January 28, 2011

Natives in Flying Wild Alaska

The TV show Flying Wild Alaska has more Native substance than just a theme song and soundtrack:

Native Hip-hop Wraps Alaska Reality TV Show

By Doug MeigsThe Discovery Channel’s new reality TV series Flying Wild Alaska follows Jim Tweto’s family and crew of bush pilots as they provide a lifeline to Alaska’s most remote locales. Tweto’s wife and daughters are local Inupiaq, and their family business services many Native villages. Discovery Channel producers thought a Native soundtrack fitting, so they approached ThunderCloud Radio for help last summer. ThunderCloud Radio is dedicated to indigenous hip-hop, soul, reggae and R&B. The online station began broadcasting from Washington State in 2008 to showcase artists “from Alaska to Greenland,” says DJ Pamela Rae. The TV show producers wanted an Inuit rapper’s words to introduce each episode. And Rae knew just the artist: Peand-eL.

But Peand-eL isn’t Alaskan.

“When they approached me, at first it was strange, because the show is in Alaska and I speak Greenlandic, but I was very happy they chose me,” he said. Peand-eL (aka Peter Lyberth—his artist name comes from his initials “P” and “L”) is Kalaalleq from Greenland. He has two albums with Atlantic Records, and recently formed an indie studio for this upcoming third album, Taallineq, which translates to “Silhouette” (due to be released in May).
Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't even think most Indians would complain, just the fact that we get some presence.

An interesting thing about ndn hip hop. Most of the people who get famous do so not by singing. Nobody knew who Litefoot was until The Indian and the Cupboard.