Native American HipHop: My take on it

Before this class I was completely oblivious to the genre of Native American hip hop and that it even existed. After scouring the internet and listening to a bunch of different songs I can honestly say I love it. It's different. Majority of artists rap about the struggles in their tribe and reservation just as blacks did about the the ghettos in which they grew up in. A difference I notice however is the positive message that is consistently showed in the music. One song that I found really demonstrated the positive message and Native American roots was "Strong" by Feenix. The video contains nature scenes, city scenes, traditional Native American dress and children. One repetitive shot is one of children but they are in school and studying which is something I can say I have never seen in a major hip hop video.

The chorus or main line of this song is "I'm strong/ I'm strong like 2 people/ Cuz I live in 2 worlds.../One world has to do with the past the other is a world thats moving too fast"and I love this because it perfectly encompasses what I have understood Native American hip hop to be so far. They stay rooted to their life and heritage as Native Americans but also must live in the world of main stream society and hip hop. With this there are struggles and in this song he raps about them, and being considered strong because he can be a part of the hip hop culture but remain rooted to his Native American roots.

I read about LiteFoot in one of the links from the syllabus and then he was also mentioned in the DJ blogpost. I had heard of him before as he originated from Seattle and heard a couple of his songs from when he first began rapping. I however did stumble across the video "My Chick" and found it a little disturbing in some ways. Only because it did not fit the other videos I had been viewing under the genre of Native American hip hop. In "My Chick" LiteFoot is rapping about how everyone wants to get with his chick and how she is the best and there is. With lines in the video such as "all dressed less is more" and "up in your guts till I'm in your mind". The girl in the video Carmen (whose Facebook URL is Native Honey) is very sexy and seductive dancing with the typical swaying of hips and sex faces as I will call them, in mainstream hip hop videos. This was very surprising to me but I also think this may be evidence of what mainstream media and the "white man" does to hip hop, because they know what sells; sex, women, and money. The Mercedes brand is also advertised in this video and that was another hint as to this being a production for mainstream culture.

The Native American culture however, is still evident in this music video. Not as prominently but it is there. You can hear the traditional drums in the background throughout the whole video and as it starts up a man is dressed in traditional Native American ceremonial dress (I actually think this is Litefoot but I am unable to confirm it) and the scene repeatedly appears throughout the video. On top of this Carmen, the sexualized woman in the video makes an appearance with a shirt that says Native American on it and another with a traditional headdress that says Litefoot on it. The song definitely is different then the other Native American hip hop I have viewed this past weekend, but honestly the song is catchy, I enjoy it and I have already downloaded it onto my iPod. 

Native American hip hop is something to be further explored for me personally and I'm glad I discovered it because I have respect for a lot of the positive messages they are trying to portray. It is definitely a new genre of interest for me.