Hip Hop – Indigenous Music

The Distant Beat of My Father’s Drums

This article explores contemporary Indigenous music in Manitoba and focuses on NCI-FM, Native Communications Incorporated, an Indigenous radio station that supplies the demand for Indigenous music in Manitoba. Lehr et al. examine the importance of the topics sung about in Indigenous music.

Lehr, John C., et al. “The Distant Beat of My Father’s Drums: Contemporary Aboriginal Music and NCI-FM Broadcasting, Manitoba, Canada.” GeoJournal, vol. 65, no. 1/2, 2006, pp. 79–90., www.jstor.org/stable/41148024.

The Beat of Boyle Street

At the Boyle Street Education Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, students are given access to a recording studio as part of a school program. Created to keep Indigenous students interested in school, “The Beat of Boyle Street”, as the program has been named, gives students credits towards graduation for participating in the program, writing and recording their own music and even engaging in rap battles with fellow students. As Wang notes, the Beat of Boyle Street “reengages Edmonton’s Aboriginal inner-city youth in school by teaching them to use hip-hop and rap to express themselves,” (63). Rap battles often occur in place of physical violence, “resulting [in a] track [that] is greater than the sum of its parts,” (66). Wang notes that “the rap battles in this program often uncover social issues that reflect marginalized students’ preoccupation with their perceived status and image,” (65). During the rap battles, students often realize that they have more in common with their opponent than they had first thought. One of the participants, MC Rasta P, says that the Beat of Boyle Street “’keeps [him] out of trouble’,” (66).

I have included two citations below; one for the article described above, and one for an article written about this program by Fox and Lashua, two of the coordinators of the program.

Lashua, Brett, and Karen Fox. “Rec Needs a New Rhythm Cuz Rap Is Where We’re Livin’.” Leisure Sciences 28. (2006): 267-283. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2017

Wang, Elaine L. “The Beat of Boyle Street: Empowering Aboriginal youth through music making.” New Directions for Youth Development 125. (2010): 61-70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

Last Word by Wab Kinew

Hear My Cry by Frank Waln

High Above the Clouds by Red Eagle

Dead Fly by Brooklyn

Emcee by Conway K

Our Home and Native Land by Wab Kinew

All the Eagles and the Ravens in the House Say Yeah by Lauren Jessica Amsterdam

In this article, Amsterdam explains her idea of “(ab)originality” as “a style of being both first and fresh while refusing to be anything other than foremost” (54). Amsterdam explores how various artists are displaying their (ab)originality and connecting to their heritage through hip-hop. Amsterdam explores the music of artists like Anishinaabe rapper Wab Kinew, Tlingit hip-hop artist D-Script, Red Eagle, and A Tribe Called Red. Amsterdam speaks to how Indigenous artists are making music to reclaim indigeneity and, with it, the right to define what is authentically indigenous. Amsterdam’s article was published in the second issue of Vol. 37 of The American Indian Culture and Research Journal in 2013.

The full citation of the article is located below. I have also included the links to my posts which include the music videos and songs mentioned in the article.

Amsterdam, Lauren Jessica. “All the Eagles and the Ravens in the House Say Yeah: (Ab)original Hip-Hop, Heritage, and Love.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 37.2 (2013): 53-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.