Robbed hit of the week 5/29/17 - Kid Frost's "La Raza"...
from the album Hispanic Causing Panic (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #42
This week's "robbed hit" comes from California rapper Kid Frost, who grew up an "army brat" who followed his father's worldwide job, before settling back to Cali, where he started a rap career with a few independent 12" singles before releasing his debut album Hispanic Causing Panic in 1990. The Latin-styled rapper's debut single, "La Raza" ("The Race"), sampled El Chicano's top-20 R&B hit from 1970, "Viva Turado"...
While "La Raza" climbed to #14 on Billboard's Rap Singles chart, and #33 on their Hot Latin Tracks list, it stalled right under the pop Top-40 in September of 1990. The record also peaked at #59 on the R&B chart as well. He followed with a collaboration with fellow Latin rap artists Mellow Man Ace and A.L.T. under the moniker Latin Alliance, and they went to #54 in 1991 with "Lowrider (On The Boulevard)".
Two years later, Kid Frost released his second album East Side Story, and from it "No Sunshine", an interpolation of the Bill Withers classic, slipped on to the pop chart at #95. He dropped the "Kid" from the mid-90s on, with a couple more minor pop hits from his Smile Now, Die Later record; his last chart hit was "La Familia" (#77) in 1996. He's recently been fighting cancer.
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