David Hodges, hip-hop producer, youth worker, and Director of N'we Jinan, talks to RPM about the growth of the N'we Jinan project and Skicin GenerationVol.4, with music produced from four communities of the Wabanaki Confederacy, dropping August 12.
Read More
William Prince is storytelling singer/songwriter from Peguis First Nation who sidesteps clichés to provoke thought and facilitate discovery. His baritone vocals pay tribute to his late father and his genuine delivery acknowledges the hundreds of hours he’s spent on stage. Writing songs since the age of thirteen, he produced and played all the instruments on his father Ed Prince’s acclaimed gospel album …it’s Supper Time at the age of fifteen. The two went on to record two more albums, On Christmas Day and Won’t That Be A Morning!, for Arbor Records and Sunshine Records, respectively, in Winnipeg.
A recent alumni of the tri-annual Planet IndigenUS Music Festival, William Prince was named the 2014 Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year at the Indigenous Music Awards. His lead single “The Carny,” from his debut album Earthly Days, had been featured as Manitoba Music’s Download of the Week, and he has been featured in numerous showcases for Manitoba Music, Aboriginal Music Program, and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Prince is also a veteran to the APTN Aboriginal Day Live stage and his performances still garner rotation on APTN’s Solstice Concert Series.
Prince gained nationwide attention writing music for a CMT reality show and later went on to write songs for Jason Kirkness’ debut album Life On The Road, which scored three top 20 singles on Canadian country radio. To this day, he is still an active member of the First Nations supergroup Indian City. Their albums Supernation and Colors have received international acclaim and numerous Indigenous Music Awards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icHiB66oeiQ
"7" is William Prince's first track release since Earthly Days dropped in December 2015. The song is a lovely reminder to graduating native youth to always carry your teachings with you as you make that great leap forward into the next phase of life.
LISTEN: William Prince - "7"
"Earthly Days"and "7" are available now on iTunes and GooglePlay For more visit: www.williamprincemusic.com Check out William Prince on Facebook: facebook.com/williamprincemusic
Emcee Liaizon, Bronze Candidate and DJ Reflekshin have proven time and time again that their music is universally accessible and has the power to start the healing process regarding the social ills we all face through the medium of hip-hop. Whether opening for major acts such as Phife Dawg, Ana Tijoux and Pharoahe Monch or “spreading their medicine” throughout the U.S., Canada and Germany with their rigorous tour schedule, Shining Soul reaffirms hip-hop can be a conduit for positive change, internally and externally.
So after years on the road, Shining Soul is back at it with their new music video titled “The H.E.A.L.I.N.G”. Shot in Washington D.C by El-Shamesh Photography, “The H.E.A.L.I.N.G” is just a glimpse of their long awaited third full-length album Politics Aside.
“The H.E.A.L.I.N.G” promises to be a disclaimer for what's to come and a wake up call for all those sleeping on Arizona's favorite rap trio.
Watch: Shining Soul - "The H.E.A.L.I.N.G."
For more Shining Soul, visit: shiningsoul-music.blogspot.com and shiningsoulmusic.bandcamp.com
"R.E.D.", which features Yasiin Bey, Narcy, and Black Bear, made its world premiere on Ebro's #Beats1Ebro radio show on Apple Music this week.
The single includes powerful verses from legendary hip-hop artist Yasiin Bey (aka the mighty Mos Def) and Iraqi-Canadian MC The Narcicyst (aka Narcy)—dropping fire lyrics over ATCR's "Stadium Pow Wow" beat, and the song is a testament to border-smashing, cross-cultural collaboration and creative connection.
"I think it is the first time in history where you have an African, an Iraqi, and the Indigenous [People] of Canada are on one song", Narcy says. "It feels like the beginning of something new and old, the rebirth after many injustices."
This is just the beginning of a new phase of Tribe "showing the power of our people combined".
https://soundcloud.com/a-tribe-called-red/red-feat-yasiin-bey-narcy-black-bear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mWZ7u9vl3E
Anticipation for the new ATCR album has been steadily building, and now we have a taste of what's to come.
"We Are the Halluci Nation" begins with a beautiful incantation by legendary poet and AIM activist John Trudell (rest in power), and builds through moody electronics that subtly interweave spoken word with the sounds of their frequent collaborators, powwow drum group Northern Voice.
It's a sonic space akin to a dream state as only the Tribe can do. An imagining of an alternate world.
"We are the tribe that they cannot see", begins Trudell. "We live on an industrial reservation. We are the Halluci Nation. We have been called the Indians. We have been called Native American. We have been called hostile. We have been called pagan. We have been called militant. We have been called many names. We are the the Halluci Nation. We are the Human Beings. The callers of names cannot see us, but we can see them...Our DNA is of earth and sky. Our DNA is of past and future. We are the Halluci Nation. We are the evolution. The continuation."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4xwN3yPZA0
We Are the Halluci Nation features an incredible A-list of collaborators—from hip-hop artists Yasiin Bey, Saul Williams, The Narcicyst and Shad to Indigenous superstars Tanya Tagaq, Joseph Boyden, and Jen Kreisberg, to powwow drum groups Northern Voice and Black Bear —and it looks to be an epic exploration and conceptual leap forward from what they've done to date.
The song and full album tracklisting are now available on iTunes. The album will be released September 16th.
Stream "We Are the Halluci Nation" on Spotify here.
https://play.spotify.com/track/3wIwtJYnTPg9U3yCxye8jH
A Tribe Called Red - We Are the Halluci Nation - Full Tracklist
How did it feel to break out new material at an event like the Indigenous Arts Festival?
It's so refreshing and gives me a great sense of pride to be a part of these big events that headline so many other amazing Indigenous artists. It's inspiring to see my people being given these types of platforms to perform and showcase what they love!
Is it your first album release?
Technically yes, this is my first album with all original pieces of work. I had previously released a mixtape in 2013 entitled From Scratch, but that was more of a showcase project. Diary of a Mad Red Woman is definitely more organically Hip Hop.
Who did you work with on this album?
I was fortunate enough to have worked with an array of talented beat-makers and producers from all over! Shelby Sappier aka Beaatz, being 1/4 of the City Natives crew from New Brunswick, blessed me with the production for "Start Over"; PC Beats from the UK produced "Dreams"; Justin Knight aka Mils from here in Saskatchewan produced "First Entry"; Doc Blaze from Florida produced "Kill H.E.R." and "Golden" which also features vocals by the amazingly talented Sierra Jamerson from Edmonton. All the mixing and mastering was done by my talented producer Jon Cennon at the Quality Control Project Studio here in Saskatoon. I am really excited about how everything fell into place, and hope it reaches people well.
What inspired your work in this project?
I was definitely inspired by my good friend and mentor Lindsay Knight aka Eekwol. She has been a constant positive reminder to stay true to myself when it comes to my art. I had confided a lot of my ideas to her and she really pushed and motivated me to follow through with the project. I am very blessed to be surrounded by empowering people, especially women, in the hip hop scene. What kind of audience are you looking to reach out to? Each and everyone! I never want to limit the audience my music reaches, because I feel hip hop shouldn't be limited to a certain group of listeners. If you enjoy good music and storytelling, then I would hope you could enjoy my work!
Any plans to tour over the summer?
Sadly, I don't have any plans to tour. Not that I don't wish to, but I am a mother first and foremost, so I don't think I could be away from my kids long enough to actually tour. But thankfully I have been blessed with opportunities to sporadically travel with my music so far, and it is definitely something I hope to continue to do. Diary of a Mad Red Woman is available for purchase on iTunes and Bandcamp.
STREAM: T-Rhyme - Diary of a Mad Red Woman
Find T-Rhyme on Instagram: @beadsrhymeslife and on YouTube.
If storytelling is the lifeblood of Indigenous creative expression, hip-hop has become its most recognizable and resonant form.
Across Indian Country, Native artists are uniting in common consciousness to effect change in their communities and to take a stand to express what they believe in. And they're rocking mics while doing it.
The Last Stand Mixtape, Vol. 1 brings together a rising generation of Indigenous voices dedicated to using art and music for social change. More than a year in the making, the compilation features a who's who of emerging artists mixing hip-hop, R&B, and spoken word poetics over the mixtape's 22 heartfelt tracks.
From Mic Jordan's impassioned opener "#DearNativeYouth" and Enter Tribal's "Love of My Life", to new joints from Tall Paul, Frank Waln, and Def-I, the mixtape includes Native hip-hop from across Turtle Island, plus soulful R&B jams from the likes of Desirae Harp and Inez Jasper.
But it's the addition of spoken word that sets The Last Stand apart. Poetry courses through the album's veins. It weaves through the beat-based tracks with new pieces from The 1491s' Bobby Wilson, Tanaya Winder, and Rowie Shebala, to the beatbox rhyming of Lyla June Johnson's "Sundance Year Round".
The Last Stand Mixtape represents the best aspects of being Indigenous in the 21st century: it's rooted in culture, pushing the boundaries of what's expected, and building a community ready to stand up to anything.
So, as America gathers around the dinner table to binge on turkey and colonial conquest, today's a good to day to give thanks for something worth celebrating—the survival and artistry of Indigenous youth bringing power back to Native America.
TRACK LIST
Staying Underground and RPM connected earlier this year over a love of dope beats and good music.
Host and curator Thomas Rapsey's expertly curated Staying Underground mixtapes are, as he puts it, "Where The Future Culture Is Found", and his selections—which range widely through soul, hip-hop, electronics, instrumentals, and destination out experiments—are second to none.
Listening through his Collaborator series—which pairs a guest DJ mix on the A Side, with Rapsey helming the B Side—we thought it would be fire to join forces.
RPM's Culturite (aka Jarrett Martineau), who compiled our Indigenous Futurisms and #NationHood Mixtapes, drops a mix of his latest favourites, while Rapsey rounds out the B Side with some killer cuts, both interspersed with iconic cinematic samples.
And it's only fitting that we drop this new collab on October 12th—Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Let's make this a time to reorient our attention away from the evils of colonial marauders, and toward the celebration of Indigenous life—and the music that unites us in struggle for a decolonized world.
Staying Underground x RPM prsnt:
DOWNLOAD: Staying Underground - COLLABORATOR 025: CULTURITE (RPM.fm Premiere) - w/ Mistah Rapsey on the B Side.
A Side: Culturite 1. Phantogram - Fall in Love (RATKING Falling Off Remix) 2. J Dilla - Dillatronic #7 3. Branko - Take Off (Ft. Princess Nokia) 4. Flako - Twelve O'Clock Shadow 5. Frank Liin - Enslaved 6. Little Simz - Is This Freedom? 7. OSHUN - Protect Your Self [Prod. by Eric David] 8. ILLER - Healings 9. Aesop Rock - Cat Food 10. Ras_G - Let _ G Know… (Keep It A Billion) 11. Low Leaf + King Britt - A Light Within 12. Fatima - Circles 13. WOKE - The Lavishments of Light Looking (Ft. George Clinton) 14. emune & deadxbeat - thru time
B Side: Mistah Rapsey 1. Estere - Reptilian Journey (Jordan Rakei Remix) 2. KEITA JUMA - H O L Y 3. Tom Misch - High 4. Mndsgn - Exhale 5. Blu - Cosmophobia [Prod. by fate] 6. Jitwam - Alone 7. Pacific Yew - (((( Bloodroot Bloom )))) 8. Jean Deaux - Who Am I 9. Mo Kolours - Orphan’s Lament 10. +ma - indigo w/ v.wegen 11. Little Simz - Wings [Prod. by IAMNOBODI] 12. Kanye West - Touch the Sky (Johnnie Young Remix) 13. Janita - Let Me Love You (NeguimBeats Remix) 14. montell2099 - found 15. Ta-ku - Krule Love
http://www.mediafire.com/download/73hvq5jw4j9ekg3/Collaborator+025_+Culturite.mp3.zip
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest showcase of film, music, and media arts by Indigenous artists.
Boasting an incredible diversity in contemporary forms of Indigenous creative expression, the festival celebrates the thriving artistry among Indigenous Peoples. Running October 14-18 in Toronto, we are pleased to partner with imagineNATIVE to support the festival's commitment to Indigenous music.
On Saturday, October 17, imagineNATIVE will present a live music performance night "The Beat DJ POW! WOW!" — featuring electronic sets from GlitClit, Madeskimo, and Akkil.
To get you hyped for the show, we've assembled a fresh, new mixtape featuring all three of the artists performing at the show.
Inuk electronic artist madeskimo, a.k.a. Geronimo Inutiq, uses live instruments, digital and analogue synths, and a deft hand at remixing and processing samples to blend traditional Inuit, Aboriginal, modern electronic and urban music into experimental new hybrids.
GlitClit is the DJ project of acclaimed Colombian singer and electronic artist Lido Pimienta, who experiments with Indigenous sonics, beats, live looping, and hypnotic vocals. Known as “Colombian darling” and “SoundSister”, Pimienta has been bumping up Afro-Indigenous chanting and rhythms with brass, experimental noise, walls of sound and her beautiful voice, creating a hyper-coloured hybrid sound that can’t be boxed into lazy genre tags.
Rounding out the night, we will be joined by Akkil - who fuses traditional Sámi joik and Sámi classics with the synth-sounds from the 1980s, to celebrate and honour Sámi musical traditions while infusing them with new dancefloor rhythms.
Hosted by Rachelle White Wind, "The Beat" will also feature breakdancing performances by Jay Robi, Siez Swift & Krystal Riverz, with a special performance by Rhythm Natives.
In addition to live performances, and music-themed screenings, this year's festival will also feature some new experiments with Virtual Reality Portals, where audiences get to experience immersive "Oculus VR" demos featuring music from A Tribe Called Red and Tanya Tagaq.
Don't miss this incredible celebration of Indigenous creativity and community. And join us on Saturday for an epic NDN throwdown on the dancefloor.
"The Beat DJ POW! WOW!" will be held Saturday, October 17th at Revival in Toronto.
Gitxsan MC The Northwest Kid and Cree/Métis MC Heebz the Earthchild have been locked in the studio working on their "grassroots labour of love" for a minute now, but the hype has been building for their debut album to drop.
Well, the wait is over. Mob Medicine is here.
A self-produced effort featuring the two MCs trading conscious bars over decidedly abstract hip-hop beats, Mob Bounce combines west coastal naturalistic imagery and acoustic poetry with more rugged spiritual anthems dedicated to uplifiting the Indigenous community.
From the spoken word melodics of "Land of Giant Dragonflies" to hypnotic healing joints like "New Sage" and the half-sung, eerily melancholic "Starseed", the duo pushes out beyond the limits of masculinist rap bravado and into more intimate and interior territory.
Mid-album cuts like "Walk With Our Sisters", a crackling rhythmic dedication to missing and murdered Indigenous women, and the early single, "Oral Tradition", find Mob Bounce bringing their commitment to culture, family, and community to the forefront, but it's in the album's closing tracks, like the sublime "Sacred Space" featuring Drezus, that their music really finds its spirited groove, infusing the Mob's open-hearted aesthetics with hip-hop's urgency and prophetic poetics.
Don't sleep. This is just the first step on their journey. Get a dose of that good Mob Medicine and like they tell it, #burnsageeveryday.
1. Cree Dance Clearwater Revival 2. Redfist 3. Culture 4. Animal Spirit Interlude Poem 5. Animal Spirit 6. Land of Giant Dragonflies by Wysper Light 7. Welcome to the Struggle 8. Baldhead with Braids 9. New Sage 10. Starseed Interlude Poem 11. Starseed 12. Redboy 13. Walk With Our Sisters 14. Oral Tradition 15. Brush That Rain 16. Our People Were Sleeping But Now We’re Awake 17. Stay With Me 18. All My Relations 19. Sacred Space (Keep it Real) Ft. Drezus 20. Grandpa’s Journey Song
If you grew up in the era of the Soulquarians, Dilla, D'Angelo, Badu and the whole neo-soul movement—well, damn, whenever you were born—you know how those deep, souled out, hip-hop vibes make you feel.
Those jonz in your bones, everybody loves the sunshine, brown sugar, guess I'll see you next lifetime vibes. You know, those soulful feels. The everything is right in the world and despite all the pain and struggle and endless things to worry about you know you need to just kick back and vibe out kind of feels.
That goodness. That realness. Vibes.
That's what Métis artist David Morin's Every Colour has. It's music that moves you with both the rawness of its streetcorner cypher origins and the polish of its professionalism—soulful gems crafted in some hidden Vancouver version of Electric Ladyland, magic made in the quiet hours of long, languid west coast nights.
Morin's take on soul music is studied without sounding derivative. Over the album's 12 tracks, Every Colour effortlessly flows out your speakers with its expertly crafted, on point vocal performances, and produced-to-perfection sheen. But don't get it twisted: the high gloss acoustics are just a bit of honey added to the mix that soak into the depth of Morin's deft musicality and subtle lyrical jabs at systems that aren't working for the people.
Who else is crooning, as Morin does on "You and Me"—"so sadistic / on a mission / to control the way you think / in a system / where all they do is take/ it's just a classic case / of a fascist state / lying to your face"—over a rolling bassline, Isaac Hayes'd strings, and a breezy, George Benson-esque guitar lick?
Morin makes systemic critique sound like sweet seduction.
Deeply indebted to Voodoo-era aesthetics, Every Colour overflows with D'Angelo-inspired, winding grooves, horns, strings, tasteful guitar stabs, and head-knocking hip-hop beats, that expand and contract in constant interplay with Morin's melodic, layered vocals.
Enlisting acclaimed producer Joby Baker on the boards and with Bombay Records at his back, Morin is already getting love from established hip-hop media outlets: a recent feature in The Source dubbed him "The Next Big Thing in Music" and, just this week, Okayplayer showed him love with a video premiere of his latest single, "Come Home".
Known both for his legendary street performances and live performance skills, Morin is more than just a singer—his multi-instrumental talents as a beatboxer, loop pedalist, beatmaker, and varied vocalist have set him on a rising trajectory to infiltrate mass musical consciousness. We challenge you not to get down.
David Morin is the truth. And his gospel is soulful goodness.
Every Colour is available everywhere on iTunes. Stream the album in full below, and catch him on tour or at a street corner near you.
Blooming with an easy confidence, positivity, and Smart Girl Club feminist swagger, Destiny's Honeysuckle is a taste of all things good in this world.
After catching a couple of sun-soaked previews in the form of the 80s-tinged "Orange Blossom" and the disco-funk of "Soul Train", Honeysuckle finds Taino artist Destiny Fraqueri, aka the former Princess Nokia, luxuriating in her uniquely soulful blend of throwback optimism and hip-hop eclecticism.
Over the album's 12 tracks, Destiny alternately sings, croons, raps, and spins out stories of love and songs of uplift in a time of beautiful struggle.
But it's in the album's latter half that Destiny really comes into her element.
From the downtempo, trip-hop grooves of "Mermaid Girl" and "Cherry Cola", to the acoustic folk of "Wide Brim Hat" and the bluesy pairing of "God Inside of Me" with the righteous, poetic liberation of spoken word album closer, "Brown Girl Blues", Destiny is proof positive that remaining positive in the face of oppression is not just a political necessity—it's a revolutionary act of celebration.
"We can't succumb to the darkness", she says. Time to lean into the light.
HONEYSUCKLE http://t.co/HQ5ioAxxkKpic.twitter.com/oMcBwUFTUw
— DESTINYFRASQUERI (@princess_nokia) September 21, 2015
09.20 - MoMA PS1 - New York City 09.26 - VIA Music Fest - Pittsburgh, PA 10.11 - Webster Music Hall - New York City 10.30 - Wesleyan University - Connecticut 10.31 - The Barbery - Philadelphia, PA 11.12 - Cooper Union Hall - New York City 11.13 - Chop Suey - Seattle, WA
Revolutions Per Minute is a global new music platform, record label, and boutique agency for Indigenous music culture. RPM’s mission is to build a visionary community of Indigenous artists and to introduce Indigenous music to new audiences across Turtle Island and around the world. Our main site, RPM.fm, has featured the work of more than 500 Indigenous artists and shared their music across our social networks of more than 275,000 followers.
RPM Records is the first of its kind: a label for contemporary, cross-genre Indigenous music, run by Indigenous people. Selected by The FADER as one of “5 New Canadian Record Labels The Entire World Should Know”, RPM Records artists include Ziibiwan, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Exquisite Ghost, and Mob Bounce.
