Snotty Nose Rez Kids

Trapline

BY Clayton TomlinsonPublished May 9, 2019

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The Snotty Nose Rez Kids are back after their first pair of releases — one self-titled, the other The Average Savage — propelled them to national fame. Now one of the best groups rapping in Canada, their new release, Trapline, shows that a break was well worth it.
 
It is part trap and part classic rap. On one hand, their release is trap, the title should be your first hint, but it's hard to ignore the fact that Trapline has five skits on a 18-song track list, and more significantly, each song is as lyrical as possible. They have added ad libs, skinny, resonating trap beats and references to everyone from Lil Pump to André 3000 to Rihanna, but that cannot hide the stories told of racism and identity struggles growing up Indigenous in Canada. Indeed, if Biggie spoke of Brooklyn's issues in a catchy way, the Kids speak of Canada's.
 
Their lyricism is the strength of the album, and each song offers nuggets of wisdom and perspective like on "Hunger Games" — "the odds don't work in my favour / Lucky I'm savage by nature" — or the chanting "son of a matriarch" chorus from the same-named song. Further along on "Song of a Matriarch," (which features the Sorority), they rap "fuck with a woman and I don't fuck with you."
 
All in all this is a great followup for a duo whose only limitation is their own imagination and whim.
(Snotty Nose Rez Kids Music / Fontana)

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