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.
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Guelph-based rock band WHOOP-Szo can be described in many ways, but it's the feel of their sound that cannot be contained within one genre. The Grunge/Shoegaze/Folk/Art-Rock group have just come off their summer tour, and Anishinaabe frontman Adam Sturgeon (Dzhkon Zibi - Antler River/Chippewa of the Thames) talks with RPM about what it's like for an Indigenous artist such as himself to find a Nish audience within their niche.
How has your touring been going? We’ve been super lucky to have played a ton of really great festivals the last couple of years and are looking forward to what is next. We’re not gonna mention too much on this end quite yet!
How did you guys start out as a band? How long have you been making music? The band started with myself and Kirsten Palm, a Finnish non-native who has been a welcome addition to the communities she has worked with. We started over a common desire to explore our healing relationships… we met because both of our parents were in wellness programs recovering from drug and alcohol abuse and we recognized our shared family history and how it had impacted us both in similar and differing ways. Kirsten’s family were punk rockers and mine athletes so there were a lot of funny differences despite the chaos of their addictions. We also recognized our own vulnerability but found strength in each other which has remained a huge driving force for our band. How did your culture influence the music you make? Both my father and my aunt have instilled a huge influence on myself personally and helped maintain our Indigenous teachings since I was very young. Our healing journey is so influenced by our “culture”, or as I like to say and my teachers like to say "our way of life." It simply is who I am so it seeps into absolutely everything I do be it very “traditional” or “modern", like metal music.
What influences your style of music? Both my writing and Kirsten’s is influenced by our surroundings and the emotional attachment we have to it. Sometimes it is easier to express things through sound over words so we’ve added a lot of members and collaborators along the way to help shape the overall vibe of what we are putting down. So often we are referenced as political, however we don’t see it that way, we follow our teachings and the words follow that.
From your experience, what's the scene like for a Nish grunge/shoegaze/folk band such as yourselves? What is your fan following like? Our fans are most definitely white, for the most part but it’s very very common that those marginalized groups present at our shows gravitate towards our band. There aren’t a ton of other grunging Nish out there, but I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some Indigenous folk along the way. We talk about this and some of us are thinking of forming some kind of coalition or whatever, we don’t know yet, but I’m very thankful for those conversations along the way. People like Kayla Stevens from Crossed Wires and Dan from Dri Hiev, Coco from Construction and Destruction. There are others, but our voices are still shy. We all have a similar history and we feel a bit different than the rest of the scene. That said, we are very fortunate to make it known that we play in safe spaces, we drift away from bar culture and our audience is very inspired and intrigued by our beliefs… So that is a start. Your last full album was released two years ago, and a single released last year. Do you have plans to release new music anytime in the near future? We’re working away on new material and have a bunch of collaborations and such in the works. It seems as though you are either touring or putting out music. We have basically been on the road the last two years touring and truly enjoying that momentum but are anxious to show the world what we have up our sleeves.
For more on WHOOP-Szo visit: thenoisymountain.bandcamp.com and SoundCloud.
Back in March, the Cross Lake First Nation in Manitoba declared a state of emergency after seeing six suicides in the community within two months and 140 attempts within two weeks prior.
While the community sought out help from the provincial and federal governments, a group of artists from across Manitoba took it upon themselves to intervene in the best way they knew how – by sharing their gifts with the local Pimicikamak Cree Nation youth, and empowering them to explore and use gifts of their own.
“It was all forms, from painting to writing, recording, performing and dance to video art,” said Leonard Sumner, who helped pool together funds along with the other artists to get to Cross Lake as urgently as possible. “We went on their spring break and got the word out. Young people showed up and we all started working together on ideas.”
Leonard did lyrics and recording workshops with Charlie Fettah of Winnipeg's Most and collaborated with Erica Daniels and her film workshop kids in creating a music video. The whole team of artists played a vital role in the project, including Wab Kinew who helped workshop the youth on their second day in the studio that they had set up in a classroom.“We helped them from start to finish. Some were ready to go, some were a little shy. Everyone was supportive of each other and they applauded and encouraged dope lines from each other. There was a creative energy in the room that enveloped everyone who came through.”
“It was really cool because we picked the 'Pitch Black' beat, which was done by Boogey [the Beat] and then me and Leonard started some of the writing and they seemed pretty receptive to the understanding of song structure”, said Charlie, who along with Leonard, oversaw the work the youth came up with on their own and then guided them through the process of creating the song and shooting the music video in a span of only 2 days.
“They did a really good fucking job! It's dark, but that’s where they were in their heads and wanted to express themselves like that. It was really their own creation. Me and Leonard started with the hook and kind of showed them how to make it catchier, to make it something people can remember, and they kind of took that and ran with it.”
“One of the artists explained to me that in the past year he had lost three of this family and two really good friends to suicide, and I was completely floored," says Charlie, who remains in contact with the group. "Even now I keep up with them on Facebook and they consistently hit me up and let me know they’re writing more, even the ones who didn’t have much experience writing before. It’s good because now they have a better way to deal with those feelings. So it was really inspiring to see them through that.”
“We really have seen a lot of change in the youth. They’ve been continuing writing music for themselves,"says Kendall, a youth counsellor in Cross Lake who facilitated the workshops at the community school. "The group that made Pitch Black have all been working together and they’re still doing that now. The experience they had really helped them express their feelings through music. There are other youth that didn’t come out that saw the video and thought 'Hey, I could do this!’ so it’s just getting them out there, and getting them more involved in the community and music."
“The arts are empowering. We don’t need any more victims, we need to build upon their resilience and strengthen our identities. Arts can play a big role in that,” said Leonard.
“I believe projects like this are key in helping our youth. Multimedia gives them the opportunity to express themselves in a creative and artistic way," said Erica. "I have been doing this work for many years and I have seen many youth change their lives around and grow as strong individuals. This work is so important and I wish there were music and film programs in each community because I know that it can help young people heal. I can tell the youth are so proud of their song and video and I feel that it has inspired them to be leaders in their community and keep working hard to have their voices heard.”
See what happens when creative minds come together to give voice for a community in hardship.
This is "Pitch Black" featuring Jonny Jesus, Skinny-Gee, Errol Mckay, Tyrese CJ Scott, Chrisduut Bailey, Brent Fruit Loops Richards and ViciouZKidd:
“We started getting our ideas out and it’s like we just started created this whirlwind of thoughts which slowly turned into action and looking at us today, that’s become our healing tool,” Travis Adrian Hebert aka Heebz the Earthchild (Cree/Métis) says of Mob Bounce’s beginnings.
“What I feel about my lyrical content is that it’s the spirit materializing a message through me. Part of my intent with that is that it connects with other people," said Craig Frank Edes aka The Northwest Kid (Hungarian/Scottish/Irish and Gitxsan). "Being aware its like you understand your surroundings and the energy around you and you have the opportunity to create life.”
Like many Indigenous youth, Travis and Craig grew up with a loss of their cultural identity, but discovered that hip-hop was the vehicle in which they were meant to share their experience and spread knowledge to others who have gone through similar experiences.
“I feel like our music is good for the youth and for the people who need healing in the sense that we bring terminology to that social awareness," says Craig. "Eventually there’s just layers and layers that will peel apart and it creates a lot of healing for the youth who had to experience a lot of the same things say me and Travis experienced in our communities."
For more Mob Bounce visit: facebook.com/mobbounce
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
The closing night of Aboriginal Music Week is the very definition of #IndigenousExcellence.
This year, RPM is partnering with AMW to bring you a concert featuring some of Indian Country's fastest rising hip-hop stars: Drezus, Mariame, Hellnback, T-Rhyme, and Boogey the Beat.
An accomplished young producer with a gift for booming beats and hypnotic melodies, Anishinaabe artist Boogey the Beat will bless us with his trap-infused rhythms. N'we Jinan artist and rising Cree R&B singer, Mariame, will be joining us from Quebec to perform songs from her recently released debut EP, Bloom. And, hailing from Saskatoon by way of Edmonton, self-described femcee T-Rhyme will bring her 'ATCQ to Jean Grae'-influenced hip-hop styles to the stage.
Rounding out this already incredible lineup, acclaimed Samson Cree hip-hop heavyweight and 2015 Indigenous Music Awards nominee, Hellnback, will give shine to tracks from his brand new record, F.O.E. (#FamilyOverEverything).
UPDATE: Tall Paul won't be able to make it, but hot off his recent Warpath Tour, we've got Cree hip-hop artist Drezus coming through to rep for the people and give us a dose of his banging beats and Native Pride-filled lyrics.
Aboriginal Music Week, an annual celebration of "the fact that Indigenous artists around the world are creating music that crosses almost all musical and physical borders, without regret", runs from August 18-22, 2015 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
With a full lineup of Indigenous music events including the Spence Neighbourhood Block Party, the Turtle Island Block Party, an AMW stage at the Austin Street Festival, and a daytime stage at Picnic in the Park, this year's AWM is going to have something for every listener and music fan.
Saturday, August 22, 2015 The Good Will (625 Portage Ave) Winnipeg, Manitoba 9pm - 2am / Tickets: $10 RSVP on Facebook: here
FEATURING:
For more information visit: aboriginalmusicweek.ca
That's right, we said it.
In a year of reconciliation, on a nationalized holiday of mostly mindless settler celebration, what better time than now to acknowledge not only the long and continuing history of colonialism that has built Canadians' Homes on Native Land, but also the strength and resilience of the Indigenous Nations and societies that predated the arrival of Europeans on our shores?
2bears is marking this auspicious occasion with the release of a full-length version of his incredible video work, Heritage Mythologies, an artful deployment of re-appropriation and remix for decidedly Indigenous purposes.
The piece is part of a 2010 installation and live video remix performance at the SAW Gallery in Ottawa, that has since been included in the Beat Nation touring exhibition. Beat Nation demonstrated the unique ways Indigenous artists are using hip-hop and other forms of popular culture to create new cultural hybrids—in painting, sculpture, installation, performance and video.
In Heritage Mythologies, 2bears lets loose his VJ skills on an astonishing array of found footage and cinematic samples sourced from Canadian media, newscasts, CanCon beer ads, Olympic resistance, Canadian rapper Classified's settler anthem "Oh...Canada", those iconic Heritage Minute videos, Cape Breton's singer Rita MacNeil rocking the national anthem, footage from the so-called 'Oka crisis', text from residential school reports, right on up to Prime Minister Harper's notorious 2008 apology for the Indian Residential Schools system. And all set to a rolling hip-hop soundtrack.
Not only does 2bears expose the long and destructive misrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples on film and in the media, he does it with an artful, musical eye on the colonial politics at work in how we see and, therefore, how we come to know about the past and present of this country.
Heritage Mythologies closes with a wry twist on that beloved old settler classic, "This Land is Your Land", which strums along against an onslaught of imagery depicting the historical and continuing faces of Indigenous resistance flashing and crackling in the background.
The juxtaposition is potent, powerful, and a clear reminder of how far we still have to go.
So on this 'Kanata Day', why glorify colonial conquest when you can lay bare the deep mythological heritage that still holds sway in the Canadian psyche? Why celebrate a falsely imagined nationalism that overwrites Indigenous nationhood in all its forms when you can champion the work of Indigenous artists committed to the daily struggle of correcting media misrepresentations and representing ourselves on our own terms?
Instead of painting your face with the flag of oppression while shotgunning tallboys of Molson Canadian, or embroidering that maple leaf patch on your backpack ahead of your next drunken hostel excursion through Europe, let's pay more attention to what Indigenous artists are actually doing with the imposed legacy of invasion.
Artists like Jackson 2bears are reappropriating the weapon of representation to reflect back to us the destructive, colonial reality that's been carefully hidden behind the false flag of Operation Reconciliation. Time to take it back to the foundations and try again.
Now, who's ready for some fireworks?
Heritage Mythologies - O Kanata Day - 2015 from Jackson 2bears
Check out more of his work on Vimeo and at jackson2bears.net
Jordan Thomas, aka Exquisite Ghost, is something of an anomaly in the contemporary Indigenous music community.
Although headlining acts like A Tribe Called Red have claimed a centre stage spotlight at the intersection of electronic dance music and powwow-infused rhythms, more cerebral and esoteric beat excursions by Indigenous producers have received less critical acclaim and attention.
But that's not for a lack of innovation and creative expression.
If anything, Exquisite Ghost's productions offer a more nuanced and exploratory set of aesthetics than many dancefloor-focused DJs can provide. Echoes of J Dilla, Flying Lotus, and Aphex Twin can be heard in his production style, but Thomas is crafting his own uniquely melodic and ethereal take on contemporary beat-making. Through an evolving set of sonic experiments, Exquisite Ghost brings a deft hand and hip-hop-inspired touch to his head-nodding and hypnotic compositions.
Following the 2013 release of his debut album, Shrines, on Salient Sounds, Thomas has been steadily dropping gems on his SoundCloud. Although, by ATCR standards, he's still flying under the radar, Thomas is definitely a producer to watch—one who's changing the game in the process.
We caught up with him to talk music, creative inspiration, collaboration, and upcoming album plans. Stream and download new tracks from Exquisite Ghost below.
Thanks for talking with us. Please introduce yourself and tell us what nation you're from.
I am Jordan Thomas, Exquisite Ghost, from Peguis First Nation, and thank you too.
Where'd you grow up? What's your connection to your home community?
I was raised in Winnipeg, with a large branch of my grandparents and family living in Peguis, which I have visited at times since I was young. My grandparents were taken through residential schools and, as I grew up, they told stories of how they made their way to rise above. My immediate family is working with many First Nations in design and media, building projects.
How did you get started making music?
I think watching my dad firsthand getting his architecture degrees, as I was growing up, the long path to developing forms and conceptions until they are concrete, and to have musical experiences and inner questions about what is salient when these things have to come together—they're are all sort of the beginning of my path to music. I began playing guitar, which was my dad's, and we had a recording studio when I was younger, which was my uncle's. They all played music, my grandfathers on both sides, virtually everyone, my mother too, so it was definitely something that was waiting to happen.
What inspires you to create?
These days after all the hundreds of jams and tracks and ideas and days spent with music, I will be inspired by a feeling or memory, or musician, movie, show, a friend in conversation, a sound of a train outside...it's this idea about how, these days, there's a fluidity of information that we're faced with, organizing these messages constantly, so it's always interesting to arrange music in a very open sort of way. The effects of fusion in music, in a global sense, are becoming very apparent, so a musical conversation between timeless Indigenous cultures is being recognized and engaged with in excitement, fun and playfulness. Not without due respect for the places of origin—in time, in people and places—but it is this way that we learn and discover more about ourselves.
A lot of your music has an otherworldly quality to it. What do you think of Indigenous Futurism? Do you feel like your work fits in that vision?
The idea of Indigenous futurisms feels exciting. As some descriptions mix and blend over time, proto-neo-post-meta-style, fusion, world music mixing with jazz, rock, pop, dub, bass—my country or yours, this land or that land—the qualities of my own vision of the music are intrinsic to a combination of these. That might include connections to other things: like sci-fi, literature, or design in general. A thread I followed through my life, was when my dad was thinking about what Indigenous architecture ought to feel like, or how to describe it, and to demonstrate the connection between the two words.
So the feel of a lot of my work has been created from inversions of mixtures of textures and places I listened to music from— worldwide, from any time, past or present, that I felt was interesting, and from trying to get deep into finding out what it's affecting by listening and playing. It has a futuristic feel for sure. Sometimes I like to imagine what music in clubs or spaceships, or as you walk down the street far into the unrecognizable future, might sound like, and why.
Your first album, Shrines, dropped in 2013. Since then you've been posting some dope new tracks on your SoundCloud. Can we expect a new album soon?
Since Shrines, I have had to deal with a time consuming, unexpected house fire that took up a lot of space and showed me a lot of things. Six months without internet for one. Life has changed. Producing music now, in this state after getting engaged with it fully, finally feels great. And there are plans and themes for an album of Exquisite Ghost music that I've been fine tuning for the past year. I am working on sound and music for a game as well, that is underway, involving Space and Canoes. It's an Indigenous Futurist piece, and I'm learning tons about producing these projects, culturally and creatively.
Who are you collaborating with on your new stuff? Is there an Indigenous beat-making scene emerging that we can keep an eye for?
I am always seeking people to talk with about music, or just about ideas in general. The idea of sampling, contextualizing, is integral to growth, and welcomes surprises, and the music I'm working on now is shaped to be remixed, or to inspire anyone interested in it to reach out and chat. I want to make music for people. That's what truly inspires me. There is always music around to find: the Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape on RPM was incredible, wonderful music, along with the artists listed on the site, the shows of Aboriginal Music Week, the musicians I played to, all have really brought something special to my own music. I'm enjoying exploring.
Watch Exquisite Ghost, "Evening"
Exquisite Ghost's Shrines is available in digital format and on limited edition vinyl from Salient Sounds.
Acclaimed Indigenous artist collective Postcommodity—Nathan Young, Kade Twist, Cristobal Martinez and Raven Chacon—return with their new album, We Lost Half The Forest And The Rest Will Burn This Summer, a darkly brilliant new album of noise and experimental sonics.
From the disintegration of its opening chord, We Lost Half The Forest lurches into a jarring and unrelenting movement toward some unknown destination or origin. The seeming soundtrack to an imminent decline, whether that of Western Civilization or a litany of other obliquely inferred societal ills—the rusting stench of rapacious global capitalism, the destructive, crushing force of the colonial machine—Postcommodity's virtuosic evisceration of the melodic comfort of the listener also makes space to suggest, however subtly, an inchoate sense of Indigenous presence, resurgent return.
There is the hum of something else amidst the chaos and destruction.
The 16-song concept album, the collective's third, was recorded at the Banff Centre for the Arts during a recent residency, and its contours mark not a linear trajectory of inevitable apocalyptic anxiety and decline but, instead, an imminent journey inward, and down—into and through—the land itself.
The album traces "the ever-cycling decay of a desert drought from the view of its flora and fauna", and We Lost Half the Forest makes audible the dirge and drama of a world crackling, humming, and burning. A world starved for water—gasping for air—spinning down "the only path" available to itself to reclaim some sense of disoriented direction.
Acoustically, as is their oblique aesthetic tendency, the group combines Western classical instruments and performers, with their own Southwestern-rasquache electronics, into a deceptive blend of sonic assault, quiet hums, and melodic passages. With contributions from Marc Sabat, Nico Dann, Cecilia Bercovich, Achiya Asher, Cohen Alloro, Aaron Bannerman, Dory Hayley and Ilana Dann, the collective swells and crashes through Godspeed You! Black Emperor levels of intensity, while recalibrating the terrain of Indigenous noise and melody.
As the blasting, searing sounds of "Chacoma" rise to a crescendo of dissonant trumpets, feedback, colossal bass drums, vibrating strings, struck piano, and the haunted wails of far-off voices, the "end" the album evokes seems to eclipse the possibility of its own arrival. The swirling burn of "Dia Del Cabrón" cascades into caterwauling, recursive feedback loops, while in later tracks like, "Dios Nunca Muere", the feedback has ebbed and faded, and all that is left is the undulation of frequencies set adrift. Winding back and worth, the album marches and warbles on, as though the sound of weather-worn metallic leaves were clawing back to life in the abated breath of a passing storm.
Postcommodity are masters of both the severe and the serene.
Their music, an art of calculated counterpoint, stages an elemental clash of forces that spins through clouds of anticipated violence, but refuses the finality of obliteration. To listen to this album is to become immersed within it, to be grasped by its ravenous, tentacular clutches, to be pulled deeper into a desertification of the mind.
Postcommodity walks with you—or perhaps they just walk you—solitary, blindfolded, out into an unknown landscape's dry, raw heat, until only the rhythms of parched plants can be heard. Until even those collapse and burn, while the ululating shape of the land's breath grows ever louder in your ears. Until your own heartbeat thrums wildly in your chest. Until, at the end, when the blindfold is removed, you look wildly about for a horizon that you know has grown only into a deepening darkness, the sound of the ground above you, enclosing, enfolding everything.
PREMIERE: Postcommodity, "Chacoma"
DOWNLOAD: Postcommodity's We Lost Half The Forest And The Rest Will Burn This Summer
Postcommodity's We Lost Half The Forest And The Rest Will Burn This Summer is available in a limited run of 200 vinyl copies, with jacket printed and embossed with ash. Naturally. For more information visit postcommodity.com
First things first, if you missed our epic selections of the Best Indigenous Music of 2014, you should go read and listen to what we picked. Also check out the Most Slept-On Indigenous Album of the year.
And as though our top albums, EPs, singles and our Best of 2014 Remixtape weren't enough to satiate your hunger for Native artistry, we've also compiled our favourite Indigenous music videos of 2014.
There were many amazing, cinema-sonic moments put on tape this year, but these were the videos that made the deepest, most engaging, and even funniest, impressions on us.
Part of the fifth season of APTN's First Tracks, this is a sibylline dreamscape for a haunting and deceptively simple song by Jayli Wolf (Métis). Directed by Michelle Latimer, we love getting lost in the video's black and white layering of starry, underwater, earthy and mesmerizing images.
"We are only as clean as our water" says Oglala Lakota duo Scatter Their Own. Want to know why Indigenous people are rising up against pipelines through our territories? This is why. An ominous and compelling...er...taste of things to come. That is, unless we change course.
Cyber-supernatural 90s vibes abound in this neon and glittery ode to anime, BFFs, Nickelodeon, robotic dogs, and Nokia ringtones, among assorted other shimmering oddities. Flashbackward to bedazzled future beats in this trippy slice of this Taino Princess' world. You'll be hypnotized just like we were.
Youthful, exuberant, dedicated to the struggle and dropping hip-hop gems, up-and-comer Mic Jordan holds it down rapping directly about what it means to thrive and survive as a modern day warrior for his people, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa. Now that's what's up. This clip comes from Jordan's slept on album, Sometime After 83, which he dropped earlier this year (and which you should go download for free right now). The struggle lives and breathes in the artistry of talented Native MCs like Mic Jordan. "And damn right / I was built to fight". Tell it!
Mohawk artist Kinnie Starr's not one to be shy in speaking her mind and this ode to protecting coastal waters from intrusive pipeline development finds a perfect counterpart in this collab with Haidawood—a stop motion animation video that works perfectly for the track that CBC called "part indictment, part wake-up call". We are in need of both at this point, and this is a creative and playful way to get the message out. Now let it compel action.
Although we're not exactly sold on Mic.com's framing of Indigenous hip-hop as "the most authentic rap we have today" (what is authentic? who is we?), we get what they were trying to say. No one else is bringing together raw talent, creativity and firepower like Native artists. Plains Cree/Saulteaux artist Drezus doesn't mix words or mess around and on this Stuey Kubrick-directed clip, he reps for the people—painted up, fire burning, singers around the drum, wild horses running slow mo, and surrounded by his fam and relations. That's power. Watch it all the way to the end for a special appearance by Beau Dick, master carver and hereditary chief of the Namgis First Nation, making that west coast warrior connect.
Two of our favourite artists joined forces this year and the results exceeded our expectations. Although a lyric video for this tune was released a while back, this official video for Cherokee singer/MC Angel Haze's collab with A Tribe Called Red brings that ultra-crisp, black and white, leather-clad, dialed aesthetic we were hoping for. You want some more? Good luck competing with Angel Haze's "deity swag and omnipotent style".
When minimalism works, it really works. Keeping with that vibe, Kamilaroi artist Radical Son's video for his soulful tune "Human Behaviour" works with opaque spaces, blending deep, dark blacks and fading whites and greys, and using its stripped down visual spectrum to pull the gravity of the song's deep reggae groove out from the depths. Dope.
Community organizer, activist, MC, hip-hop producer and micro-documentary maker, Anishinaabe/Xicano artist Sacramento Knoxx is a man of many talents. This joint brings it all together with a dope visual delivery of rugged anti-imperialist politics, BDS empowerment, and raw hip-hop talent. That, plus the proceeds of the track go to benefiting youth and community. Knoxx is elevating the game and bringing power back to the people. The RaizUp is right. Represent.
Ok, this one is pretty amazing. Hip-hop artist/producer and educator David Hodges has been working with the Cree Nation Government on a community-based music project called "N'we Jinan". Travelling throughout Cree communities in Quebec, Hodges set up a mobile studio, created music with youth and, in the process, produced a 19-song album that just went to Number 1 on iTunes in Canada. "I Believe" is the first single from the album—and it's an inspiring showcase of rising youth talent and empowerment. Raise it up for the next generation celebrating "culture, language and love". These are the voices we'll be listening for.
When the U.S. Senate votes to reject the Keystone XL pipeline by one vote, ONE VOTE, what else are you going to do but sing an honour song until they kick you out of there? Well, that's exactly what Crow Creek Sioux member Greg Grey Cloud did. You want to restore order Elizabeth Warren? Join Greg in "honouring the leaders who stood up for the people". Respect!
It's hard not to get behind a video that features a song we love, made by a crew the entire Native community loves, featuring Natives we recognize, and basically depicting exactly how it feels to get down to Mohawk/Cayuga/Anishinaabe crew A Tribe Called Red's music. Of course it's a party. Of course we're dancing in our bedrooms, in the convenience store, at the club, and in the car. Oh and course we have fireworks, colour smoke bomb things, and a Mohawk Warrior flag flying as we roll down a winter highway with the sunroof rolled back, the windows rolled down, and ATCR on blast in the system. You know we're all headed to the same Electric Powwow night anyways. See you on the dancefloor, relations.
Just another day in the life of your average beatboxing, freestyling, regalia wearing, powwow and b-boy fancy dancing, flute playing, drum beating, record scratching, loop-making, Crow Nation hip-hop SUPAMAN. They don't call him that for nothing, you know. Mad mad skills. Watch and learn.
When we found out Rebel Music were debuting their Season 2 premiere, "Native America", as a Facebook-only video stream, we were all "Really guys? Facebook only?". But then we remembered how much NDNs lovvvvvvve Facebook—and how amazing the "Native America" episode is—and we realized this was actually a pretty brilliant strategy. The episode became a rallying cry for Native people across Turtle Island: it was viewed more than 2 million times in its first week (at last count it was approaching 4.5 Million views and still climbing). Needless to say, many tears of joy and shouts of Native Pride were shared (check the FB comments) as we watched ourselves and our community being represented for how we really are: vibrant, creative, alive and thriving in the midst of all the insanity! So special shout outs to Frank Waln, Inez Jasper, Nataanii Means and Mike Cliff for representing their nations—and all of our people—in a good way. Rebel Music: Native America reminded us that everyday is a great day to be Indigenous.
There's no way this wasn't making the cut. Let's face it. With what we're up against, collectively, we all need more humour in our lives. And, according to the Dine/Dakota/Osage/Seminole/Creek comedy crew the 1491s, we all need more Europe in our lives too. The band, that is, not the continent. The 1491s have made a lot of amazing videos over the years, but this one is such an incredible parody of the 1986 hit, there's just no way the original can compete anymore. And that's saying something, because have you seen the original?? All we can say is MOAR. More of this please. More Turdle Island, more NAMMY GOLD, more HBC blanket antics, more decolonizing Europe, and more of whatever the hell Ryan Red Corn is doing. A newly indigenized modern hair metal classic. Aho!
In another incredible year for Indigenous art and creativity, Native artists continued to break down walls, claim new spaces and make their presence felt...everywhere. As a renewed wave of uprisings for freedom and justice swept the globe, Indigenous musicians played a central role in soundtracking the struggle and making rebel music for the movement.
From the rez to the streets, from pipeline protests to massive music festivals, Native music made an indelible intervention into the cultural and political landscape of 2014.
The RPM extended fam weighed in with their picks and favourite sounds of the year. Some songs and sounds that found their way into our headphones and hearts included:
Iskwé's “Will I See” Sister Says' Heart Placement Kait Angus' "The Mason's Heart" Moe Clark's Within Sean Conway's The Blue Acre Logan Staats' "What You Love" Kinnie Starr's "Save Our Waters" Tall Paul's "I Don't Need Glove" Quese IMC's "The Comanche" Sacramento Knoxx's "The Trees Will Grow Again" Frank Waln, Naát'áaníí Means, Mike Cliff & Inez Jasper's "The Revolution" Boogey the Beat's "DJ Set for MMIW" A Tribe Called Red's "Burn Your Village to the Ground"
And that's not even counting our Top 10 Albums of the year. Let's go.
This year we're excited to present not only some of our favourite songs, mixes, EPs and albums by Indigenous artists, but also a very special Best of 2014 REMIXTAPE assembled by the prolific beatsmith Impossible Nothing of the Skookum Sound System crew. We compiled our selections and IMPLNTHG fed the sounds through his rapid-fire maximalist machine. The results are an incredible blast of rhythmic sample chops and skillful sonic wizardry.
Grab the remixtape below and head to Impossible Nothing's Bandcamp for the individual remixed tracks.
Download: The Best Indigenous Music of 2014 - Impossible Nothing REMIXTAPE
Stream our Best of 2014 Playlist
Claiming their rightful spot in our Top 10 for the second year in a row, City Natives returned this year with their sophomore album, Red City, a confident declaration of the group's equal skills on the mic and behind the boards. From front to back, what elevated Red City from many other Native hip-hop releases this year was consistency. On a record with no weak links, Red City's tightly woven ten tracks of heartfelt boom bap beats showcase Beaatz, IllFundz, Gearl and BnE proving to the world why they're a force to be reckoned with. Game elevated. Now who's next?
After four years of heavy touring and much anticipation from their fans the world over, husband and wife lead Digging Roots released the For the Light, this summer. Life on the road and innate wanderlust inhabits the sonic kaleidoscope of roots and blues infused songs that travel, lyrically, from inner cities to back roads and everything in between. Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish wrote and produced the collection of 12 love songs - and while the stories touch on desperation, resiliance, troublemakers, lovers and freedom fighters, Kish will emphasize they each stem from love - that pulsate with passion and focus. The title track, sung in Anishinabemowin and English, chants "push, push, reach, reach" with bluesy intensity, exemplary of why Kish's smokey wailing vocals and Kantakta's bombastic guitar pushed For the Light into our top 10.
Kickstarting the year with a blast of hip-hop firepower, The Invasion Day Mixtape contests the colonial occupation of "Australia" with lyrical finesse, banging beats and a rockstar list of Indigenous hip-hop artists. With standout tracks from La Teila, MC Triks and bAbe SUN, and Provocalz, this compilation boldly declares its ancestral connections while giving urgent voice to blackfellas' resistance. Why celebrate the settler invasion when we could be celebrating ourselves? Shout out to Brisbane Blacks, it's time to "raise ya fist for revolution!".
Bold, defiant and with a straight up give no fucks attitude, Angel Haze took her album into her own hands and surreptitiously leaked it free to the world in the last days of 2013. Mired in a fight with her major label Island/Republic, Haze pushed the album directly into the spotlight of public attention and the label scrambled to move up its release date. On the eve of 2014, as the new year swirled into motion, Dirty Gold got its "official release"—and Angel Haze's rapid-fire lyrical acrobatics paired with A Tribe Called Red's beats, and her acoustic reworkings of crossover pop anthems like "Battle Cry", have been stuck in our heads and on rotation all year long. Angel Haze is a confident lyricist, a dope MC, and a compelling singer who seems most in her element when spitting pure fire over rap anthems, but she could easily direct her talent wherever she damn well chooses. We can't wait to see where she's going next.
The first time we heard Born Free we knew it was a contender for album of the year. Displaying an assuredness and power in both songwriting and production, the album expands and deepens Blue King Brown's foundation in roots and reggae music while giving more shine to lead singer Nattali Rize's hypnotic vocals. Every track on this record is filled with equal parts fire and love. BKB is on the move and headed for big things in the days to come. This is music for the movement, for life, for the people. Songs to uplift and inspire us to keep seeking freedom in the midst of our chaotic world. Calling all nations to RIZE UP.
Much good ink has been spilled about Native North America in recent weeks (when was the last time Native music was reviewed simultaneously in the Guardian, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone?), and we're encouraged to know that many others, like us, are discovering—or in some cases re-discovering—this legendary generation of Indigenous musicians. NNA Vol. 1 highlights the incredible work of underrepresented artists from across Canada and up to Alaska, whose music both inspired and provided the foundation for what many Native artists are doing today. More than 12 years in the making, Kevin "DJ Sipreano" Howes, has compiled an awe-inspiring array of Indigenous music that, over its 34 tracks, is at once groundbreaking, revolutionary, and wonderfully familiar. We can hear ourselves in these sounds and, in looking and listening back, we can draw strength from those artists that have gone before us: artists whose time has finally come to be heard. And this is just Volume 1. Brilliant.
What is it about this record? Is it the quirky Game of Thrones-inspired D&B breakbeat ballads? The anime-flavoured, retro-futurist cyber-rap bounce? The Northern Cree-sampling, Björk-like swirl and swoon of haunted electronics? Somewhere in the flow and flux of Princess Nokia's exquisitely defined 90s sci-fi bricolage aesthetics, Metallic Butterfly takes flight into an uncharted space-time reality suffused with effortless eclecticism. One of the most innovative and inspiring albums of the year. The recombinant future has arrived.
Meanwhile, in the outer reaches of the multiverse, Silver Jackson lights up the Sitka coordinates of the Black Constellation with a beautiful album of delicate sonics and folk-art electronic experiments. Expanding the future-now to its natural state of awakened presence, Starry Skies Opened Eyes does exactly what it sets out to do: it wraps you up in haunting melodies and carries you out to sea, drifting and reflecting a journey toward the morning horizon. By the time you arrive, you want to return immediately and dive deep into the sky all over again. That's what we did. Over and over and over again.
After, and almost in spite of, the deserving accolades this album has already received, it's still hard to find words that do Animism justice. Tanya Tagaq's latest album is a pulse-pounding, haunting record of her incredible power to call forth an often dormant spirit of potent creativity from herself and from her audience. It is this restless mix of sonic fury and impassioned expression that puts Tagaq in a nearly singular category among her Indigenous art and music contemporaries. Animism, the album, is in some ways, incidental to her larger project—that of unleashing her creative spirit to the world in every available form. The album is incredible and devastatingly primal, but that's a given. What is unique about Tagaq's music, from her riveting live shows (including an absolutely spellbinding performance at this year's Polaris Music Awards, which she won) to every recorded soundwave captured by Animism, is Tagaq's transcendent capacity to demand that we, as listeners, become co-creators of her music. This is her gift to us, both an exhilarating and, at times, exhausting, call to creative action. Unbowed and undaunted by haters, naysayers, or the otherwise perplexed, Tanya Tagaq keeps expanding her artistic universe and power, orbiting around us, radiating light and sound. A force of nature indeed.
All it took was four songs to put Thelma Plum at the top of our list. Four songs. Where other artists on this year's list explored decidedly otherworldly realms and sonic terrain, Plum's Monsters EP arrived fully formed, locked into a precise space of dark pop perfection. From the first notes of "Monsters" through the aching "Young in Love" and the anthemic "How Much Does Your Love Cost?" to the final haunting bars of "Candle", Plum does more in the brief span of this EP than many artists do in entire albums. There are no misplaced notes here. Every song is wound tight, expertly produced, beautifully sung and absolutely mesmerizing. Monsters is poised to send Thelma Plum's career into the stratosphere. All this before she's even released her debut album. That's coming next year. Did we mention she's 19? Exactly.
--- Chi Miigwetch to Tara Williamson, Leanne Simpson, Susan Blight, and Melody McKiver for their expertise & impeccable selections. Image credit: Sonny Assu, "Home Coming" (2014). Digital intervention on Paul Kane painting. More info at: sonnyassu.com
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.
