Lutie Kaviok – NALUNAQ

Lutie Kaviok is a rapper and local artist from Arviat, Nunavut, Canada. He has a very active Soundcloud page with over 1,000 followers and has been posting his original music across Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, and Youtube for over 2 years. Arviat is the southernmost part of Nunavut and sits directly on the Hudson Bay.

He writes his music in both English (tracks like Rather Drive A Honda from 2022) and Inuktitut. I personally really enjoyed the rolling beats of his tracks written in Inuktitut, of which NALUNAQ (2023) is a strong example.

It’s just under three minutes and at times incorporates English phrases (“I just wanna be doing some’/ Maybe live a little/ Maybe laugh a little/ Do it for me”)

After looking into what the song’s title “Nalunaq” means (the place that is hard to find), these few phrases make some sense as possible translations of the Inuktitut chorus. Nalunaq was the first gold mine in Greenland and was symbolic of the difficulties of exploration — for resources and more generally — in these Arctic areas of similar latitude.

Beyond personally enjoying rap music and being drawn to Lutie’s music through that connection, I appreciate how he tries to bridge rap and hiphop’s contemporary sounds with the Inuit tradition. A search of Lutie’s name will also pull up photos of him from 2020 participating in the Polar Hunt, a lottery tradition that allows young Nunavuk citizens permission to tag a polar bear. He is connected with his culture and its traditions and is trying to get his voice as an artist out into the world via the Internet.

Anyone who enjoys a good rap track would enjoy Lutie’s music & can check out his latest release “365” from 4 months ago, which features a lot of low-pitched humming and rain sounds as its backing track. It is a more soothing pick that NALUNAQ; both definitely have something to be appreciated.

NALUNAQ Music Video:

Click here for Nalunaq on Youtube!