- Jahrgang 68 (2023)
- Vol. 68 (2023)
- >
- Ausgabe 2
- Nr. 2
- >
- Seiten 247 - 264
- pp. 247 - 264
“Still we all gon rise”: Indigenous Hip Hop, Racial Capitalism, and the Quest for Indigenous Sovereignty in the Work of Snotty Nose Rez Kids
Seiten 247 - 264
DOI https://doi.org/10.33675/AMST/2023/2/17
open-access
This publication is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives 4.0.
This article studies the ways in which "Snotty Nose Rez Kids" (2017), the debut album of First Nations rap duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids (Haisla), uses hip hop to present an extensive critique of interlocked settler colonialism and racial capitalism. I argue that the genre-specific aesthetics of hip hop—its sonic, visual, and, above all, its lyric potential—lend themselves particularly to SNRK’s project of formulating both political and linguistic resistance against the oppressive practices of the settler-colonial-capitalist state and the ideologies that undergird it. These aesthetics allow them to creatively reclaim settler colonial, racist-classist stereotypes of Indigenous people to subvert settler colonial rhetoric by channeling hip hop’s potential as a “resistance vernacular” (Potter; Mitchell), and to claim iconic symbols of mainstream pop culture in order to reappropriate them in a distinctly Indigenous cultural context. Within a contemporary moment fraught with racialized capitalist crises, their rendition of Indigenous hip hop thus not only participates in an “assertion of Indigenous sovereignty,” but it further renegotiates Indigenous people as “modern subjects” (Mays).
1 Ahmed, Insanul. “Is Hip-Hop’s Dominance Slipping? ‘My Concern Is the Magic Is Gone.’” Billboard. Penske Media, 18 Oct. 2022. Web. 2 Mar. 2023. https://www.billboard.com/pro/hip-hop-music-most-popular-genre-dominance-slipping/.
2 “Appendix: Cherokee Slang.” Wiktionary. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Cherokee_slang.
3 Benz, Stefan. “‘New World Water’: The Hydrocentric Imagination of Hip Hop.” Ecozon@ 13.1 (2022): 21-36. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2022.13.1.4505.
4 Bir, Surbhi. “How Much Does Canada Owe Indigenous Communities for Stolen Land?” TorontoMet Today. Toronto Metropolitan University, 18 May 2021. Web. 21 Mar. 2023. https://www.torontomu.ca/news-events/news/2021/05/how-much-does-canada-owe-indigenous-communities-for-stolen-land/.
5 Bradley, Adam. “The Artists Dismantling the Barriers between Rap and Poetry.” The New York Times Style Magazine. New York Times, 4 Mar. 2021. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/t-magazine/rap-hip-hop-poetry.html.
6 Braidotti, Rosi. The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity, 2013. Print.
7 Cohen, Rebecca. “Thomas Jefferson Once Secretly Wrote to Congress that the US Would Try to Drive Native Americans into Debt in order to Take Their Land.” Business Insider. Axel Springer, 12 May 2022. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/jefferson-note-drive-native-americans-into-debt-take-land-2022-5.
8 Davies, William. The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being. London: Verso, 2016. Print.
9 Desai, Chandni. “Disrupting Settler-Colonial Capitalism: Indigenous Intifadas and Resurgent Solidarity from Turtle Island to Palestine.” Journal of Palestine Studies 50.2 (2021): 43-66. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2021.1909376.
10 Dr. Dre. “Let Me Ride.” The Chronic. Santa Monica, CA: Interscope Records, 1992. CD.
11 “Endless Debt: Native Americans Plagued by High-Interest Loans.” NBC News. NBCUniversal News Group, 31 Oct. 2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/in-plain-sight/endless-debt-native-americans-plagued-high-interest-loans-n236706.
12 Estes, Nick. Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. London: Verso, 2019. Print.
13 Haisla Nation. “Ancient Fish Weirs a Window to Haisla Past.” Haisla Nation. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://haisla.ca/fish-weirs/.
14 ---. “Fisheries.” Haisla Nation. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.haidanation.ca/fisheries/.
15 ---. “Health Department and Mental Health Team.” Haisla Nation. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://haisla.ca/health-department-and-mental-health-team/.
16 ---. “Suicide Assessment, Intervention, Prevention Training Program Running November 7 to 9.” Haisla Nation. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://haisla.ca/suicide-assessment-program/.
17 Knoxx, Sacramento. “Krapitilism.” The Trees Will Grow Again. Independent, 2014. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://sknoxx.bandcamp.com/album/the-trees-will-grow-again.
18 Kurjata, Andrew. “How Haisla Hip-Hop Duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids Took on Stereotypes and Won Fans in 2017.” CBC. CBC/Radio-Canada, 1 Jan. 2018. Web. 15 July 2022. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/snotty-nose-rez-kids-2017-1.4468282.
19 Lyons, Scott Richard. “Actually Existing Indian Nations: Modernity, Diversity, and the Future of Native American Studies.” American Indian Quarterly 35.3 (2011): 294-312. JSTOR. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/amerindiquar.35.3.0294.
20 Macdonald, David, and Daniel Wilson. “Poverty or Prosperity: Indigenous Children in Canada.” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. 9 June 2013. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/poverty-or-prosperity.
21 Marx, Karl. Capital. Vol. I. Trans. Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. Ed. Frederick Engels. Moscow: Progress, 1974. Print.
22 Mays, Kyle T. Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America. Albany: SUNY P, 2018. Print.
23 “Meanings behind the Names of Places.” Northeast Georgia Mountains Travel Association. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.georgiamountains.org/history-and-heritage/indian-names-of-places/.
24 Mitchell, Tony. “Doin’ Damage in My Native Language: The Use of ‘Resistance Vernaculars’ in Hip Hop in France, Italy, and Aotearoa / New Zealand.” Popular Music & Society 24.3 (2000): 41-54. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007760008591775.
25 Moore, Dene. “Haisla Nation Questions Enbridge Experts about Pipeline Risks.” CTV News. Bell Media, 12 Oct. 2022. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/haisla-nation-questions-enbridge-experts-about-pipeline-risks-1.994128.
26 Outkast. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Atlanta, GA: LaFace Records, 1994. CD.
27 Park, K-Sue. “Race, Innovation, and Financial Growth: The Example of Foreclosure.” Histories of Racial Capitalism. Ed. Destin Jenkins and Justin Leroy. New York: Columbia UP, 2021. 28-51. Print.
28 Potter, Russell A. Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism. Albany, NY: SUNY P, 1995. Print.
29 “Skoden.” Urban Dictionary. 16 June 2016. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Skoden.
30 Snotty Nose Rez Kids. The Average Savage. Independent, 2017. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://snottynoserezkids.bandcamp.com/album/the-average-savage-digital.
31 ---. “Skoden.” YouTube. Uploaded by Snotty Nose Rez Kids, 18 Apr. 2017. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUG8oEuCl0E.
32 ---. Snotty Nose Rez Kids. Independent, 2017. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://snottynoserezkids.bandcamp.com/album/snotty-nose-rez-kids.
33 “Starvin’ Marvin.” South Park. Dir. Trey Parker. Comedy Central, 1997. Film.
34 “Suicide Prevention in Indigenous Communities.” Government of Canada. 7 Sept. 2022. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1576089685593/1576089741803.
35 Supaman. “Miracle.” Illuminatives. Supamanhiphop, 2018. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.supamanhiphop.net/my-songs.
36 Taboo and the Magnificent 7. “Stand Up / Stand N Rock.” YouTube, uploaded by Taboo, 4 Dec. 2016. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onyk7guvHK8.
37 Trapunski, Richard. “Snotty Nose Rez Kids Represent the Minay Movement.” Now. Gomez Media,17 Oct. 2018. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://nowtoronto.com/music/snotty-nose-rez-kids-represent-the-minay-movement/.
38 Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1999. Print.
39 Waln, Frank. “Oil 4 Blood.” Born Ready. Independent, 2014. Web. 29 Dec. 2022. https://frankwaln47.bandcamp.com/album/born-ready-2.
40 Wu-Tang Clan. “C. R. E. A. M.” Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Chicago: Firehouse Studios, 1993. Print.
