What Cree Needs Most
I am such a slacker on this blog.
Lest it be shut down for inactivity, however, I will share in brief an idea -- an ideal -- I have long held about what Cree needs most for it to regain a greater currency.
Two words: fluent rappers. Young people who speak the language effortlessly and artfully to a phat backbeat. (Do people even use the word "phat" anymore? Omigod, that is so 2003!)
But the odds are against it, frankly. And I don't know what's harder: to train someone who speaks the language well in the ways of rap, or to take a great (unilingually-English) rapper and teach them how to speak Cree.
But if our goal is to attract youth to the language, or to encourage those who do speak it to keep speaking, we need to find and develop the Nehiyaw equivalent of Jay-Z. Who knows, though: maybe that talented younger woman or man is already out there, just waiting to be called to the stage, with "Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for Jay-CREE!!!"
ekosi,
Rick
Lest it be shut down for inactivity, however, I will share in brief an idea -- an ideal -- I have long held about what Cree needs most for it to regain a greater currency.
Two words: fluent rappers. Young people who speak the language effortlessly and artfully to a phat backbeat. (Do people even use the word "phat" anymore? Omigod, that is so 2003!)
But the odds are against it, frankly. And I don't know what's harder: to train someone who speaks the language well in the ways of rap, or to take a great (unilingually-English) rapper and teach them how to speak Cree.
But if our goal is to attract youth to the language, or to encourage those who do speak it to keep speaking, we need to find and develop the Nehiyaw equivalent of Jay-Z. Who knows, though: maybe that talented younger woman or man is already out there, just waiting to be called to the stage, with "Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for Jay-CREE!!!"
ekosi,
Rick
posted by Rick Harp at 2:50 PM
4 comments
