There’s a hip-hop artist I know named Tall Paul. Tall Paul is an Anishinaabe and Oneida hip-hop artist enrolled on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota. And he’s one hell of a rapper.
When I heard "Prayers in a Song." It stuck with me. So, I interviewed him about it a few years ago.
After the interview we stayed in touch. He turned me on to the world of Native American hip-hop. And what a world! '90s West Coast meets the reservation. The more I read and listened, the more I read and listened. So, when Tall Paul told me he was making an album themed around legendary Native American athlete Jim Thorpe, I was ready.
This week’s show on "The Spirit of Jim Thorpe" could not have happened without Tall Paul. The ideas behind his Jim Thorpe album inspired me to do an entire show on Thorpe.
Jim Thorpe's story of athletic achievement runs parallel to the worst of American history — forced relocation to reservations, boarding schools, and attempted genocide. But his legacy in the Native American hip-hop community (and for Native youth far beyond) does not only focus on the suffering of history but also the veneration of past athletic prowess. We’re talking pride in Jim Thorpe being a badass Native American superstar—an NCAA star, a great in both the MLB and NFL, and the story of those two golds in the 1912 Olympics? Stuff of legend.
I leave you with this as an encouragement to listen to Tall Paul’s "The Story of Jim Thorpe." Think of it as a homework assignment that happens to be awesome. Bonus points for cranking the track "Oorang NDNZ" out your car window.
–Charles