N’we Jinan hip-hop project tours Eeyou Istchee
Montreal hip-hop artist and youth worker David Hodges is bringing hip-hop beats and rhymes to Cree youth across Eeyou Istchee. Cree Nation Youth Council is using the tour to provide young Cree with musical aspirations the opportunity to collaborate with a pro.
Starting in Waswanipi and ending a month later in Washaw Sibi, Hodges said he has changed the format that he used throughout his school tour in southern Quebec. Due to the flexible nature of the project, Hodges will shape his hip-hop/ spoken word/ slam poetry and public-speaking tour to fit the needs of each Cree community.
Speaking from Waswanipi, where the tour kicked off, Hodges said the objective of the project is to give the youth a voice and shed light on who is an individual on a “community creative level.”
“I have a very adaptive nature and so I am always looking for the best solution for the best outcome. I wanted to do something in the community where everybody could get a little bit out of this,” said Hodges.
By setting up a professional music studio in Waswanipi’s youth centre, locals got the chance to express themselves in any capacity they wished while receiving instruction from a professional.
At the same time, Hodges is using Notre Home, a song he wrote with his band last year, and penning a Cree version of it that will be recorded by Cree youth, bit by bit, in each of the communities. At the same time, members of Hodges’ crew are filming a documentary on this whole process.
“We are using singers from each community and they will each sing a part of the song, which when translated, will be called N’we Jinan. At the end of the tour, we will have a song and a compilation of videos and each community will be represented in it. The idea is to bring all the communities together,” said Hodges.
The song will serve as a platform for the compilation of music that they began recording at the beginning of the tour. Hodges said they have been recording a great deal as they keep meeting incredibly talented people. Two days in and he had already recorded two songs with the youth who he described as “amazing!”
“We had a trumpet player come out and a girl whose dream was to sing on a song –something she had never had the chance to do before. We got her in on the chorus and she did such a great job and then we recorded a couple of rappers on the song,” said Hodges.
Only a few days into his month-long tour, Hodges is impressed by the youth he has met and delighted with the impact the project is having. He said there was already talk of setting up a studio in Waswanipi so that the youth could continue to be musically creative whenever they wanted.
“This project has really had an effect. While it may seem like we’ve been feeling things out, there is a structure and schedule to this and we are following it. But when you are dealing with so many different types of people, it’s not going to be the same every time,” said Hodges.
And with that in mind, Hodges is excited about how the project will unfold in the rest of the Cree Nation.
For those who want to see what is coming your way or what has happened in other communities, the CNYC has posted clips of the project on its Facebook page