When it comes to the Rap / Hip-hop industry, there’s plenty of subgenres that thrive, and there are also many that don’t get talked about a lot except in certain states and cities. For example, Chicano Rap is one, which mostly has listeners in California, Arizona, and Texas. Independent Texas rapper PriceTag hopes to help change that.
Chicano rap is a subgenre of Hip Hop that embodies aspects of Southwest Mexican American or Chicano culture. It is performed by rappers and musicians of Mexican descent. Some well known Chicano rappers and groups include Kid Frost, Cypress Hill, Brownside, B-Real, A Lighter Shade Of Brown, Mr. Criminal, Baby Bash, Lil Rob, South Park Mexican, Conejo, and new generation Chicano rappers such as King Lil G, CNG, Krukone, GT Garza, Young Drummer Boy, and Chicana rapper Snow Tha Product.
PriceTag (Thomas Price II) has noted that in Texas, the biggest Mexican rapper to blow up nationally has been South Park Mexican (SPM), but most have been more known on a state level in a few states, not nationwide. Recently the Texas Latino rap scene has been gaining more attention with artists such as Peso Peso and Lil Mexico. In PriceTag’s hometown of San Antonio, he said that there are artists such as Rich and Southside Hoodlum who are gaining traction for the underground hip hop scene in San Antonio, but it’s still not at the level to where they are nationally recognized on radio, TV, online, etc.. And he has goals of making that happen for his city.
PriceTag is currently an over the road truck driver. He drives state to state every single day and rarely takes time off to go back to San Antonio, Texas. He says that being a trucker has given him the opportunity to make his music dreams a reality and helped create the artist that he is now. Growing up, PriceTag had a heavy music background with his family, so music was always a thing to him. Surprisingly, he says that he wanted to be a heavy metal drummer in a band because he used to be a drummer back in high school. He was a Thrash Metal drummer in his free time, jamming to the likes of Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica, and more. Now he’s trying to be a rockstar in the hip-hop industry.
PriceTag is also a lyricist and has goals of being one of the most well-known lyricists in the future. As a kid, he would write poetry for fun. Even though he never shared any, it was his way of escaping. As he got older, he would write love poems to his girlfriends. Writing has always been enjoyable for him. Now, as a 28-year-old, PriceTag has been through so many things in life and has a lot to share with people. He’s had a tough rise to get where he is now, and he hopes to be able to share that with his listeners. From pain, heartbreak, and heartache, he wants people to know that they aren’t alone. PriceTag considers himself a hopeless romantic, so plenty of his future work will be love related, but he also says that he’s as much as a fighter as he is a lover. There’s plenty of things that people don’t know about PriceTag, and he says after he releases his upcoming debut album, Forever Independent, that they will know what he’s truly about. Bottom line, he is not someone to be taken lightly. But he also likes to enjoy life to the fullest.
PriceTag considers himself a no holds barred hardcore rapper. He says what he wants and believes that it’s best to just be yourself in the rap industry. Whoever stays, stays. And that’s one reason he’s been able to keep a steady growing fanbase. He can be vulgar, straightforward, and explicit, but that’s just what makes him, himself. And people respect that.
He’s working towards being the most well-known Chicano rapper in Texas, worldwide.
To find out more about PriceTag, you may visit his website. His songs can be found on Spotify as well as his YouTube channel.
