Preview
WARPARTY
Friday, April 30
Alexandra Centre
Every generation of oppressed teenagers has an instantly recognizable song that screams in the face of authority and demands change. English punks slam-danced to "Anarchy in the U.K." Suburban rockers banged their heads to "Raise a Little Hell" and American gangstas raised their arms in the muthafuckin' air to "Fight the Power." Today, First Nations people have their own rally cry set to beats called "Aint No Stoppin’ a Native"– thanks to an Albertan rap trio called Warparty. Frontman Rex Smallboy understands the power music can have on young people living on Canadian reserves.
"Hip-hop saved my life – that and my wife," he says about his spouse and fellow MC, Cynthia, from his home in Hobbema, Alberta. "I was partying my life away, not really going anywhere and hip-hop kind of sparked a fire in me that made me want to take a look at myself and my history."
Warparty is one of many First Nations rap groups that have been getting props from the music industry and mainstream media recently. But as Smallboy explains, it’s been a long time coming.
"It’s been a 10-year uphill battle," he says. "When I first started, I was calling the major labels, nobody was having anything to do with me. People were telling me straight up, ‘You know, people are really sick of Indian politics and nobody is gonna wanna hear what a native rapper has to say ’cause they’re so sick of natives whining and bitching about the past and if that’s what your music is about, how the hell are we gonna sell that?’"
So Smallboy decided to apply a little of the old punk rock do-it-yourself philosophy and tell the naysayers where to go.
"I was like, ‘Fuck that,’" he recalls. "This is my salvation. This is about who I am – just like everybody else, every other race that wants to feel good about who they are, that’s what it was about for me. When they were saying there was no market for it, I was like, ‘I’m gonna make a market.’"
Since then, Warparty has recorded two independently released critically acclaimed LPs including The Reign, and The Greatest Natives from the North, one EP and a music video. Last year the group was invited to perform at Calgary’s Canada Day celebration in front of 7,000 people, an opportunity Warparty didn’t let go to waste. The group blasted through a number called "This Land was Ours."
"It might sound like I was taking a shit on their whole day," he says. "But I was like, ‘No, you can’t forget us. We won’t be forgotten anymore and you have to see that.’"
It’s working. The group gets feedback from native and non-native kids who are getting the message through Warparty’s music. One particular self-professed redneck, who had seen the group featured on a CBC television documentary, e-mailed Smallboy. The converted racist admitted that seeing the film changed the way he thought about Indians. Reactions like that and commercial success still amaze the soft-spoken MC.
"I never even thought we’d get far enough to do one album because morale on the reserve was so low, people never mentally saw themselves going that far," he says. "I was shocked when I saw my video for the first time. That was history. It switched things up."
Smallboy makes it clear that while he is committed to breaking down the race barrier, it won’t be at the risk of lame rhymes.
"For one, I’m proud of who I am but I don’t want to be a token Indian," he says. "There had to be authenticity so I know that it doesn’t matter if I get up in front of Chinese people, black people white people or whatever. If they love hip-hop, they’re gonna (love) us." |
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