While media attention on rap seems fixated on violence associated with hip-hop events and performers, the illegal nature of samples, and lurid, mysoginistic and explicit lyrics, Native American hip-hop artist Shadowyze (Shadow-wise) remains focused on the media itself, and the un-televised stories of those in the margins and over borders. This Anthropology/Sociology student hailing from Pensacola, Florida, is of Cherokee and Creek decent, and a member of the Santa Rosa County Creek Tribe. His message is educational, "I'm delivering the facts". With the rhythm and rhyme of oral culture, he schools his listeners on the hard facts of Native life - high levels of infant mortality, substance abuse, suicide, poverty, unemployment, economic and physical abuse, and low levels of life expectancy. His message is political, a spirit warrior's cry for equal, human and civil rights. And yes, his message is emotive, it is an expression of red folk's rage; but it is smoove. Is it any coincidence that Shadowyze uses the medium of rap, an artistic medium which emphasises story telling and the spoken word.

“There is no coincidence that I chose rap. Rap naturally fills the gap where oral history may no longer be as influential to children or even available in many instances where there are no elders around or alive to pass down the oral traditions and teaching stories. The U.S. has created a culture that doesn't respect the elders or even non-European experieces used for a more well rounded understanding of what happened in our history as a nation. Rap is a vehicle for the truth to ride on dealing with issues about Native American culture and history. Rap is a way to get the young Native and non-Native children more interested in the culture and history of this continents first people.”

Through all my relations
and many nations
My people are the land
and the Land is sacred.

They're seeing us as relics and
Past time photo-ops, degrade
Us on team-names and put us
on soda-pops.

They put us in poverty
smashed up our pottery
And claimed we lived slovenly
under their sovereignty

Is that what you want
To have us all in checkmate
Wipe us all out, so you can
Cherish our wrecked fate

Well I'm the one that's there to save
My people not enthrall ya
And do the chant that brings
the spirit warrior...

(from Spirit Warrior written by Shawn Enfinger aka Shadowyze)

Rappers are often activists, occupying a cultural space between entertainer, educator and politician. While maintaining organic ties to their communities, participating in grass-root events at rallies, schools and prisons, memorializing heroes in the struggle, rappers are essential in the production, circulation and interpretation of cultural politics. Shadowyze recently made such a trip to Oklahoma.

”The trip to Oklahoma was financed and arranged by George Tiger and Jai Rogers who are well known in Tulsa for promoting Native American issues. I went on several Native radio talk shows with George Tiger and was interviewed by the Seminole and Potawahtomi tribal newspapers. I even went on Fox TV on a show called Tulsa Beat where I was on the same show as actor Wes Studi. I spoke to the children at the Creek Indian Boarding school in Eufaula Oklahoma and the children at the Cherokee community center in Tahlequah OK, about the situation in Chiapas Mexico as well as the struggles that Indian People in the U.S. are going through today with land-rights, poverty, few jobs being offered, and prejudice that haunt Native Americans today.”

Moved deeply by a nine-week trip to Central America and Mexico in 1998, Shadowyze articulates a past and current history of ethnic oppression and struggle which he witnessed in "Murder in Our Backyard", particularly the low intensity war on the Mayan in Chiapas.

Modern day slavery
Work us to the bone
We're children of the corn
Being torn from our homes

We built the sacred temples
That towered the trees
They brought us lies in their eyes
And supplied disease

Contaminated tear drops
On a million faces
Burned our sacred books
And now they are trying to erase us

Juvenile assassinations
And their moms too
They hate us as a people
But they’re fond of our food

They pillaged all our villages
Trying to get the facts barred
Sub-commander Marcos is the
Savior in our backyard

Chorus:
We're losing lives
Down in Mexico
The children die
Down in Mexico
They're spreading lies
Down in Mexico
It's all disguised
Down in Mexico

(from Murder in Our Backyard (Down in Mexico) written by Shawn Enfinger aka Shadowyze)

This is conscious poetry with a beat. Thanks to Vaughn "D. J. Ace" Wilson (known for his productions for Clay D, Ghostown Djs, Too Short, Queen Latifah and George Clinton), intellectual urgency is combined with danceable energy. Muzik for the body and soul. Shadowyze's maxi single can be currently heard on Native stations across the U.S. and Canada (check out the American Indian Radio On Satellite - AIROS - network based in Lincoln, Nebraska). A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Murder in Our Backyard will go to the Mayan Relief Fund which donates clothes and medicine, and helps build homes and Mayan schools. And what of Shadowyze’s immediate plans?

“Tracks one, three and five [from the Murder in Our Backyard CD] will be on Litefoot’s compilation that comes out in October entitled Red Ryders Compilation. In the first week of August I will be going to Frankfurt, Germany to stay with a Native American museum owner named Thomas Merbt that lives in a nearby town called Hassmerhaem. He will be taking me to London where I will perform and speak at a convention on oppressed peoples of the world throughout history. There will be a lot of Jewish, Irish, Gypsies, Ethnic Albanians and even various Native American tribes from the southwest there. I'll being also going on his TV show in Germany to talk on the issues critical to Native Americans today. I will be staying there for 12 days, then when I get back I will be flying up to the Oneida Reservation in Wisconsin to perform and talk to the children about recording studios and touring. It is through music that speaks the truth of the culture that it represents that can expand the understanding of the mind for those who listen to it.”

Contact Shadowyze in care of Red Earth Records at (504) 288-0660, or email him at redearth2@hotmail.com - also, check out his website at www.shadowyze.com