Chingo Bling

• Genre: Texas/ H-Town
• Chingo Bling Website

About

He went to a prestigious boarding school, majored in marketing and business administration at Trinity University, and started his own business. Sound like Chingo Bling's biography? Technically it's not -- it's that of Pedro Herrera, the mastermind behind the divisive emcee. Herrera first devised Chicano alter ego Chingo Bling as an on-air skit when he was a DJ on a student radio station, but as the joke evolved, Herrera began recording mix tapes of "Chingo" rapping, which he would sell out of the trunk of his car in Houston. He released two albums on his own label, Big Chile Enterprises -- 2004's Tamale King and 2005's Chingo for President -- both of which were hotly anticipated. The releases made him a star in the Southwest, and his shtick, which some critics likened to a Latino "sambo," drew the attention of Spanish-language television. Warner signed Chingo Bling in 2006 and released They Can't Deport Us All in 2007.

- Sarah Bardeen