June 2, 2021

Winning Beats From the First Indigenous Hip-Hop Awards

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“Thousands of artists and fans got a chance to connect and share Indigenous hip-hop culture,” Chris Sharpe, an organizer of the first International Indigenous Hip-Hop Awards, told Indian Country Today’s Vincent Schilling after pulling off the global ceremony virtually. “We’re already planning the second” awards show.

The inaugural awards, after a pandemic year that’s disproportionately upended Native communities, touched all aspects of hip-hop as a human rights movement: creative, cultural, political, personal. Canadian First Nations duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids won best album; producer David Strickland scored three awards; duo Mike Bone hosted the ceremony; and performances were given by Emcee One, Yellowsky, Zia Benjamin, and many others. Catch the full winners list and dive deeper into the growing diaspora of Indigenous hip-hop in Schilling’s recap.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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