Snotty Nose Rez Kids

It’s difficult to find a place in North America further from hip-hop’s South Bronx birthplace than Kitamaat Village, B.C., the town 16 hours north of Vancouver that serves as the principal home of the Haisla First Nation. But that’s where Young D and Yung Tribez came together in 2016 to form Snotty Nose Rez Kids, a duo that wields hip-hop’s twin dictates—to comment honestly on the conditions marginalized people face, and to host the liveliest parties possible—to make irresistibly raucous records that critique Canada’s mistreatment of its Indigenous people. This dual purpose does not involve any sleight of hand. The pair’s work, beginning with their self-titled debut from 2017, uses the unrestrained energy of contemporary trap music to underline their defiant rejections of stereotypes and oppression rather than to Trojan horse them into unsuspecting listeners’ ears. While Young D and Yung Tribez have been acclaimed by various top awards bodies—2017’s The Average Savage was nominated for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the Junos and was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, as 2019’s TRAPLINE and 2021’s Life After would be in the years to follow—Snotty Nose Rez Kids show no signs of growing more comfortable with the powers that be.