The Anishinaabeg duo of Tall Paul and G.Malicious make upPoint of Contact, an Indigenous hip-hop group based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. They met in 2009, connecting through hip hop and a desire for change. They began collaborating, building chemistry, and getting attention in their local scene. The word has been spreading online too, largely due to the YouTube video of Tall Paul performing this track live. Here is the album version, where Tall Paul lays down some bilingual lyrics in Anishnaabemowin and English, fresh off of their brand new debut EP - Brothers: From Different Fathers and Mothers. Get it at CDBaby.
Download: Tall Paul -"Prayers In A Song"
In our second episode of the RPM podcast we travel deep into the heart of Indian Country, to the crossroads of Canada—the city of Winnipeg.
In this episode, we connect with some of Winnipeg's rising stars, including Métis singer-songwriter Don Amero, Cree/Dene R&B singer IsKwé, Uptown Magazine's 2011 best new solo artist, Anishinaabe hip-hop artist Lorenzo, the hyper-connected and highly influential Aboriginal music promoter and events producer Alan Greyeyes, and APTN anchor Dana Foster, who recently relocated to Winnipeg from the west coast.
We find out what makes Winnipeg so...well...wonderful, and discover how the local Indigenous music scene is exploding with talent while being grounded in community and industry support.
We also can't forget to shout out the talented hip-hop artist Young Kidd, whose anthemic track about his hometown, "Wonderful Winnipeg", opens and closes the episode.
Vancougar’s sophomore album Canadian Tuxedo has been praised from coast to coast for its hooky riffs, tight musicality, great vocal harmonies, and relentless energy. It’s the melodies of Cree singer-songwriter/front-woman Eden Fineday and her crystal clear vocals that connects Vancougar’s blend of pop, punk, garage and indie sounds. This track epitomizes those traits - a lyric to pull at your heart strings, a beat to get you fist pumping on the dance floor and a four-part harmony to sing along with, all wrapped up in a short and sweet 3 minutes of listening pleasure.
Download: Vancougar - "Distance"
Choctaw artist Samantha Crain’s husky, emotive, visceral vocals will immediately draw you in to her music. You’ll come for the voice, you’ll stay for the mix of musical styles Crain collects under her Folk umbrella, from slightly grunge to blues twinged to a wistful bounce. Her sophomore full-length release “You (Understood)” is getting a lot of attention and when you sign up for her mailing list, you get this track as a free download. Do it – she’s an artist you’ll want to keep up with.
Stream: Samantha Crain - "Equinox"
Holy fast-flowing wordplay and quick-changing cadence madness from two dynamic hip-hop artists Heath McNease and famed Huichol MC RedCloud.
This track is straight fire. We love the 8-bit videogame, boom-bap in the background but it's the rapidfire flows of the rappers who steal the show. Look out for RedCloud's new album dropping in August.
Inuk hip hop artist M.O.’s new album String Games – a collaboration with Geothermal MC - continues to explore the contemporary urban Inuit life that filled his first CD. He raps about issues that are close to him - identity, northern politics and, in this track featuring Kinnie Starr, suicide. He’s not one to mince words and while he may shoot straight for the heart, his lyrics are crafted with a frankness that avoids cliché and melodrama. The result is intelligent, provocative and moving work.
STREAM: M.O. and Geothermal MC - "Muskox"
Leela Gilday’s powerful and soulful voice is a force to contend with. It’s downright breathtaking. As a songwriter she draws from her northern roots, reflecting the essence of Dene life from an urban perspective. She’ll move you to dance in one song and break your heart strings in the next, managing to balance freedom and joy with sorrow and injustice in her lyrics. Piece of My Life, comes from her latest release, Juno-nominated Calling All Warriors.DOWNLOAD: Leela Gilday - "Piece of My Life"
Cree/Dene vocalist IsKwé is a versatile, "sultry and salacious" singer-songwriter heavily influenced by contemporary R&B. Her mix of booming bass lines, heavy beats and spine tingling vocals come together in this Timbaland-esque gem, which she posted to her SoundCloud mere moments ago.
Combining her classical piano and vocal training, lifelong love affair with music and natural urban flare, IsKwé's new tune is up for Single of the Year at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards 2011. Voting begins July 14th. Have a listen and see what all the sultry boom-bap is about. And look out for our chat with her in the next edition of the RPM Podcast.
There are some amazing events taking place in revitalizing our Indigenous languages. Hip-hop, Twitter and text messaging are playing an integral part in this movement.
We recently wrote about Tall Paul and his bilingual track “Prayers in a Song”, which blends English and Anishnaabemowin.
IndigenousTweet pointed us to the Bellingham Herald's article Hip-hop, texting may help save world's languages. Youth are key stakeholders in whether a language is used and passed down, or rejected, but in Mexico, teenagers have been texting in Huave, a language spoken by only 15,000 people in the Tehuantepec region, along the Pacific.
Youth in other areas around the globe are using their language similarly.
To the North, Digital Indigenous Democracy is a remarkable endeavour that will bring interactive digital media to eight remote Baffin Island Inuit communites - communities whose 4,000 year-old oral language will become extinct without digital media to carry it forward into the next generation.
Cultural Survival recently organized the National Native Languages Revitalization Summit in Washington D.C with the goal of "engaging every one of the 62 members of the House and Senate appropriations committees with Native language revitalization success stories, along with justifications for additional federal support."
Rosebud Sioux and South Dakota-based programmer Biagio Arobba created the user-generated content site LiveAndTell, crowdsourcing audio and audio-tagged images. The content so far is largely from the Lakota language but the intention encompasses all Indigenous languages. In an interview with Paul Glader the main thing in language preservation, Arobba says, "is just lowering the barriers and the costs for everybody."
The Squamish language, like many of B.C.’s Aboriginal languages, suffered a near fatal hit in the last century as a result of the residential school system. For decades, young Squamish students were forcibly sent away to residential schools, where they were strictly forbidden from speaking their own language. Even today, many elders are reluctant to speak the traditional language owing to this legacy of abuse.
This is, as we know, a heartbreaking truth for many of our languages and communities across Turtle Island. But these local and global projects, along with the actions of youth, are an inspiring, growing movement.
Great songwriting often comes from great experiences and Phyllis Sinclair has been on a remarkable journey. From the northern seaport town of Churchfill to Winnipeg’s inner city, Phyllis was raised by her Cree mother and grandmother - short on wealth but rich in love and laughter. Phyllis’s writing shares her story and her culture with beauty, compassion and conviction. Finding Ontario is from her brand new album Dreams of the Washerwomen.DOWNLOAD: Phyllis Sinclair - "Finding Ontario"
Life’s Been Pretty Sweet is itself a sweet moment from Métis artist Don Amero’s newest record The Long Way Home. As the first track it’s an apt opening - the slide and dobro hinting to the influx of country/pop that Amero’s roots/folk sound displays on this album. Regardless of the vibe, Amero delivers every song with a heartfelt honesty that makes his music so gosh darn likeable. Here, with beautiful harmonies and delightful musical details, it’s even something to love.
DOWNLOAD: Don Amero - "Life's Been Pretty Sweet"
Anishinaabe rapper Tall Paul came across the RPM Radar last week via a Colorlines post on Midwest Rappers Showing Love for Their Indigenous Ojibwe Language.
After getting put on to Point of Contact, an Indigenous hip-hop group based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota and their video, “Modern Day Warriors”, we were blown away by Tall Paul's solo performance of his bilingual track "Prayers in a Song", which deftly blends English and Anishnaabemowin.
We agree that the language of hip-hop can help inspire our people to revitalize our own Indigenous languages for the generations to come—and it's great to see it in action.
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.
