Vico C (born Luis Armando Lozada Cruz on September 8, 1971) is an United States|American rapper and reggaeton artist of Puerto Rican American|Puerto Rican descent. He is considered one of the founders of hip hop in Spanish or Latin hip hop. He was born in New York and raised in Puerto Rico. Nicknamed ''The Philosopher'', he adopted the professional name Vico C, by which he is better known, to honor his mother (by including the letter C in the name, Cruz is his mother's last name) and also because the Dominicans wanted to call him "Visco". Vico C is a prime example of a Puerto Rican artist who was directly influenced by rap in the United States. Rap and hip hop culture in the United States has come to influence Puerto Rican music by way of the mass media and the inevitable cultural exchange that occurs through the constant migration of persons between the United States and Puerto Rico. Through these lines of communication new musical developments and technologies are consistently exchanged between the two places. Vico C's music inherently reflects this cultural intermixture. He even goes as far as to describe reggaeton as "essentially hip-hop but with a flavor more compatible to the Caribbean." Though he maintains they are of the same essence, Vico C believes the difference lies in the quintessential music style; the beat or rhythm of the music.