Rhode Island might not sound like the epicenter of a Latin hip-hop uprising, but we found a revolutionary that is leading the charge at a time when hip-hop en español has been an eclipsed by the mushroom cloud after the reggaeton explosion. The general public has confused the urban lifestyle of reggaeton for real hip-hop. And the media and the music industry are responsible for prescribing the sugar pill that is reggaeton, leading the greater public to think the two genres, along with the artists, are synonymous, when they are not. Now to unlearn the public and the media’s mistaken belief comes Temperamento, a true disciple of hip-hop who answered his call to defend rap after a shockwave of discontent rushed throughout the industry and the hip-hop underground as Toby Love, a bachata artist, received the Billboard award for best Latin Rap/Hip-hop Album of the Year. We talked to Temperamento to set the record straight…for good.

Where are you from originally? I was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. I came to the U.S. at the age of ten because my mother was scared that my father would hurt us. He ended up killing himself, and my mother struggled to take care of us. We’re still struggling.

What were you doing ten years ago? Wow! That was right before I started rapping. It was a bad point in my life. I had lost my first baby in my ex’s eighth month of pregnancy. I ended up in the hospital myself alter that because I tried to end my life. It was in that hospital where I first started writing.

Why do you go by Temperamento? Those who know me know that I have an explosive temper. And usually I’m very quiet, but when I explode a lot of people end up with their mouths wide open because I turn into another person. I’ve learned how to control that more now, and I realize that the name describes the person I used to be when I first started writing. So it’s more representative of how I came into the genre. I started out being mad and that name draws attention and now my music goes well with that name because it’s a form of expression that’s as explosive as I used to be.

When you freestyle, where’s all that vocabulary coming from? When I started out I read a lot of books and I improvised every day without fear. I was young and I had a lot of energy and my mind worked like an answering machine. So with all the practice my mind knew what to rhyme with what when I started to freestyle.

What is hip-hop in comparison to reggaeton? Do you think reggaeton is being confused for hip-hop? I’m always dissing the reggaetoneros, but it’s only because someone has to fight for the hip-hop culture now that no one else is doing it. The truth is I respect reggaeton for what it is, but when people have been programmed to think reggaeton is hip-hop, that’s when I have to step up to prove my point with lyrical skill, because that is really the difference between the two—lyrical skill. Hip-hop is what’s real and reggaeton is dance music. What ties us together is the fact that reggaetoneros are doing hip-hop just like we can do reggaeton, but we can’t continue to do that. It’s not right that a hip-hop artist be considered reggaeton and why would they give Zion or Toby Love the award for best hip-hop artist on those television award shows? That’s what they’re doing to us.

How do you feel about the industry in general? My industry is Latin hip-hop. I don’t know what to say other than that the labels don’t believe in us so we’re going to stay underground until someone does believe and opens the door for us.

What is hip-hop en español? Hip-hop en español is me. I’m the example of what Latin hip-hop will sound like when it takes off. I’m noticing that I’m influencing others worldwide to do what I’m doing.

What’s missing from hip-hop? Hip-hop is missing Temperamento and the million of MCs that are coming after him. Soon you’ll start seeing more rappers with a better ability to rhyme than me. I can promise you that.