Rapper ready for prime time.
SHIFT FROM THA 902 is more than ready for his close-up.
The We’kokma’q First Nation hiphop artist is a featured performer this week as part of APTN’S Indigenous Day Live Winter Solstice concert specials airing across Canada this week on the Winnipeg-based network.
Since he first started making music at the age of 12, Todd Googoo has wanted to have his voice heard by listeners across Canada, releasing his SHIFT FROM THA 902 mixtape in 2016, and his self-titled debut in 2018. In more recent months, he’s been releasing a stream of singles on Spotify, telling a wider range of stories with each track.
Singles drawn from everyday experiences like Hometown and Family and Friends have earned SHIFT FROM THA 902 wider attention thanks to radio play and Youtube popularity, but this week’s APTN appearance could bring him his widest audience yet.
“I feel blessed to be able to do this big performance, especially when a lot of musicians aren’t getting opportunities like this during these times,” says Googoo over Zoom from his home in Eskasoni.
He’ll be sharing the virtual stage with Indigenous performers like Polaris Music Prize winner Jeremy Dutcher, Ecma-winning St. John’s ensemble Eastern Owl and Winnipeg singer-songwriter Don Amero alongside Canadian music stars like Alanis Morissette, Alan Doyle and Serena Ryder.
“Oh man, it means a lot,” he says enthusiastically about the opportunity. “To be honest, I don’t think people know much about it yet, they don’t process it until they see it go out on TV, but it means a lot to me right now.
“Even my family, they’ve just heard me talk about it. ‘Oh man, that’s just Todd, it’s the same-old ...’ But when they see it, that’s when it’ll open up to them that it’s a big platform (for me).”
Hosted by Earl Wood and Janelle Wookey, the five hour-long episodes of APTN’S Indigenous Day Live Winter Solstice air nightly from Dec. 21 to 25, at noon and 6 p.m. AT, while also streaming the day after they air on the APTN Lumi platform (aptnlumi.ca).
SHIFT FROM THA 902s performance was filmed on a stage set at Cunard Centre on the Halifax waterfront by an APTN crew from Winnipeg that had to go through quarantine in order to conduct the shoot.
“They brought me and my dad down for the show, and they put together a band with Reeny Smith and her brother J.R. Smith, and I had my friend Dane Richard DJ for me,” he says. “It was a good experience for me. I was a bit nervous going in, I had to have my temperature taken before going in there, but the whole show was cool.
“When I got in there, I realized it was just me here with this big production crew, I felt like I was the man ... It’s this awesome big venue, but it was weird though, having no crowd.”
When he first became involved in making music, Googoo was inspired by U.S. stars like Tupac, Eminem and 50 Cent, as well as Nova Scotia’s own Classified, who helped him realize it was possible to make music in your own backyard that could have greater resonance beyond your own community.
The emphasis on rhythm and speaking truth makes hip hop perfectly suited to telling First Nations stories, as shown in the music of Maritimes group City Natives, Ontario electronic DJ collective A Tribe Called Red and B.C.’S Haisla hip-hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids.
“It’s just an organic mix, basically,” says Googoo of the genre he’s made his own. “It’s from the heart, that’s the best way I can put it. When my friends listen to a new song, they’ll hear me talk about my son or talk about my brothers, or things that happen on my reserve.
“It’s just about keeping true to myself, that’s the best thing I can say about it.”
SHIFT FROM THA 902 channels that storytelling power to stunning effect in one of his newest songs Warrior, portraying the challenges faced by Indigenous communities when family members are coping with substance abuse, depression and isolation, especially at a time when the COVID19 pandemic only serves to exacerbate these issues.
“During the quarantine, I wanted to make a song like that. And in the first verse it started as a story about a boy, but then I thought that I wanted to have a girl’s perspective,” says Googoo. “I wanted every Native across Canada to say they could relate to that song. They know somebody who went through it; their brother, their cousin, their auntie or uncle, their grandmother and grandfather. It’s very close to everybody.
“I’m not saying that I went through it, but I know people who went through everything in that song that I spoke about, and it’s not even about anybody in particular. It’s just a good song and a good story, and it’s kind of hard, it’s a deep-message song.”