The Washington Post has an interesting story today about the dozen murders that have taken place this year amongst Mexico’s musicians. Contrary to popular belief, whether or not a musician sings of drug trafficking, there is a fear amongst the performers to show their faces in certain mafia heavy regions. After all, the performers, lately, are dropping like flies:

Among music industry insiders, Sergio Gomez’s death [on December 2 of this year] and the previous killings are also forcing a quiet assessment of the influence drug trafficking kingpins wield over the business. It is common knowledge in Mexico’s music industry, but not known to the general public, that drug cartels finance the careers of some budding musicians, then launder money through unregulated concert ticket sales, according to industry sources, musicians and law enforcement.

There has been no suggestion that Sergio Gomez was backed by drug money. But the obvious cartel-hitmen trademarks in his killing have been the catalyst for the music industry to question the risks of mixing socially and professionally with drug traffickers.

You think? But with the economy being what it is down there, some young performers have few other resources.

“The narcos are completely involved in the business,” Lucio Tzin Tzun, who has been a concert promoter here for 20 years, said in an interview. “They control everything. It’s like a mafia.”

Like a mafia. Cuz it is a mafia.

But lest you cry racist, American journalism. Chill the fuck out. The Post has you covered:

The marriage of music and the underworld is nothing new. In the United States, Frank Sinatra was long criticized for being too cozy with the mafia and, more recently, gangsta rappers often have been accused of celebrating violence against police.

See, angry brown? It’s not Mexicans who are illicit. Just musicians. And we think we can all agree about that.

The savage silencing of Mexico’s musicians [Washington Post via MSNBC]
Earlier: Sergio Gomez and Zayda Peña Latest Mexican Narco Singers To Be Murdered In A Wave Of Violence