I had no idea. It’s like, wow, y’all are doing this amazing thing out there. So, to know that what I was saying when I was recording had some effect on somebody who’s also doing something that motivates people, because I know they give a lot of different people in different communities a sense of pride, a sense of direction and motivation, that’s helpful.
“Other writers, other scholars that have written about stuff that that I’ve done, lyrics, whether it be me or Third Root, that lets me know, okay, someone’s out there writing about this and is inspired in their own way and they’re out there writing about different issues where whether it’s racism, sexism, classism. I’ve had attorneys, immigration attorneys, that have let me know, hey, I’m bumping your last album, it’s really getting me through this day.
“Different folks in mental health and Chicano psychology have let me know, we’re at this event and right now your album is playing in the background, giving us some energy. And, then again, other artists as well, that I work with that are doing stuff like, someone like Gracie Chavez or Kam Franklin, who I talked to not too long ago about some of the work that she’s doing. I mean, just being around other people that are doing this work is motivating.
“While those influences are there and they motivate me, there’s also that just that need to get it out. Throughout my life, recording and releasing has been a way for me to get my feelings out, my frustrations out, in a way that I think is helpful, not just to people around me, but me as well,” he said. “I know that I’m not going to be able to write a song that’s going to change the world forever or that things are going to change drastically next year or anything, but just knowing that I could push a little more gives me that motivation.”
Houston Tráfico Showcase, presented by Mexstep and Bombón, Sunday, August 16 at Dan Electro’s, 1031 E. 24th. Featuring Mexstep, Gracie Chavez and Rico-ico. Doors at 7 p.m., $13.
