In our second RPM Artist Minute, hip-hop chanteuse Kinnie Starr talks candidly about women and sexuality in the music business.
Kinnie is widely known for blazing trails for women in hip-hop through the strength, authenticity and openness in both the music she creates, and the messages she conveys in conversation.
She has challenged the industry's commodification of beauty, but has also used the tools to her advantage. How does she strike a balance? Director Louvens Remy sat down with Kinnie to find out.
Watch: RPM Artist Minute: Kinnie Starr - "Women + Sex + Music"
Sandy Scofield is a Cree singer, guitarist, pianist and leader of the band Iskwew. She recently spoke with Matador Network about music as entertainment, education and political act.
The interesting and in-depth interview covers how Sandy got into traditional music with Iskwew, her Cree culture, current issues that pertain to Indigenous peoples of Canada, and performing on the international circuit.
"...when we get to go play international festivals it’s really important because, you know, one of the girls that sings with me, she went to Italy and some guy said to her, ‘Where are you from?’ and she said, ‘Well, I’m Cree Indian from Canada,’ and he was just aghast, he was saying, ‘No. They were all extinct. They don’t exist,’ and she’s going ‘You’re crazy!’ You know?
But there’s crazy ideas out there, so especially if we’re on the international stage, we’re trying to show the very best of who we are. And in Canada, half of our work is in what we call Indian Country, which is all of the country except dominant society doesn’t see us. So we perform for other native people or we perform for dominant society, and so when we perform for dominant society, it’s the same thing again. We’re trying to show the really fantastic things about our cultures, our collective culture which really concerns community, egalitarianism to a certain extent, just pride, culture, the interconnectedness of all life and that we’re interconnected with one another — things like that.”
Read the whole article at matadornetwork.com and enjoy this track Waniska by Iskwew.
Many first nations, for many years, were matriarchal societies. For Plains Cree, historically, women were the makers and the keepers of the drum.
With the introduction of outside influences, this role of women shifted. Here, from APTN, an elder in Grand Rapids shares how the teaching of this history is reinstating, and empowering, women drum keepers.
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.
