Happy happy Sunday folks! We hope you are all staying well and safe :) In this blog post we're going to talk about the show Trickster and its soundtrack.
If you haven't heard of it already, Trickster is a supernatural and gothic television series on CBC about an Indigenous Haisla teenager named Jared and the sudden magical events that he begins to notice around him. The show takes place in Kitimat, BC., and has a well-rounded cast of characters including Jared's mom Maggie, his friends Crashpad and Sarah, and a man named Wade (no spoilers here, so watch the show to find out who Wade is ;)) The show is based off of Eden Robinson's books: Son of a Trickster, Trickster Drift, and Return of the Trickster (these books are amazing so we stan!). Most importantly, Trickster, the tv series, is made up of an all Indigenous cast, which is so great! The soundtrack for the series uses a lot of music from Indigenous artists, so we thought we'd highlight some of these songs and musicians for you!
Trickster features music from the Indigenous hip hop band, Snotty Nose Rez Kids. This rap duo is made up of Haisla rappers Darren "Young D" Metz and Quinton "Yung Trybez" Nyce. One particular song of theirs heard in Trickster, and featuring Indigenous rapper and activist Drezus, is "The Resistance."
The song calls out the many injustices that Indigenous peoples and Nations have faced in North America, from police brutality, broken treaties, stolen land, and the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls along the Highway of Tears in British Columbia (read this to learn more). To have this song in an Indigenous show is empowering. It lends to a resistance of white narratives, and instead focuses on Indigenous stories and representation. This song is truly a must-listen!
Another song by an Indigenous musician featured in Trickster is "Trap'd" by T-Rhyme. Tara "T-Rhyme" Campbell is a Cree/Dene hip hop artist. Her music draws on the sound of the "golden age" of Hip Hop (late 1980s), and her rhymes are inspired by her life experiences growing up in Northern Saskatchewan. "Trap'd" is full of different timbres (sounds) and beats, and amazing rhymes ("old school for life, trapped as a mice" is literally perfect)! Rap and Hip Hop are very male centered genres, and Indigenous female artists are often overlooked and disregarded, and so it is amazing to learn about and hear music from a female Indigenous rapper, especially one as talented as T-Rhyme! To learn more about T-Rhyme, check out this site, and to hear more of her music, click here.
Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer from Nunavut, Canada. In 2014, her album Animism, won the Polaris Music Prize, and she published her book Split Tooth, in 2018 (which we highly recommend!). She is an accomplished artist and throat singer who engages in a lot of activism related to Indigenous rights. Her song "Uja" is featured in Trickster. The song's musical and visual aspects call out the negative impact of colonialism and capitalism on Indigenous Nations. Interspersed with Tagaq's throat singing are heavy drumming and sudden bursts of bass synthesizer, along with the sound of a clock ticking. In the video, Tagaq is seen wearing a winter jacket with fur around the rim of the hood. Scenes of industrialization play out as the fur from her jacket surrounds the screen, suggesting that we are watching from Tagaq's perspective. From an Indigenous perspective, colonialism is destroying Indigenous knowledges, Nations, and the land/environment. To have this song play in Trickster sends a powerful message of Indigenous resistance and resurgence.
Lastly, Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "Cod'ine" is on the Trickster soundtrack. Sainte-Marie is a Cree musician who's been writing and performing music since the 1960s. She's released twenty-one albums (!!!), and she's composed music in many genres including folk, country, electronic music, rock, protest, pop, and much more. "Cod'ine," a contemporary folk song, is from her first album, It's My Way!, which was released in 1964. It's an anti-drug song about Sainte-Marie's addiction to codeine, which she was falsely prescribed for a bronchial infection. Sainte-Marie believed the medication to be antibiotics and vitamins, but it turns out this particular doctor was secretly prescribing codeine to her and other women as well. The lyrics of "Cod'ine" reflect the awful withdrawal symptoms of coming off the drug. The only instrument accompanying Sainte-Marie's vocals is a 12-stringed guitar. Buffy Sainte-Marie has always been ahead of the times. "Cod'ine" is considered one of the first anti-drug songs. And she was singing about land dispossession and broken treaties in the 1960s, far before anyone else was yet! Her music lends much to the Trickster soundtrack.
Trickster is an amazing show with an amazing soundtrack (as noted above). There are so many more songs and artists featured in the show. To listen to them, check out the full soundtrack playlist here! We hope you all have a lovely week and remember to stay safe, musical, and bubbly, friends!
-The Music Bubble
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