“Alright” by Supaman: An Indigenous Take on Hip-Hop
Summary
Supaman, an indigenous rapper, recently released his album "Medicine Bundle" featuring the track "Alright".
Native American Hip Hop (NAHH) remains one of the greatest testaments to Native American sovereignty and survival. Generally, the genre’s lyrics revolve around sovereignty, settler colonialism, and the challenges of navigating reservations alongside urban life. Rappers of this genre also exhibit a unique sense of kinship among another as a result of their shared identity.
Christian Parrish Takes the Gun, an indigenous Apsáalooke rapper from Crow Agency, Montana better known as Supaman, has made strides in the Native American hip-hop industry through his hit single “Alright” and his iconic dancing skills. While his interest in music began with DJing, in time he progressed into poetry, dancing at powwows, and eventually rapping. Notably, Supaman has won a NAMMY (Native American Music Award), a North America Indigenous Music Award, and a 2017 MTV Video Music Award. He embarks on national tours, sharing his native culture and joy for rapping and dance.
Supaman resonated with the issues expressed by popular rappers throughout his adolescence, having grown up alongside parents struggling with alcoholism. Interestingly, he aims to rap about motivating and inspirational topics following a spiritual encounter encouraging his own independence. On the side, Supaman tours schools across the country to promote education on indigenous populations. A part of his indigenous identity with which he particularly holds close is fancy dance, a type of native dancing involving a traditional outfit (worn frequently in his music performances).
Supaman permanently resides on the Crow reservation in Montana.
Video link: https://youtu.be/ep97FZrRSPk?feature=shared
Sources:
Wikipedia contributors. (2023, October 3). Supaman. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:40, January 31, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Supaman&oldid=1178346505
“Indigenous Musicians You Should Listen to Now.” Berklee Online Take Note, 7 Feb. 2023, online.berklee.edu/takenote/10-indigenous-musicians-you-should-listen-to-now/.
Sourcestaff. “Native American Hip Hop: Rhymes and Stories from the City to the Rez – the Source.” The Source – The Magazine of Hip Hop Music,Culture and Politics, 30 Nov. 2020, thesource.com/2020/11/30/native-american-hip-hop/.
My music selection was also a hip-hop song, an uncommon genre for the indigenous arctic community. Supaman’s story is very inspiring and his music and lyrics provide an interesting insight into his way of expressing his culture. The scene in the video where he emerges in his modern clothing and begins to sign to his traditionally-dressed ancestors was very powerful. It allowed me to understand the combination of modern advocacy for Indigenous culture, and the traditional practice of their culture. His upbeat personality and meaningful lyrics allow him to be a very personable artist. His country-wide tours and lectures represent his character and passion for his culture. It is very interesting that he lives on a reservation here in the U.S, allowing him to win American music awards. Overall, this song was very intriguing and shared indigenous culture in a nuanced, unique, modern way.
I listened to “Alright” while reading this post. I was drawn to Supaman’s genre of Indigenous hip hop, which this post did an excellent job of illustrating. The style of the song seemed to emulate 90s era rappers like 2Pac, which I thought was interesting given 2Pac’s own relationship with his alcoholic mother (highlighted in the song “Dear Mama”). I found the opening of the song by the children singing “Everything is gonna be alright” and the sustained allusion to “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley throughout the entirety of the song pretty interesting. Both of these songs serve as protest and acts of resilience. The line “life is really what you focus on” stuck out to me both in its simplicity and truth – the path forward is the path that we choose. Supaman is uplifting his community in this song, and I look forward to seeing what impacts it will have on the genre as a whole.
The artist that you chose, Supaman, has a very unique and powerful style to his music. The energy that was in the music video was awakening and got me tapping my foot a little bit. I thought that Supaman was similar to the artist I chose, Elisapie, as they both took other genres and made them their own. I thought that putting both artists did a great job of maintaining the genre while making it their own at the same time. Both artists seem to be very proud of their background by putting a lot of their traditions in their music and videos. One lyric that stuck out to me from his song was “if you wanna change the world, go home and love your family” which is really true for the native population but also everyone.