Indianz.Com > News > Indian Country Today: Snotty Nose Rez Kids keep climbing the charts
Millions taking notice: Snotty Nose Rez Kids
First Nations Haisla hip hop artists hit top numbers on Spotify and YouTube, by combining heritage with unapologetic music lyrics
Friday, June 11, 2021
Indian Country Today
First Nations Haisla hip hop artists Yung Trybez and Young D say they are always pushing boundaries and heating things up.
Their music lyrics are unapologetic. Their imagery, whether it be a photo shoot, music video or Instagram post, are striking, in-your-face all the while maintaining an excellent balance between Native and hip hop culture.
In short, the Snotty Nose Rez Kids are what’s up.
At the time of this interview, Yung Trybez and Young D found themselves thrown up into the Spotify spotlight, in their words on their Instagram post, “[W]e hit a new milestone today!
They threw a couple of boys from the rez on the Yonge-Dundas Billboard in Toronto.”
The many reasons for the boost by Spotify was the start of Indigenous Heritage Month in Canada, and the release of their latest single “Something Else,” their take on the CNN blunder during the U.S. presidential election where CNN called the category containing Native voters as “Something Else.” The duo also released customized “Something Else” merchandise featuring t-shirts, tank tops and hat designs that are getting rave reviews on their social pages. Their talent in the hip hop genre isn’t hurting their cred either. Since the release of their second of back-to-back albums in 2017, their third album “TRAPLINE” in 2019 and a pause in their career in 2020 due to COVID, the Snotty Nose Rez Kids have amassed over 2.5 million streams of their track “Boujee Natives” on music platforms and over 1.6 million views of the song on YouTube. Other popular tracks include “CREATOR MADE AN ANIMAL” featuring Boslen, “I can’t remember my name,” and “The Warriors” with an approximate three-quarters of a million hits each. Just prior to COVID, the duo had managed to embark on a 60-plus show tour traveling to Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the United Kingdom and Australia. In terms of awards, the duo received Best Hip Hop Artist and Best Indigenous artist at the Western Canadian Music Awards, Best Album and Songwriters of the Year at the Indigenous Hip Hop Awards and Best Indigenous Artist at the Canadian Indie Awards.
Just a couple of “Native dudes from the rez”
In a Zoom interview with Yung Trybez and Young D from their home in Vancouver, Yung Trybez said though they’ve officially started recording professionally since 2017, it feels “like forever since we’ve been doing it.” Young D added, “We started writing as kids. It’s always been a part of us. It’s always been a passion of ours.”
“We just talk about our lived experiences,” said Yung Trybez. “We’re just two Native dudes from the rez in Northwest B.C. And in our culture, all the knowledge we have is shared knowledge … our music is like a young, wild and free kind of thing… On the outside, we might look rough around the edges, but we’re protected by our people.”
Young Trybez also said that though there aren’t really laws within the confines of hip hop, the Snotty Nose Rez Kids are held to a certain standard. Their messages—which include getting traditional tattoos while holding up the middle finger to oil company Kinder Morgan, using traditional regalia and imagery as part of their songs and using the powerful words of the elder that has since passed on, Beau Dick—are purposefully unapologetic.
Upcoming Shows
June 20 – Grey Eagle Drive-In – Calgary, AB
June 25 – Vancouver International Jazz Festival – Vancouver, BC
Follow Snotty Nose Rez Kids
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE | APPLE MUSIC | BANDCAMP
Vincent Schilling, Akwesasne Mohawk, is the associate editor and senior correspondent at Indian Country Today who enjoys creating media, technology, comics, and movies. He is a film critic and writes the #NativeNerd column for ICT. He can be found on Twitter @VinceSchilling and on TikTok @VinceSchilling He can be reached via e-mail at vschilling@indiancountrytoday.com. He also serves as the opinions editor for ICT. To submit email: opinion@indiancountrytoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Indian Country Today LLC, a nonprofit, public media enterprise. ICT does not charge for subscriptions and tribal media (or any media, for that matter) can use the publication’s content for free.
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