High Grounds of Struggle: Native Pride till the Casket Drop - circa 2000. Local Tacoma HipHop Artist. This sort of music saved my life more times than I can count.
HGS savage fam is not a name but a code of conduct. So I think that it's really important as an artist or educator as an elder scholar a person that likes to share. I think it's important to kind of talk about where these ideas come from. So for me and my take on the medicine wheel this idea of using art or poetry or songs to bring about healing for the sickness in our community who is not new, and it's been re-interpreted, and expanded upon in different ways.
So maybe in the past our ancestors, use the medicine wheel for introspection and enlightenment, and we've been able to relate a lot of things to it.
People that come from our sort of modern warrior society or fraternal street organizations have been able to apply a sort of cultural code of conduct of how how we should act and how we should conduct ourselves in this new society.
And the real HGS savage family conducts themselves as warriors and they promote fitness wellness, spirituality, hip-hop, self expression. They really encapsulate the warrior and the scholar that so many people claim that we need.
So indigenous people have been culturally, exchanging for a long time. I am not sure how well known it is, but the Japanese and the Makah from the north west type of Washington, have a long history together.
And I think when we look at savage family and how they move adopted the sort of African American, derived modern music I think that is just like a really important point to take note of and that you know we've been exchanging culture and music and songs for a long time and we've been integrating with each other for a long time And we've had large impacts on each other's spirituality and spiritual background and history and so to sort of see this re-created through a modern lens. I think is really beautiful and important and as a indigenous person, I really love music and all types of music but we can see the sort of cultural exchange go back to even when Africans were first brought over here to be slaves. We've been hiding amongst each other, sharing songs, and stuff for a long time so and a lot of our music isn't just have African influence or African-American, but is African, American, and Indigenous, and that's some thing that gets left out and forgot about it and not talked about not nearly as much as it should be, so I have a deep appreciation for blues music, where it comes from. Also, the spirituality that gets mentioned in the lyrics and practiced amongst the artist I believe that African spiritual diaspora is huge and important to humanity, and that you know we need to think about it and talk about it and you know practice it let's I don't know so I try to do that along with my own indigenous spirituality.
But if we are kind of talking about myself and my medicine, wheel or interpretation of it, and I don't even really like to call it that I like I think there's very much of a difference between what I've created, and what is already out there and the sorts of things that I myself want to address and Like these thoughts and ideas can all be a part of HGS savage family. I mean I can't really break down my code or philosophy here that's probably something I'll do in the future. I just want to make sure that I'm being clear about my influences what inspires me where I come from. While HGS savage family mostly does ceremonial hip-hop, a lot of my interest, lies in traditional indigenous-blues, and rock, also a lot more of my art is visual in nature. I consider myself a member of HGS savage family, I have a medallion and the copy of the manifesto. I just don't really communicate with the core group. Savage family will be whatever it needs to be to help bring about a healing to the sickness and me myself my thoughts, my love for all types of music, all types of people, I am inherently a part of that. Savage family gives a Voice of the Voiceless and my website and I are a part of that, anybody that's reading this can post here too. Just let me know. I hope that some of the larger HGS SAVAGE FAMILY decide to post here, I would consider it a great honor.
I guess this is mostly to people outside of the community that might not know.
My art and philosophy are the same, but yet different.
If hgs savage fam had a sad emo blues band, that would be me. . .