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Darren Brule, aka Redd Reign, is part of the the native hip-hop group The Reddnation.

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(PHOTO COURTESY OF REDDNATION)

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Aborginal hip-hop coming to Iqaluit

The Reddnation mixes Cree culture with hip-hop music

DENISE RIDEOUT

With a performance that will mix a little hoop dancing, men’s traditional dancing and a new genre of music called "tribal hop," The Reddnation group will be showcasing their First Nations culture at the Arctic Winter Games.

The Reddnation, a performance group that bills itself as "Alberta’s Voice for Aboriginal Youth," is scheduled to hit the stage on March 22. They’re one of a handful of cultural groups who will perform during the Arctic Winter Games’ cultural gala in Iqaluit.

The Reddnation, whose members hail from northern Alberta, are travelling to Iqaluit with Team Alberta. While the group is made up of eight musicians and performers, only three are coming to the Arctic Winter Games.

The performance group offers a blend of the old and the new. Their music is an interesting mix of hip-hop and traditional Cree songs, and their dancing combines breakdancing with hoop dancing.

"We’re unique in our area of music, combining different kinds of song and dance," explains Darren Brule, the 26-year-old who helped kickstart the group in the fall of 2000.

The group’s claim to fame is their tribal hop music, a type of Native American hip-hop that’s getting a lot of exposure in Alberta. The Reddnation put their own spin on the music and coined it "Tribal Hop".

"We came up with that name," Brule jokes in a telephone interview from Grand Prairie, Alta.

Brule, whose stage name is Redd Reign, was raised on the Sucker Creek First Nation reserve, near High Prairie. He first picked up a guitar when he was 17 and has been on the music scene ever since, performing with Full Blooded, the R&B group Pure Harmony and then co-founding The Reddnation.

The group’s other co-founder, Clinton Soto, handles the cultural side of The Reddnation’s performances.

For Soto, a 24-year-old from the Sturgeon Lake reserve, The Reddnation is a tool to keep the Cree culture in the forefront. Soto’s mother and grandmother taught him the language and instilled in him a sense of pride for the culture. He wants to pass that on to other young aboriginal people.

"Some people don’t understand how we suffered a lot of injustice, if you will. A lot of native culture was taken from us and we couldn’t practise any of the old ways and the old dances that we used to have because it was considered to be savagery," Soto says.

"We have lost so much that I try to bring back a little bit of it."

Soto takes on the role of cultural advisor, and is the main hoop dancer with The Reddnation. The hoops are a traditional aspect of the Cree culture and he uses them in his performances to tell traditional stories.

Through his job as a counsellor in a Grade 1-12 school in Grand Prairie, Soto tries to get students to take a bigger interest in their cultural background.

Besides teaching native youth, Soto uses his music and dance to educate non-natives. A performance at the Arctic Winter Games, which will draw spectators from Canada, Greenland, Russia and the United States will give The Reddnation a chance to showcase the Cree culture to people from other countries.

"We get up on stage and try to get out this message that our culture is beautiful," Soto says. "I hope that they take from it some understanding of how we live and how we are."

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