Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Antoine X, Nataanii Means & Tufawon on Indigenous Identity, Activism & Hip-Hop

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INTERVIEW: Antoine X, Nataanii Means & Tufawon on Indigenous Identity, Activism & Hip-Hop · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We all finished or y'all done? Yep, it's the world's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club. DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Charlamagne Tha God. Envy and Jess are not here, but
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Lauren LaRosa is. And we got some special guests in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the building. You know, Indigenous Peoples Day. I'm saying this
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: today because it's Monday. But today is Indigenous Peoples Day,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and we have Antoine X, Natani Means, and 2for1 here.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Good morning, my guys.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Good morning. Good morning.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: Good morning, y'all.
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, nice to see you guys.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: Good to be back.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: How's your energy?
• 0:35
  Speaker 5: You know, it's always 100, man.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: We, uh.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: We're here.
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: We're happy to be here. We all have gigs actually
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: booked right after this. So, you know, we're just blessed.
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: Blessed to be booked and busy.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Word, word.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: You know, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, right? But how
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: much do Americans actually know about Indigenous people? Do you
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: feel like they're getting more education or less?
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Nah. Not nearly enough.
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: I think everybody knows what's happening in this country right now.
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: It's just right in our faces.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: A lot of the history is being rewritten. erased so
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: being able to be out here in the open is
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: very important and it's very it's very needed right.
• 1:15
  Speaker 7: Now yeah I think just the fact that there's not
• 1:19
  Speaker 7: curriculum in the schools that's giving like an accurate you
• 1:22
  Speaker 7: know account of our history still you know we're basically
• 1:26
  Speaker 7: still being erased because of it you know what I
• 1:29
  Speaker 7: mean there should be required units in every school program
• 1:33
  Speaker 7: that really gives an accurate account of you know our
• 1:36
  Speaker 7: stories you know what I mean And.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: That's also a very important reason why we're here. As artists, as.
• 1:43
  Speaker 8: Creatives, anything really, it's more than just music. If someone's
• 1:47
  Speaker 8: making film, it's more than just film. It's about representation
• 1:50
  Speaker 8: because there's so many stereotypes and just lack of knowledge
• 1:54
  Speaker 8: of who we are. So it's like a lot of
• 1:57
  Speaker 8: pressure on us always to represent in.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: The right way. We can't be out here moving like
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: it has to be sharp everywhere. You know what I mean?
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Because people got questions.
• 2:05
  Speaker 8: And if you don't know your history or who you are,
• 2:08
  Speaker 8: the world's going to keep on misrepresenting you.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 2:11
  Speaker 6: Well, since I've been here at The Breakfast Club, I've
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: gotten a chance to talk to you guys another time
• 2:15
  Speaker 6: before this. And I feel like y'all are really intentional
• 2:16
  Speaker 6: about the education piece of it and the movement, but
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: also intertwining the arts. What successes have you guys seen
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: in correcting some of those misconceptions or things that people
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: didn't understand just from being on platforms like Breakfast Club
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: or wherever?
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: You know, it's hard to describe successes But even being
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: on a platform like this, being able to be asked
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: back is a success for us. Just stepping off the
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: reservation or getting to be able to perform in places
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: that a majority of non-natives are at, that's a success.
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: Beating stereotypes, being sober, that's a success for us, being
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: from the reservation.
• 2:58
  Speaker 7: Yeah, we do a lot of public speaking too, as
• 3:00
  Speaker 7: well as the music. When we perform, we also get
• 3:04
  Speaker 7: asked to do a lot of panels, keynotes and things
• 3:08
  Speaker 7: like that to speak about our experience in front of
• 3:12
  Speaker 7: non-native crowds like me and Natani will go out and
• 3:14
  Speaker 7: we'll tour around Europe. And a lot of the community
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: out there, they don't really know about our struggles and
• 3:22
  Speaker 7: what we've been fighting up against as far as settler
• 3:26
  Speaker 7: colonialism and and the current struggles of of today you
• 3:29
  Speaker 7: know what i mean and so we try our best
• 3:32
  Speaker 7: to get in front of crowds that are non-native because
• 3:36
  Speaker 7: there's an there's an intention behind you know um the
• 3:41
  Speaker 7: miseducation or not getting any education at all about who
• 3:44
  Speaker 7: we are.
• 3:45
  Speaker 8: And then also i feel like on my end i
• 3:48
  Speaker 8: feel like a success is that i'm starting to make
• 3:53
  Speaker 8: take steps into like mainstream spaces with artists um more
• 3:57
  Speaker 8: so i try to focus on like independent successes like
• 4:01
  Speaker 8: i mean that's my goal is to reach those i'm
• 4:04
  Speaker 8: not trying to preach to the choir you know like
• 4:05
  Speaker 8: native people know what's going on it's always like a
• 4:09
  Speaker 8: collective understanding about a lot of shit a lot of
• 4:12
  Speaker 8: stuff that we see um so it's not necessarily sitting
• 4:17
  Speaker 8: here telling the people hey we made it it's more
• 4:19
  Speaker 8: like yeah we're doing it but also we're here to
• 4:21
  Speaker 8: try to reach out.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 4:23
  Speaker 8: So as far as like the music, I've been able
• 4:25
  Speaker 8: to work with more artists, you know, really trying to bridge.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: The gap between black and native communities.
• 4:32
  Speaker 8: Like we talked about last time about the divisive languages
• 4:35
  Speaker 8: and things that go on between the communities. It's always
• 4:38
  Speaker 8: going to be there between any community, but we're trying
• 4:40
  Speaker 8: to be the ones that bridge it. You know, like
• 4:43
  Speaker 8: there's natives on the res and the struggles overlap with
• 4:47
  Speaker 8: people in the hood.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: And it's just like, People don't understand that.
• 4:51
  Speaker 8: So we're out here trying to get on these, my bad,
• 4:52
  Speaker 8: but trying to get on these platforms and keep on
• 4:55
  Speaker 8: pushing so we can tell the people who we are.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: And, like, a lot of struggles ain't exclusively Native.
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 5:01
  Speaker 8: You know, and a lot of the good and teachings
• 5:03
  Speaker 8: that we carry aren't exclusively Native either, so that's why
• 5:06
  Speaker 8: we can connect.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: To other cultures easily. A good person's a good person,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean?
• 5:11
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Some success is just seeing mainstream space.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I think one of the issues, too, is people don't
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: know what... like discrimination looks like for indigenous people. Like
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: you can look and see what discrimination is against a
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: black person or even a Jewish person or even a Latino.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Like what is discrimination? What is racism towards an indigenous person?
• 5:36
  Speaker 7: I mean, I feel like there's, and this is where
• 5:39
  Speaker 7: we can continue to build solidarity between indigenous and black
• 5:43
  Speaker 7: people is that a lot of our struggles are, really
• 5:47
  Speaker 7: similar or almost identical. For example, like the two demographics
• 5:51
  Speaker 7: that get murdered by the police the most in the
• 5:54
  Speaker 7: United States are native and black people.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 5:57
  Speaker 7: And so I think when we continue with the education
• 5:59
  Speaker 7: piece and letting people know, people start to wake up
• 6:03
  Speaker 7: to the fact that like, wow, there's a lot of overlap,
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: you know, mass incarceration rates, you know, crazy high. Even
• 6:11
  Speaker 7: in Minnesota, Native people are 1% of the population in Minnesota,
• 6:14
  Speaker 7: but make up 10% of the prison population. And you
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: have similar numbers in black community, similar numbers in the
• 6:21
  Speaker 7: Latino community, et cetera.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: I think in South Dakota, it's close to 70% of
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: the population is Native, and we have the lowest population.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: And that goes for in the country, too. Per capita,
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: we're incarcerated and killed by police at the highest rate
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: per capita. But we have the lowest population.
• 6:37
  Speaker 9: You know what I mean?
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: Like, we're under 10%. I think we're under 5% of
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: the population. So violence against indigenous people is violence against
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: the land. It's violence against black and brown communities. And erasure,
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: erasure is violence. And that's what's happening right now. I mean,
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: our complete erasure of our history of knowledge of sacred
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: sites is going on right.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Now, you know.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: I feel like they've been doing that since day one.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Day one.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: I was on here 10 years ago during a pipeline fight,
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: and we were still talking about this issue. We were saying,
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: we're a war in America. Hey, man, this is going
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: to happen. This is what's going to happen to you.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: It's happened to indigenous peoples. Well, now all Americans are
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: feeling the effect. You guys all feel the effect. And
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: black Americans have been feeling it.
• 7:27
  Speaker 8: As far as struggles, just simple ones, I guess, that
• 7:31
  Speaker 8: are unique.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Something... I speak on, too.
• 7:36
  Speaker 8: It's just like, if you go to the res, you know,
• 7:38
  Speaker 8: it's like, you'll see, like, third world conditions an hour
• 7:41
  Speaker 8: from the cities. And I say that a lot, but it's, like,
• 7:44
  Speaker 8: people don't understand. That's why there's food deserts. So natives
• 7:47
  Speaker 8: will be on the res a radius of, like, I
• 7:51
  Speaker 8: don't know, Pine Ridge alone.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: How big?
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: It's a radius of, like, 100 miles around, and they
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: only shop at.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: And there's one grocery store in one district.
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: It's not even a grocery store.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: And they jack the prices up. And then.
• 8:03
  Speaker 8: the border towns to the reservations are typically the most
• 8:06
  Speaker 8: racist and the border towns are usually white.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 8:10
  Speaker 8: So you go there and there's the assumptions that natives
• 8:13
  Speaker 8: are uneducated, drunks, natives get free money.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: We don't. You know what I mean?
• 8:18
  Speaker 8: And there's just, there's so many stereotypes that they just,
• 8:22
  Speaker 8: people assume, oh, this person has it easy and makes
• 8:25
  Speaker 8: their life hard, but it's not even the case. It's,
• 8:28
  Speaker 8: we go through the struggles, but because of all the assumptions,
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: even from you know, black people, it's like, bro, we're
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: fighting and trying to fight. Our fight is never with
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: the people. No matter what we're doing, our fight is
• 8:42
  Speaker 8: never with the people. It's always like for the people.
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: And against the system. It's not against you. It's not
• 8:48
  Speaker 8: against anybody. It's against the system, bro. So for us,
• 8:51
  Speaker 8: we're constantly pushing for solidarity between communities.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: But a lot of the struggles that we see, I.
• 8:58
  Speaker 8: Mean, y'all would understand, but also like to get pushback
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: from other communities is, based off of stereotypes is also
• 9:04
  Speaker 8: something that we go through.
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: When you say the fight is against the system, that's
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: completely right. But it's also about rewriting what the system is.
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: And my father used to say, indigenous people, our fight
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: is not to be equal or find equality with the
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: United States of America. Our fight is for freedom and
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: true freedom from the United States of America. That means
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: honoring treaties and, honoring agreements that were written with the
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: United States. So you don't make treaties with a people
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: you can't beat in warfare. Treaties were signed with the
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: United States, American Indians, because we beat the United States
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: at warfare and they wanted peace. So these treaties are
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: still longstanding. It's, it's in the constitution, their supreme law
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: of the land. People are still fighting for their treaty
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: rights and fighting for the constitution. But right now you
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: see the Constitution being trampled on.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Man, tell us about it.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Every day it's happening right now, and it's becoming desensitized
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: to everybody, to all of us. Violence is desensitized. It's
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: being shown. They're going to be executing a person live
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: on livestream here in I don't know when, a couple
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: weeks or a week from now or something. And that's
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: to desensitize us to what they're trying to happen and
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: what they're trying to do more.
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: I agree.
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: You know what's so crazy?
• 10:21
  Speaker 6: I think when we watch news, like, and we're hearing about, like,
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: the Trump administration and voting and what's happening here with us,
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: you're so in it and going through your own things,
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: you can't even think about, or you don't just know
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: to think about, like, how it may be for other people.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Other communities. Yeah, other communities. I just looked up, like, you.
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: Know, different things that are happening under the Trump administration
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: for Native people, and I saw some of the programming
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: that they're cutting, and I'm like, wow, like, Health services
• 10:48
  Speaker 6: and education and tribal law enforcement, those are the things
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: that we're also having major conversations about. But it's not
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: on our news.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: And those tribal services, health services, policing, it was all
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: in our treaties. It's all in our agreement. Like, hey, man,
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: you're taking this amount of land, so we need your
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: support in this. But one thing it's doing is forcing
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: indigenous communities to find that freedom, to find ways to
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: problem solve around the federal government. So- You have community
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: stepping up, just like you do here. You know, you
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: have community stepping up to the plate, you know, and
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: helping the youth and helping programs and finding ways to
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: feed the people, you know, stuff like that.
• 11:29
  Speaker 8: Yeah, we could work together. Black liberation, indigenous sovereignty.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Overlap, hella.
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: And if we worked all, like, together, community, it's all
• 11:38
  Speaker 8: the same thing because, you know, we're trying to take
• 11:41
  Speaker 8: control of our own.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Our future, you know what I mean?
• 11:46
  Speaker 8: And just be able to have that ownership, that control,
• 11:49
  Speaker 8: and be able to do right for the people.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: I feel like they're the same.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: You know, Natanya, you mentioned your father, Russell. Russell Means, right?
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: He was one of the most recognizable indigenous activists of
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: his generation.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: What was it like growing up with that legacy?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Did you feel pressured to be an activist?
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: You grow up in it, and you don't know. It's
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: what you live. It's what you live and breathe. So
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: I grew up going to rallies, going to protests. I
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: grew up watching my father get arrested at Columbus Day
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: protests in Denver, Colorado. And I never felt no pressure, ever.
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: It's just what I grew up in. I grew up
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: watching a warrior, a freedom fighter. Every little kid wants
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: to be like their dad, in one way or another,
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: that grew up with their fathers. And that's what I
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: want to be. That's what I want to be. But
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: people compare me to him like, oh, you're not him.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: You could never be him. I don't want to be him.
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: I want to be who I am. And I think
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: all of us together, what we're doing with music is
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: creating a lane and getting into these mainstream platforms and
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: creating visibility for our people in another way. In another way.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: So we're taking what he and what they did, what
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: the American Indian movement did, you know, armed standoffs, and
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: we're taking it to another level.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know what that noise was. I've never heard
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: that in my life. Yeah. Since when they've been doing that?
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: They got to adjust the timing.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: But two for one, you're from Minneapolis, right?
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, from Minneapolis.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: You got the song, No One's Illegal. I know it
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: addresses immigration. Was you outside during the whole.
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: I was outside every single day.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:42
  Speaker 7: Whether it was helping with mutual aid efforts, doing legal observing,
• 13:46
  Speaker 7: just keeping an eye, you know, because there was a
• 13:48
  Speaker 7: whole counter surveillance going on, keeping an eye on ICE.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying?
• 13:54
  Speaker 7: Going to the protests, using my own social media platform
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: to give an unbiased account of what was happening. But yes,
• 14:00
  Speaker 7: I was outside every single day and The song speaks to,
• 14:05
  Speaker 7: you know, the starting point being Minneapolis. People are like,
• 14:09
  Speaker 7: why Minneapolis? What's going on with Minneapolis? Well, really the
• 14:11
  Speaker 7: pushback against the government and our resistance goes all the
• 14:15
  Speaker 7: way back to 1862 when my Dakota ancestors fought at
• 14:19
  Speaker 7: war against the United States. You know, fast forward, you
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: got Jamar Clark and Philando Castile, and then you got
• 14:27
  Speaker 7: George Floyd, right?
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: And we were outside every single day.
• 14:31
  Speaker 7: My two brothers right here, came through in 2020 during
• 14:35
  Speaker 7: that time period when the uprising was happening.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying?
• 14:40
  Speaker 7: And we risked our lives being out there.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: But the song itself, No One Is Illegal, is really
• 14:45
  Speaker 7: speaking to what we're seeing right now. Because again, it
• 14:48
  Speaker 7: was a starting point, was Minneapolis, and now you're seeing
• 14:52
  Speaker 7: this spread all over the map, right? Just last night,
• 14:56
  Speaker 7: Natani was sending me footage of all this ice activity
• 14:59
  Speaker 7: in the Bronx.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:01
  Speaker 7: I mean, we were just in the Bronx and I mean,
• 15:03
  Speaker 7: you know, we're seeing it happen in real time. This
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: is full blown fascism and we.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: Fight against it. We're really boots on the ground kind
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: of people. You know what I'm saying? We're doing youth work.
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: We're out, you know, we, we protest organizing youth work, music,
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: playing concerts, doing original songs with native youth.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: We're really boots on the ground kind of people.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 15:24
  Speaker 7: And so we, we're there and we're, you know, we
• 15:27
  Speaker 7: weave these themes in our music because we know this
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: is our way to push back against settler colonial violence
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: and the fascism that we're seeing today, like with ice,
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: you know?
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Antoine, what do you think the entertainment industry still doesn't
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: understand about indigenous artists?
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Everything.
• 15:47
  Speaker 8: We just need to be, we just need to be
• 15:48
  Speaker 8: in it, bro. I mean, it's like, I mean, there's movements, bro. Like,
• 15:53
  Speaker 8: take the move. And my brother's got the same thing.
• 15:56
  Speaker 8: I'm just speaking to myself. But like, like I said,
• 16:00
  Speaker 8: I looked up to certain artists.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Not a lot.
• 16:04
  Speaker 8: One was Nipsey Hussle. Rest in peace, bro. How important
• 16:10
  Speaker 8: he was for his community. The influence that he had
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: on his community. That's why I sent the invite to
• 16:18
  Speaker 8: come to the power, bro. And if you used to
• 16:20
  Speaker 8: come out, Bro, go to the res where they're like, hey,
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: you can sell tickets there? Bro, it's 2,000 people popping
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: out for the Antone X show. That's what gave me
• 16:31
  Speaker 8: leverage to go into other spaces. When I went to LA,
• 16:33
  Speaker 8: I was able to get in with no ID and
• 16:36
  Speaker 8: have really good conversations, get a stamp, and we're going
• 16:41
  Speaker 8: to get some work in. But it's because, well, how
• 16:44
  Speaker 8: do you sell the show? Was that an open? No,
• 16:47
  Speaker 8: it was my headlining show. But the people believe in
• 16:51
  Speaker 8: the movement.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 16:52
  Speaker 8: So there's movements, like I said, that relate to human beings,
• 16:58
  Speaker 8: not just native.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Man, I was in Arizona earlier this year getting my
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: hair cut. And I really wish I could remember the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: brother's name.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Navajo Barber, Elijah.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: That's Elijah. There you go. Yes, Navajo Barber.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: Shout out my brother.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, man.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I was getting my hair cut, and he would not
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: stop talking about Antoine X.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: He was like, yo, you had Antoine on The Breakfast Club.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: You know, I loved him.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And he was telling me about the shows and how
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: it goes down on the reservation. And I was just like, oh,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: he really got a movement out here.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: Uh-huh. Yeah. To Elijah, man. Navajo Barber. Yes, sir.
• 17:25
  Speaker 8: So what happens is, bro, it's like across Canada, across
• 17:30
  Speaker 8: the states, Natives everywhere. So it's not just the Navajo Nation.
• 17:33
  Speaker 8: It's everywhere that it's blowing up. Secret Sauce is natives.
• 17:38
  Speaker 8: For artists that want to be, you look at artists
• 17:40
  Speaker 8: like Bone Thugs, they ain't really getting booked out here
• 17:42
  Speaker 8: like that. But they'll go to the Reds, get full rate,
• 17:46
  Speaker 8: and just have thousands of people pop up.
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: And natives just rock with people that rock with them.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 17:52
  Speaker 8: But as far as people understanding us, I mean, I
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: think it'd be cool to just get in and show.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Show the people who we are.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: It's a lot of intention. It's a lot of intention.
• 18:01
  Speaker 8: Last time we were here, we offered up some prayer
• 18:03
  Speaker 8: and medicine for y'all and for just the people, the airwaves,
• 18:06
  Speaker 8: which we want to do again today.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: But we bring a lot of medicine with us.
• 18:10
  Speaker 8: And you see young people where you think, oh, they
• 18:12
  Speaker 8: don't really got nothing on their minds.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: They got a lot. A lot on their minds. And
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: a lot to say. No matter what they dress like
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: or look like, you think it's a YN, a young native? Nah, bro.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: They're young. Young intentional natives. The Yens. You know what
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: I mean? But it's like so much goes into our being.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: you know, who we are. So the problem is just
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: lack of opportunity.
• 18:33
  Speaker 8: And that's just because we're kind of late to the game.
• 18:36
  Speaker 8: Like I know queen shout out to queen. She, she's
• 18:41
  Speaker 8: been the reason that we're even here.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. You know, and, and she looks, looks out
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: for native people.
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: Uh, she's native for those who question queen is native
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: and validated.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Um, I owe her a million phone calls, by.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: The way.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: What would a.
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: Good pipeline from the res to the world of the main,
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: I'm going to call it the mainstream, but what would
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: that pipeline even look like? Because I think with labels
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: and not just the thought of labels, but within the
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: music industry here, you sometimes hear artists say they didn't
• 19:15
  Speaker 6: know what to do with me. I had to figure
• 19:16
  Speaker 6: things out on my own, build a team on my own. So,
• 19:19
  Speaker 6: you know, you can offer up those platforms and those resources, but, like,
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: if they don't know what to do, what would be
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: the perfect scenario where it would bridge everything the right
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: way from you as an artist?
• 19:30
  Speaker 8: To bridge the gap between.
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and so more people know about your movement and
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: what you got going on.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: Honestly, I feel.
• 19:35
  Speaker 8: Like it's just collaborations because it's not like we need
• 19:39
  Speaker 8: guidance on what we're going to do with it.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: It's just... weird. There's a light. Shine that light over
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: here and we'll throw that out at you.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: And we got you.
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: And it's also like, I'm not going to, I don't
• 19:51
  Speaker 8: like discrediting other artists, but you know how there's like
• 19:55
  Speaker 8: artists within the game that are very intentional and move
• 20:00
  Speaker 8: for their people.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: And then there's artists that are out here moving for
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: other shit.
• 20:03
  Speaker 8: You know, like, they're just like, oh, I'm just trying
• 20:05
  Speaker 8: to get my money up and flex on people or whatever.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: Just like very like service level materialistic shit, which is
• 20:12
  Speaker 8: a lot of the game. Of course, we have artists
• 20:15
  Speaker 8: like that within the native scene, but if you're looking
• 20:18
  Speaker 8: right here, it's doorways. So you tap in with the
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: artist right here sitting in these seats, we'll tap you
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: in with every artist that we know can throw that
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: out of you down.
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: For us, it's about we. I think that's what you're
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: trying to get.
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: We, not me.
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: It's never been about me. And we bring in our
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: teachings to the platforms that we've created and we've been
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: put on.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: And.
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: I could be a negative sometimes too when you're bringing
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: in what you grew up with, the teachings, the ways
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: of our traditional ways. But there's no other way we
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: can be. So we always talk about we instead of
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: I or me. And it can have backfires, you know,
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: but in this industry, because this whole industry is built
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: on me, me, me, I, I, I.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: And stepping on other people. But, you know, what Anton's
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: been doing, what I've been doing, what Tufa's been doing,
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: you know, is just bringing up people. So Yeah, we
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: just represent where we come from, who we come from.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: And collaborations, I believe.
• 21:15
  Speaker 8: With a camera, if there's any black artists, filmmakers, anything
• 21:20
  Speaker 8: that want to bridge the gap, we're right here and
• 21:23
  Speaker 8: we're open to collaborations.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Look, yeah. And I feel like that alone can help
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: us blow shit up.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I want to come to a powwow so bad. That's
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: what I told Queen. I had to call her back about.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: She invited me to the.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Let's go.
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: Hop on a flight with us after this. Come on
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: back to the Black Hills Powwow.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: That's what she invited me to. Tomorrow.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: No, it's today. It's all weekend.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: It's all weekend.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: It's the biggest powwow in the whole nation.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: She hit me like a month ago and she was like, yo,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: if I can get you to come to my reservation
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: in South Dakota, right?
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: The Black Hills Powwow.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: And I said, yo, I'll call you back.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: And I I forgot to call that.
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: That would be the biggest where you'll just see so many,
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: but if you want to see the original, like I
• 22:00
  Speaker 8: said last time, the Umaha people, which we're related on
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: our Lakota side and our Umaha side, but the Umaha people,
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: that's where the original powwow is, but it's a celebration
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: of harvest.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Hede Wachi, and it happens in August.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: Hede Wachi, yeah.
• 22:14
  Speaker 8: And they have a lot of the original ways of
• 22:17
  Speaker 8: how it was done. The modern powwow is just years
• 22:21
  Speaker 8: of where they've added on, right? But- That's the original power.
• 22:25
  Speaker 8: So that's one.
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: To experience too.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Come learn, man. Everybody, come with us.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: Let's go to the reservation. Let me take you guys
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: to some places. We can introduce you guys to people
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: who are on the ground working, doing a lot of
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: youth work, Kyle Mesteth from Ground Control. And just come
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: learn about who we are and where we come from
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: on a first-person standpoint. We encourage everybody to.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Do that, really.
• 22:49
  Speaker 7: I mean, that kind of answers more of your question
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: too is like, holding space together.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: Learning about each other and our struggles and how building
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: solidarity a lot of times looks like, you know, we
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: hold space together and we share our stories and we
• 23:07
  Speaker 7: share our commonalities because there's a lot, excuse me, there's
• 23:11
  Speaker 7: a lot that we do share in common and those
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: spaces are important. And then also, I mean, you know,
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: in terms of like Tone was saying, collaboration and booking
• 23:22
  Speaker 7: and literally that gap just looks like, you know, treating
• 23:26
  Speaker 7: us as any, you know, artist that's trying to make
• 23:29
  Speaker 7: it in the music industry.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? With the same levels of opportunities, right?
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: In that spotlight.
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: We could do a special Breakfast Club on the rez.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: That'd be fire.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I'm with it.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: That'd be fire.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: That's my type of carrying on.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: I like learning about, you know, other communities.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Because, you know, like in South Carolina, they do like
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the trail rides and, you know, the homie Courtney, she
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: does like the big bonfires and everybody just be outside performing,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: having a good time.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: That's what it feels like. I've never been, but that's
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: what it seems like.
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, let's get you guys to the Midwest or to
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: the South, Southwest.
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: It's different within tribes. You'll get a completely different experience
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: over here. Then Midwest and even Southwest.
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: Because there's over 570 different nations in this nation that
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: predate America. So, and each one has their own way
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: of life, own language, own ceremony.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: Native before America.
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, native before America. But we're not all the same.
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: And that's one thing, like, you know, we're trying to
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: also get out there is that we don't represent all
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: the nations in this country, but we represent who we
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: come from and our ancestors when they're up here, so.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Queen told me to tell y'all that she loves y'all,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: and thank you for all of you.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: Oh, man, we love you, Queen.
• 24:36
  Speaker 9: Love you, Queen.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Shout out, Queen, and shout out, Keisha.
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: Queen, yeah, and shout out, Keisha. Queen was my introduction
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: to the Breakfast Club in 2016, and I've gotten to
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: come on here a couple times, at least Charlamagne, and
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: I just really appreciate you guys for being here and
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: for sticking here, you know what I'm saying?
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: She said thank you for speaking her name in rooms
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: that she's not in, and she's proud of y'all for
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: representing who we are as Native Americans, especially in hip-hop.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: Word. And hip-hop, bro.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: Hip-hop.
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: We want to get it to the point where it's
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: not like, hey, let's talk about Indigenous Peoples Day.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: We'll get it to the point where it's like, hey, bro,
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: talk about the album.
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: What's up with the new song?
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: And that's what we're on. Because, I mean, we do
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: live this and speak this daily.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: This is who we are.
• 25:18
  Speaker 8: But also, it's music every day. And we're on these stages.
• 25:22
  Speaker 8: We're killing this shit out here and doing music.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: Like, that's the passion. That's the love.
• 25:27
  Speaker 8: So it's also like, we don't want to, like, Just
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: be the guys that speak on. You know what I mean?
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Come listen to us too.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: Come listen to the music.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: The music hits. You know what I mean?
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: And we're booked. We're going places. Me and Tone got
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: to go perform in South Dakota right after this. And
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: Tufo's headed to Paris.
• 25:44
  Speaker 9: Wow.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: To perform. Yeah.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: It's going to be good. I'm excited.
• 25:49
  Speaker 7: We're staying busy. We're trying to put ourselves in spaces
• 25:51
  Speaker 7: where we're seen. You know, a lot of our youth...
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: are hopeless.
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying?
• 25:58
  Speaker 7: Especially, you know, you know, in different native communities on
• 26:01
  Speaker 7: and off the res, you know, when we show up
• 26:04
  Speaker 7: in spaces, they see an example of, oh, wow, I could,
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: I could do something like that too, because they see
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: themselves in us. So it's really important to have this representation,
• 26:15
  Speaker 7: you know? And so we're very grateful and thankful, you know,
• 26:18
  Speaker 7: Wopita for, for, you know, having us on, you know,
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: that's what we say in the Dakota language.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: We say Wopita in the Lakota language and, Wopila. Um,
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: but it means just big thank you.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Leave us with something, man. A prayer like we did
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: last time. You know, we still got that in the system.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
• 26:35
  Speaker 8: Um, again, appreciate y'all, you know, always having us and, uh,
• 26:42
  Speaker 8: more conversations in the future.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Get y'all to the powwow.
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, let's get it.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: Shout out the people for listening.
• 26:48
  Speaker 8: And, uh, yeah, thank you to my brothers here, you know,
• 26:51
  Speaker 8: so the song that we'll sing right now is, uh,
• 26:56
  Speaker 8: composed by Santee Witt.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Santee is his name.
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: Being a singer as a native person, especially in the
• 27:06
  Speaker 8: Lakota way, it's a high position in the community. It's
• 27:12
  Speaker 8: because our ceremonies, they attempted genocide on our people and
• 27:18
  Speaker 8: our ways because our languages are powerful. Our connection to
• 27:24
  Speaker 8: everything is powerful. Same with the black community. Going way back,
• 27:27
  Speaker 8: it's the same exact thing. The languages, everything's very powerful.
• 27:32
  Speaker 8: These songs, the prayer songs, are important to us. The
• 27:37
  Speaker 8: song keepers, song makers, they're very important people. Santee is
• 27:42
  Speaker 8: a well-known song maker. If you ever need to hear
• 27:45
  Speaker 8: some traditional songs, prayer songs, ceremony songs, that's the guy.
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: We'll get into that. But Anyway, this song is composed
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: by him. And just leave it on good energy. You know, again,
• 27:59
  Speaker 8: it's about the intention. And as far as native music,
• 28:01
  Speaker 8: it's about the intention of the song rather than the delivery.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: I'm just getting my voice back, so excuse that. That's
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: my excuse, too.
• 28:08
  Speaker 8: But, yeah, well, the brothers know it, so it'll help out.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: Wait your name. Thank you.
• 28:52
  Speaker 8: Thank you.
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: Thank you. Hey, hey, oh.
• 29:30
  Speaker 6: Oh, oh.
• 30:01
  Speaker 9: I want to.
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: Give you this. This is a braid of sweet grass. Normally,
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: it grows out free in northern parts of the country,
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: southern Canada, up to mid-Canada. Um, it looks different from
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: other kinds of grass, but it's sweet. It burns sweet.
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: So when you burn it, it cleanses, you know, it
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: cleanses the space. It brings in good energy. So I
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: want to give this to you guys.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: Thank you, sir.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Burn it.
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: Think good thoughts when you do good intentions, what you
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: need for life. Um, I just want to thank you
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: guys again. Wopila for having us, man. And it's all
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: about representation, bringing us back on here. It means the
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: world to us. It means the world to our youth,
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: you know, our young kids that are out there struggling, man,
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: that are dealing with suicidal thoughts and, and addiction right now.
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: So I just want to say thank you so much.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: Thank you, brother.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: So I'm supposed to burn it. You know, in South Carolina,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: in Charleston, we have the... The sweetgrass, but they use
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: the sweetgrass to make baskets.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: Oh, really? That's what they do in the WDG community. Yeah, yeah.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: So, yeah, just burn that and, you know, it'll cleanse
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: the space, man.
• 31:11
  Speaker 7: This is really what solidarity looks like, too, and that
• 31:14
  Speaker 7: y'all are supporting what that solidarity looks like.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: So it means a lot to us, for real.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you, man. Two for one, Antoine X and
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the Tiny Means. Thank y'all for joining us.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Tell them where to find the music and all that
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: good stuff, man.
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: Natani Means on everything and on all platforms. Hey, shout
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: out my brother Tatanka Means. He's on the Marshalls as
• 31:33
  Speaker 5: well on Paramount. So shout out to my brother Tatanka.
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: Two for one on all platforms. That's T-U-F-A-W-O-N.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: And then Antone X Music. Say Antoine, but I let
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: it slide.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: He said, bro, he was artificially. He was artificially. Antone
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: X Music everywhere.
• 31:56
  Speaker 8: We also talk to the Native community here in the
• 31:59
  Speaker 8: city recently. And every time we come here, we try
• 32:02
  Speaker 8: to connect. Awake New York, hooked it up.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: Shout out Relative Arts, NYC.
• 32:08
  Speaker 8: We plan on coming back in November, Native Heritage Month.
• 32:10
  Speaker 8: to bring a hella Native artist.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Pull up again.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Let's do it.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Shout out Land Back Batty.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: I'm dead serious. We will. We'll bring some, bro.
• 32:18
  Speaker 8: We have the collective we work with, and these are
• 32:21
  Speaker 8: the artists that we believe are all intentional and all
• 32:24
  Speaker 8: the same way to push this Native... front into the
• 32:27
  Speaker 8: industry so let's do.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: It Eddie talk no for real bring the mic we
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: could yeah my brother you know the music make it
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: about the music.
• 32:33
  Speaker 8: Let's do it let's do it in November and we'll
• 32:36
  Speaker 8: see hey New York you want to come see in
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: person y'all come hear the music man and we'll.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Do a show here what's the exact date we're gonna
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: set it up we just set it up yesterday okay
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: appreciate y'all let's set everything up let's get it Antone
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: X Natani means two for one it's the breakfast club hold.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: Up every day I wake up wake your
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Ass up it's the breakfast club You all finished or
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: you all done?