Rebel Diaz is a hip-hop duo made up of Chilean-American brothers G1 and RodStarz. Hailing from Chicago, Rebel’s music and convictions were formed in a family of leftist political refugees that escaped the US-backed Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Now based in the South Bronx, the brothers are known as pillars in their community for providing outlets to young artists and producing hip-hop that challenges the status quo of the music industry and capitalism at large.

Rebel Diaz’s style blends hip-hop with lyrics that draw from class struggle and anti-imperialism, pointing to the inhumanity of US immigration enforcement, the thuggishness of American empire, and the struggle for liberation from an undemocratic economic system.

Jacobin caught up with Rebel Diaz in the South Bronx to discuss the implications of American imperialism, the current mass movement in Chile against neoliberalism, and the connection between hip-hop and community organizing in times of alienation and increasing austerity.