On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with artist, musician and scholar Dani Cornejo to discuss his new album, Child of Exile, a deeply personal project shaped by family history, Indigenous identity, Oakland and the political power of Hip Hop. Created slowly over the course of a decade, the album survived multiple political eras and a global pandemic, allowing Cornejo to repeatedly revisit its writing, production and instrumentation. “The process was incredibly healing,” he explained, describing music-making as a meditative practice rather than simply a means of producing content for the marketplace.
The album’s title speaks directly to Cornejo’s family history. His father was forced to leave Chile following the 1973 U.S.-backed coup against President Salvador Allende. Growing up among other children whose families had been displaced from Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala placed Cornejo inside a highly politicized community. Child of Exile, he said, explores what happens when that child grows up and begins speaking through an adult voice shaped by displacement, resistance and solidarity.
Cornejo also discussed language as both a bridge and a site of struggle. While much of his earlier music was recorded primarily in Spanish—with elements of Portuguese, Quechua and Nahuatl—Child of Exile is his first full streaming album performed entirely in English. That decision was intended to connect with Black, Chicano, working-class, LGBTQ+ and other communities that might not easily access Spanish-language lyrics. At the same time, Cornejo acknowledged Spanish as a colonial language and reflected upon his continuing effort to reconnect with Mapudungun, an Indigenous language from his father’s side.
Davey D and Cornejo explored Hip Hop as a tool for recovering histories and languages threatened by erasure. Cornejo emphasized the culture’s African diasporic foundation and credited Davey with encouraging him to reconnect with Hip Hop’s Bronx roots. Songs such as “That Boom Bap Aesthetic,” featuring Deuce Eclipse, honor that lineage, while “Novocaine,” featuring Indigo Mateo, examines the emotional numbing people use to survive structural neglect in East Oakland.
The conversation later widened to include World Cup culture, anti-Blackness in Latin America, Argentina’s racial history, immigration enforcement and the exploitation of independent artists by streaming platforms. Cornejo closed with “Still the Sun,” a reminder that despite the weight people carry, tomorrow offers another opportunity to heal, resist and begin again.
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.
