music: The wizdom of Native hip hop to visit SFU
Tara Henley, Peak Staff

At the age of 22, Os12 is already a veteran of the West Coast hip hop scene. In the last decade, he has gone from hanging around outside of Vancouver clubs to opening for major stars like Coolio. Os is a member of the Tribal Wizdom collective, a showcase of local Native talent that will be performing at the SFU pub on Thursday, Sept. 6.

Tribal Wizdom is a collective of artists that is loosely affiliated with the Native Youth Movement (NYM), a group of radical activists that engage in roadblocks and land claim occupations. Although Os respects NYM, he says that he does not always agree with their tactics. He prefers to focus on empowerment through success. "I am trying to break the stereotype and become the prototype of an evolved Native person who studies culture, practices ceremonial rights, but still evolves as a viable person within society."

For Os, this has meant using hip hop to motivate himself and inspire other Native youth. Os believes that it is music that has helped him cope with the challenges that he faces as a Native person. One of the biggest struggles that he has dealt with is the culture shock that he experienced upon entering the school system. He describes the confusion of "studying Native culture, going to the Native ceremonies, learning spirituality, learning to commune with the spirits of my dead ancestors, and then going to school to have them tell me that was all bullshit." Initially, reconciling the two perspectives tore him apart.

Music was a way of dealing with this experience. Os listened to KRS-One and Public Enemy, identifying with the theme of racial oppression. "I really felt their message," Os explains, "being the only Native person in school. Listening to them helped me get through that. It gave me the strength to get up everyday and go and face school."

Os progressed from listening to the music to writing rhymes and performing them. The turning point in his life came when he was invited to do the 22-city Red Rider tour in October of 1999. During that tour, Os knew for certain that music was what he wanted to do. Recalling the tour, his face registers a look of intense fulfillment. "It was then that I really knew," he says, "I realised - Okay, I am a rapper now. There is no turning back."

At pub night on Thursday, Tribal Wizdom will be performing a set that includes Os' "Battlescars," which he describes as "one of the sickest songs I have ever written." "Battlescars" is an extended poetic meditation on a time in his life when he had been beaten physically and emotionally. Os used the song to transform his pain and anger into a fierce determination to succeed as an artist. According to Os, the message that the song conveys is "as long as I get to do music, then I am fine. By any means necessary, I'll do music." Os has performed 15 shows in the last month alone, and he shows no sign of slowing down.

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