Rebel Diaz

Rebel Diaz
G1 (left) and RodStarz (right)
Background information
Origin	Bronx, New York
Genres	Hip Hop
Years active	2006–present
Labels	independent
Associated acts	M-1 of dead prez, Hasan Salaam, Immortal Technique
Website	Official Page Rebel Diaz Arts Collective
Members	RodStarz, G1
Past members	Lah Tere, DJ Illanoiz

Rebel Diaz is a political hip hop duo out of the Bronx, New York and Chicago, IL consisting of the Chilean brothers Rodrigo Venegas (known as RodStarz) and Gonzalo Venegas (known as G1). Rebel Diaz uses their music as an organizing tool and to spread knowledge about injustice. Hip hop website AllHipHop.com named Rebel Diaz one of the top fifty emerging/underground hip hop artists of 2013.

The children of Chilean activists, RodStarz and G1 were born in England and grew up in Chicago's North Side, and former member Lah Tere was raised in Humboldt Park, Chicago. Rebel Diaz identify with and position themselves within a history of political resistance through music, specifically citing the Nueva canción movement. Because of their organizing work, Rebel Diaz was invited to perform during the immigrant rights march in New York City in 2006.

Although Rebel Diaz met in Chicago, Illinois, Rebel Diaz was not born until the three moved to the Bronx - the birthplace of hip hop - to continue their political activism through hip hop. Rebel Diaz see themselves as reclaiming hip hop as a tool in the larger struggle against oppression. RodStarz and G1 work with youth in the South Bronx, teaching them to use music to express themselves.

In March 2009, Rebel Diaz opened the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDAC), a community arts center that included a performance space, a multimedia studio, a computer lab, and an art gallery located in an abandoned warehouse in the South Bronx. RDAC served as a space for young people to learn and perform, hosting workshops in addition to providing artistic space. RDAC members such as YC the Cynic, Ozzy, Bliz Da Don, and DJ Kay Kay were students of workshops provided and also utilized the space to work on their craft. On February 28, 2013, the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective was forcefully evicted from the building.