To celebrate National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Spotify has welcomed a Canadian Indigenous artist to guest curate their Indigenous playlist. Their Indigenous playlist is a platform that allows Indigenous artists all over Canada to share their music and videos. This platform gives them an opportunity to share their stories and promote cultural awareness.
Canadian Indigenous artist, David Strickland, record producer and audio engineer did the honours of curating their Indigenous playlist. Strickland has received Grammy and Juno awards for his work as an audio engineer. Over the past 25 years, he’s worked with hip hop and R&B artists like Drake, Method Man, The Clipse, and more. As a role model for First Nation’s Youth, he uses his work and knowledge of music to raise awareness of major social issues the Indigenous people face. He strives to showcase the connection between hip hop’s foundation and the Indigenous story in North America by creating a mixture of traditional Indigenous sounds and mainstream rap rhythms.
David’s selections will be at the forefront of their Indigenous playlist for the rest of the month. Here are some of David’s songs that appear on the playlist from his album Spirit of Hip Hop: Elements:
- Certainmans by David Strickland, JRDN, Stump Gets & Skye Stoney
- LVL Up by David Strickland, Drezus, Aspects and Prognosis
- Beastmode by David Strickland, Pooky G and Divine Brown
Music is an outlet and method in which Indigenous storytelling is passed on from generation to generation. The purpose of this playlist is to celebrate Indigenous culture and to shed light on Indigenous voices. As of today, you can see a billboard of David Strickland’s artwork in Yonge and Dundas Square until Sunday light.
You can view and listen to the playlist here.