The Singles Jukebox

“The group’s music has been described as ‘powwow-step,’ a style of contemporary powwow music for urban First Nations in the dance club scene.”

[Video][Website]
[6.75]

Ryo Miyauchi: Yasiin Bey as first batter makes sense on paper given his status, though really the most of the crowd work should’ve went to Narcy, the other Yasiin. His spider-like voice, which reminds me of Schoolboy Q’s, struts along the dry boom bap of A Tribe Called Red with charisma; his vocal flexes rise above the group’s aggressive rumbles. Bey plays cameo at best, peeking in to set up a nice chorus but a little lost on how to go about the verses.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: Fascinating blend of dubstep and First Nations music, with the artist formerly known as Mos Def providing most of the verses. True music of the earth, and it makes me wanna hear more. 
[7]

Alfred Soto: In my mind Tribe died in 1994, its spirit and bonhomie a vivrant thang in collaborations like Nas “One Love” and the Beastie’s “Sabotage,” not to mention the Giuliani-era ecumenicism of Mos Def’s Brooklyn. This Canadian combo has nothing in common sonically and little in common verbally except remnants of that ecumenicism before twenty-first century capital forced communities to find the ties in art that they couldn’t as neighbors.
[6]

Will Rivitz: Compared to the incisive, fiery rhetoric of ATCR’s other “powwow-step” (a term sadly drawn straight from the group’s Wikipedia page), the more generalized, less tightly focused swagger-rap activism of Yassin and Yasiin lands a little awkwardly. The song’s saving grace is the instrumental backing, tremendous Glitch Mob bass tearing apart its chunky beat with stadium-rending force. I hate to use the term “laidback banger,” but the combination of vintage, dusty hip-hop and teeth-grinding melody is a pleasure.
[7]

Anthony Easton: This is denser than a lot of Tribe’s work…which often breaks to allow for people to breathe. It also argues that powwow sounds can function outside of their specific rubric. It also reminds me of ’70s radicalism, where AIM and Black Panthers worked out what a tribal model of governance would look like outside of colonial practice. Narcy’s verses deepen an understanding of hiphop as the new voice of protest, which traded identity against a mutual oppressor. If Bey and Narcy are here to represent politics, I wonder if Black Bear is here as an effort to make this a genuine break out single. It might be one of the best ways sound fit together this year though. 
[8]

Jonathan Bogart: With tribal sovereignty, colonial borders, and capitalism as thuggery finally in the news beyond the safely woke, it’s rather a disappointment to hear powwow drums as merely another bed for macho angst. The Yasiins go for M.I.A.esque platitudes that follow the same trade routes as globalization, and the crunchy production owes more to machines than to rage. Can’t not raise a fist in solidarity, though.
[7]

Will Adams: A marvel of a production that sustains its density without sounding overcrowded, bolstered by performers who know how to command it.
[7]

Madeleine Lee: My perception of A Tribe Called Red will always be coloured positively by the experience of their amazing live sets, so I don’t mind that the beat of “R.E.D.” is basically their core sound of indigenous music samples matched to earth-shaking bass riffs. The innovation on this song (to me, anyway) is the addition of rap. I appreciate the slow pace of Yasiin Bey and Narcy’s rhymes, which emphasize the gravity of the beat, even if the lyrical content is a bit too mystical for me.
[7]