An anthem to keeping our culture alive D-Script speaks to a life lived in two worlds... from way up north! Awesome.
Featuring AKNatural, Madd Love and Swerv Merv.
Every so often the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) hosts FUSE Fridays with live music and performance. This Friday will not only host an epic roster of performers but will open the Beat Nation art exhibit featuring work by Sunny Assu, Shawn Hunt, Jordan Bennett, Dana Claxton, Nicholas Galanin, Kent Monkman and others. There will also be an RPM installation of Indigenous hip-hop music videos, intercut with commentary by Ostwelve.
Beat Nation - FUSE kickoff party Friday, February 24, 2012 8:30pm to 1am Performances by Jackson 2Bears, Skeena Reece, Nicholas Galanin, A Tribe Called Red, and Ostwelve.
Find out more about this event here.
The exhibit runs from February 25 – June 3, 2012.
Here are some shots from Beat Nation's last show at the PUSH festival.
Blueprint For Life is an organization that runs "Social Work Through Hip-hop" programs through Canada's northern region and inner cities. Founded by Stephen Leafloor aka "Buddha" from the legendary Canadian Floor Masters breakdance crew, Blue Print For Life has been taking hip-hop to places that may not have ever experienced it outside of television or the internet.
A member of the Blue Print For Life crew is DJ Creeasian, whom we have featured in our RPM Podcast #007: “Native Hip-Hop”. While traveling with the organization, DJ Creeasian teaches hiphop culture to both youth and elders in his journeys. On his last trip to the Aupaluk community, in Nunavik (Inuit), DJ Creeasian was able to share some of his award-winning turntablist skills with some elders there, even getting them to participate in the art of 'scratching' on the 'ones and twos'.
Here we have some video of the occasion that we felt should be shared.
Props go out to DJ Creeasian and Stephen "Buddha" Leafloor for making hip-hop into a medicine that is crossing generations!
Also check out RedWire mag's recent post for more on DJ Creeasion on redwiremag.com.
The annual Talking Stick Festival is once again celebrating and showcasing Aboriginal artists across Vancouver from February 20-March 4th. Yes! Two weeks of live music, dance, theatre, powwow, workshops and more will be happening in venues citywide. Created by Full Circle: First Nations Performance, the festival is a unique showcase and forum for contemporary Indigenous artists to share their work. From fullcircleperformance.ca:
Since its inception, the festival has become a place to honour Aboriginal tradition in contemporary forms, the artistic wealth of the people, and the promise of their future in Canada. The festival is a smorgasbord of Aboriginal artistic expression including, but not limited to music, dance, and spoken word and provides a stage for emerging and established artists.
This year, the musical highlights of the festival include Native by Nature: The Aboriginal Music Project with Dave Larocque and Kinnie Starr on February 25th at VCC and, later that night, A Tribe Called Red's Electric Powwow which will be thumping at W2.
Spoken word artists will go head to head on February 22 at Cafe Deux Soleils in From Talking Stick to the Microphone Vol. 2 and Mohawk poet Janet Rogers is presenting on February 28th at the First Nation House of Learning, UBC.
There's also a number of compelling and potentially very useful workshops for artists being presented including How We Define Traditional & Contemporary Practice on February 27th and Grant Writing How-To on February 28th.
I could go on - there's events happening every day for two weeks! For a complete listing of all of the events, visit fullcircleperformance.ca and The 11th Annual Talking Stick Festival on Facebook.
See you there Vancouver!
Darwin Frost aka the Impossible Nothing has released six albums in the last couple years and his hunger for music isn't even close to being satisfied. He recently joined Skookum Sound System, a collaboartive multi-media crew and is ready to show the world exactly what he is all about.
Marika Swan @RPM: What have you been up to recently, musically?
Darwin Frost: I believe that all of us are able to sit in a circle and share with different viewpoints. And musically we all have different ways of hearing and understanding music. Part of my work on the planet and part of the reason I am here is to shed light on that so that we can come together in a circle or a hoop or in a wheel. Because that is really the way that we work together instead of against each other. A lot of things get made while there are certain people left from the circle. My perspective is that you can’t have a healthy humanity without having a syncretic viewpoint and music is a big part of that.
MS: How do you express those values in your process of making music?
DF: I just try to use lots of different sources. The interesting thing about humanity is that we all tell our stories, wherever we are from and who ever we end up being. It comes out and you tell your story. The whole thing is to not have fear to tell that story.
MS: How did you come to be where you’re at?
DF: I grew up in Soho, New York City. It used to be called South Village. It became remediated. The place I grew up in no longer exists. It has been carved up and sold off to the highest bidder. I lived in Brooklyn for a few years after that. I came to the point where I could no longer sit by and abide by what I was watching happening. I couldn’t really understand why my perspective was so different than other people’s. I wasn’t militant but I was seeing things in a new way. I could see a giant system that was just consuming people. I felt a great sense of family with my kin, other humans. I saw that this system was dividing people by class, by race. It’s colonialism. There is no post-colonialism, it never stopped its continuing.
When I was in university I realized that a lot of the things that were affecting me were not affecting other students. There were parts of US history that really didn’t matter to people. The part that really spoke to me was the Indigenous history, knowing lots of things were built on top of other people’s suffering. It made me go deep inside and question who I was myself. So I went back to Australia and spent some time with my family and really started talking. While I was there, I really got in touch with who I was as a person. What my story was and what had happened in Australia which is very much the same thing. It was a wonderful trip and I’m still on it. But it’s been very painful and the work never ceases. It’s the type of work that every Indigenous artist takes on in the world. It’s difficult - you really want love and prosperity to carry people through but it isn’t always the case. You can get lost in anger but what happened to me is that I got lost in love. I got lost in music. I got lost in the things that I knew could actually affect change in people.
I’ve been working on it the entire time and I finally feel like I am ready to show people what my perspective looks like and how I have come to see the world. And how I hear music as just a spiritual version of what we are actually living right now… wanting to come together. All the sounds want to come together. All the music wants to be made. It just needs a switch to turn it on. It needs a guitar strumming or a hand hitting a drum.
MS: Do you find music healing?
DF: Very. It’s probably the most spiritual thing I have ever been involved with. Actually I was part of a ceremony that took all night. It was extremely special to me and there were rattles and people dancing and people moving in a circle. There was so much noise from all the rattles and the shakers and I realized this sound and this space for this ceremony to happen was an absolute gift. It centered me right into where I had to be, right inside. And it was the music that did that. I traveled along the sounds into my inner core and when I got there I realized, huh it's not so bad. Everyone is in a similar position. There are options out there to heal. Art is one of those things that a lot people don’t explore to get that message. If I can help and have people explore that more, then that would be really wonderful.
MS: What’s up with Skookum Sound System?
DF: Skookum is Amphibian 14 aka Bracken Hanuse Corlett (live visual mixing), Dean Hunt aka DJ Deano, Csetkwe Fortier (vocalist) and me. Together we make up a multi-media hoop. We take spaces and we transform them into places where people can heal, where people can feel good. Where there is sound and there is visuals and activity and loudness and bigness. Where they can go inside and take part in this and they can take it inside themselves and they can leave with something. The hoop of all four of us doing slightly different things and working together is us taking our ceremony to different places.
MS: How fun is that?
DF: It’s pretty fun. I don’t think there is any way to get more joy than to do what you want to do in life and do something that makes people smile and makes people happy. And for us to even have this opportunity, to have the gifts and be able to give them is the blessing. Here’s the thing with Skookum: it just came together with no bumps in the road at all, just sheer magic. We just all converged at the same time and it just happened.
Skookum Sound System - Familiar Pickoff (ft Impossible Nothing & Amphibian14)
Skookum Sound System - Hollerin' (ft. Impossible Nothing & Amphibian14), Snoop - Pharrell Mashup
Skookum Sound System - Ay I Oh Stomp into Operator - Produced by Deano, Video Mashup AMphibian14
Currently working on her debut album, for a Summer 2012 release, Terri-Anne sent us this track to share with you. It highlights her powerful and fluid voice perfectly and is a great one to turn up loud and sing along to!
Here are some croonings from Don Amero and Lil' Pappie just in time for the special day. For those feeling a little more cynical today, this should give you a giggle. It's a project I did a couple years during the Olympics : No Valentines on Stolen Native Land.
Here is What Do You Wanna Do by Don Amero:
And here is Lil Pappie's first release of 2012 - Champagne Kisses.
Download Champagne Kisses for free here
LYRICS:
Your eyes Turn Me Out The Taste Of Your Mouth The touch Of your skin Is pulling me So let's begin
We don't have to tell nobody Neighbours knock if we're getting rowdy yea We don't care we're young and stupid We'll just put the blame on cupid yea And all I can say
Let's slow things down We've been running for miles Sip on my love Drink for a while Put down your weapons Show me a smile I'll grant all your wishes Just give me all your champagne kisses
No vodka, no gin Just love from within I nibble your chin Let's go for a spin Now let's begin
We don't have to tell nobody Neighbours knock if we're getting rowdy yea We don't care we're young and stupid We'll just put the blame on cupid yea And all I can say
Let's slow things down We've been running for miles Sip on my love Drink for a while Put down your weapons Show me a smile I'll grant all your wishes Just give me all your champagne kisses
Your lips taste like champagne and I like it that way I like it that way
Let's slow things down We've been running for miles Sip on my love Drink for a while Put down your weapons Show me a smile I'll grant all your wishes Just give me all your champagne kisses
Identifying as Larrakia and Yanuwa, Jimblah grew up in the Northern Territory and now lives and makes music in Adelaide. From allaussiehiphop.com, Jimblah - Capitol City:
Being a winner of the prestigious Hilltop Hoods Initiative Jimblah has since then become a name that can be associated with such artists as A-Love, BVA from Mnemonic Ascent, Karnage & Darkness and the Last Kinection, to name a few. He has performed at countless festivals including The Spirit Festival, The Dreaming, Stylin up, Big Day Out, Groove Is In The Park and Good Vibrations. Jimblah also helps out wherever he can in the local Indigenous Hip Hop scene in Adelaide, often supporting local Indigenous talent.
Jimblah is someone who represents his Indigenous roots to the fullest, never forgetting nor compromising who he is – a strength of self that shines through in his music. Jimblahmoved from the Northern parts of Australia to Adelaide at a young age and quickly fell in to the Hip Hop scene there, originally influenced by more commercial Hip Hop, but learning more about Hip Hop as a way of life and a culture the more he became involved in the local scene. He started out by freestyling regularly, rapping with others and writing tracks by the age of 15. Alongside fast-becoming a veteran rapper,Jimblah is also a well-respected DJ and Producer. He aims to provide production to much of his own music as well as others.
We're stoked to discover Jimblah's work! Watch the video, Capitol City, directed by Pedro Torres, and connect with Jimblah on Facebook at facebook.com/jimblah2500.
Hobiyee is the new year celebration of the Nisga'a First Nation that celebrates the first crescent moon that is shaped like "hoobix," which is the the shape of the Nisga'a spoon. This special crescent shaped moon with its bowl facing upwards indicated that the following season would be a bountiful harvest of oolichan, salmon, berries and other resources.
From Hobiyee 2012 Ts'amiks Edition, here's an explanation on the meaning of "Hobiyee":
The Simgigat-Nisga'a Chieftains in past centuries studied the celestial heavens. They were knowledgeable in the behaviours of the stars in proximity to the moon which forecasted the weather patterns. They studied the astrology not from text books but by years of observing the heavens.
The Halayt-Simgigat (Spiritual Leader- Chief) studied the "Buxw-laks" moon, The Moon of February. Over time, they observed that whenever the first crescent moon is in the shape of a "Hoobix"- the bowl of a Nisga'a wooden spoon, thin shaped and the ends pointing upward- that in the following seasons the resources of our lands would be plentiful, the oolichan, salmon, berries and various other resources, bountiful.
Hobiyee is about the point in time when our "Gal-ha'ink" Cedar Bent Boxes of the Nisga'a are near empty of their winter provisions and they have begun to ration the last of their provisions. The Nisga'a are hoping and praying for a bountiful season of oolichans (saviour fish) and a fruitful year.
So the Nisga'a say, "Hobiyee" meaning "the spoon is full".
Hobiyee is celebrated with a potlatch filled with traditional song and dance. This year in Vancouver, the Hobiyee celebration was taken to a new level when it was hosted by the Nisga’a Ts’amiks Organization at the PNE Agrodome and streamed live onto the internet.
The event included hundreds of drummers, singers and dancers from around British Columbia and lasted 2 nights. Although this event has already passed here in Vancouver, there is an even more traditional event happening in the traditional territory of the Nisga'a in Gitlaxt'aamiks, which is the capital of the Nisga'a Nation 97 kilometers of Terrace, British Columbia. For more info on that event, visit: nnkn.ca/content/hobiyee-2012-feb-24-252012-gitlaxtaamiks-bc-rec-centre.
The archived live stream of the Vancouver Hobiyee celebration is some of the best footage capture of the event. Here is the grand entry:
By providing access to gear, support and know-how for youth ages 14-29 who are interested in creating music, Songweavers is a safe venue for creative expression. From the Songweavers press release, Local Indigenous musicians educating Indigenous youth interested in culture:
Songweavers Studio Musical Medicine Week will utilize the knowledge and wisdom of local Indigenous musicians to educate Indigenous youth interested in music culture. By sharing an introductory understanding of how the music industry works, as well as teachings from traditional Indigenous music culture, Musical Medicine Week aims to provide youth with the tools to create a sustainable career in the Indigenous music industry.
RPM is one of the supporters of Musical Medicine Week - we love nothing more than to see emerging artists and young voices creating work! - and RPM contributors Christa Couture and Ron Dean Harris, aka Ostwelve, are among the mentors presenting workshops.
If you're in Vancouver, check it out! All ages, and all are welcome.
Here's the skinny on the schedule:
Monday February 20th
Music Business — What does it take to become a sustainable artist within the music business? Learn the tools to become a successful independent artist using social media, grants, and inside information with Rex SmallBoy, Grant Writing with Christa Couture, Social Media with Ron Dean Harris (OS12). 4:00 pm Doors, 4:30 pm Opening Circle, 5:00 pm Workshops Start
Tuesday February 21st
Songwriting — Writers Block? Singer Songwriter? Hip Hop Artist? Join us for a night of creative writing, and self expression. Learn tips and tricks to enhance your writing ability. Hip-hop Songwriting with Theresa Point (Apt Exact), Singer/Acoustic Songwriting with Christa Couture. 4:00 pm Doors, 4:30 pm Opening Circle, 5:00 pm Workshops Start
Wednesday February 22nd
Traditional Music — Honouring where we came from and where we are going. Join us for a night of traditional hand drum songs and teachings from the Coast Salish to the Prairies. We will end the night by creating our own hand drum song. Bring your Drums! Coast Salish teaching and songs with Elder Wes Nahanee, Women Hand Drum Songs with Jerilynn Webster (JB the First Lady),Prairie Songs with Renae Morriseau (of M'Girl). 4:00 pm Doors, 4:30 pm Opening Circle, 5:00 pm Workshops Start
Thursday February 23rd
Electronic Music — Join us for a night of Djing, Remixing, and Production. Find out what it takes to become a successful DJ and producer. We will be remixing the hand drum song we created the night before with Bear Witness of A Tribe Called Red. 4:00 pm Doors, 4:30 pm Opening Circle, 5:00 pm Workshops Start
Friday February 24th
Indigenous Video Dance Party — ALL AGES Indigenous Dance Party and community feast! Showing all Indigenous music videos, and showcasing music videos our Songweavers youth created in the last year! Coast Salish Opener Dustin Rivers, DJ MukLuk, Emcee for the night Francis Pierre. 4:00 pm Doors, 4:15 pm Coast Salish Opening & blessing of the food, 4:30 pm Free Dinner, 5:00 pm Dance Party start!
All events take place at: W2 Media Cafe 111 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC
For more information visit: kayavancouver.org.
The "Canadian Grammys" - chosen by members of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences or determined by sales or a panel of experts - cover 44 "best of" categories. This year, the celebration will be hosted by William Shatner at the Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ontario.
The most notable Aboriginal presence at the JUNOs is the Aboriginal Album of the Year award - the existence of which is at times contentious in the community as, unlike the other award categories, it is not genre specific. It does however acknowledge and celebrate music made by Aboriginal artists, in any genre, and we're sending heartfelt congratulations to those nominated this year!
That said, Métis country star Terri Clarke is nominated in the Country Album of the Year category - congrats Terri!
Here are the nominees for Aboriginal Album of the Year, 2012:
Bruthers of Different Muthers Speakers of Tomorrow
Donny Parenteau To Whom It May Concern
Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen One Nation
Murray Porter Songs Lived & Life Played
Randy Wood The Gift of Life
Many nations around Turtle Island have references in their oral traditions and prophecies about the important role of the 7th Generation. This concept refers to the 7th Generation to be born after contact with European settlers and how we must live our lives in a sustainable way making sure the earth is sustainable for 7 generations to come. The people with the most direct connection to the next 7th generations are, of course, our mothers.
Episode #013 of the RPM Podcast hosted by Ostwelve explores three Indigenous mothers who happen to also be active musicians. Lakota Jones (Mohawk, Cherokee, Lakota) credits her children as her biggest supporters. Inez (Sto:lo) went on tour and was surprised to see that some communities were uncomfortable with her breastfeeding her son. Eekwol (Muskoday First Nation) shares stories about how music helped her heal from post-partum depression. All three women are learning how to juggle their careers with their new found commitment to raising the next generation.
DOWNLOAD: RPM Podcast #013: “Motherhood”
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The RPM podcast is produced & engineered by the amazing Paolo Pietropaolo.
Photo illustration created by the talented Joi Arcand with Achomawi Mother & Child by Edward S. Curtis.
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.
