Vico C

Vico C, the Puerto Rican rapper, maintained steady popularity across Latin America in the 1990s even while his reception in the United States proved uneven. Luis Armando Lozada entered the world on September 8, 1971, in Brooklyn, NY, and came of age amid New York’s perilous streets, where crime, violence, and drugs routinely shaped daily life. An early affinity for hip-hop developed in the early 1980s as the style emerged through acts such as Run-D.M.C., leading him to assume the stage name Vico C in hopes of establishing himself as a rapper. Alongside those performing goals, Vico cultivated production expertise and began his professional work near the end of the 1980s. He created hits for Latin artists such as Lisa M. (“El Pum Pum”) and Francheska (“Menéalo”), then started working with Jossie Esteban on his own material in the early 1990s. In particular, “La Recta Final” emerged as a major success, its early-1990s sound merging rap with merengue. After several early-1990s releases and widespread recognition in Puerto Rico as well as throughout Latin America, Vico endured a life-threatening automobile accident that removed him from activity for a considerable stretch. He reappeared in 1998 with Aquel Que Había Muerto, an album on which he rejected earlier indulgences and affirmed a renewed commitment to God, after which his prominence expanded sharply. Multiple best-of collections entered the marketplace in the late 1990s, and Vico devoted subsequent years to extending and savoring his achievements, as heard on the live album Vivo (2001).