"Forty years after hip-hop was born in the south Bronx, it is being re-imagined by indigenous artists of the North—from Athabascan villages in Alaska, to the capital city of Greenland, to reindeer-herding towns in northern Finland and western Russia. WE UP: Indigenous Hip-Hop of the Circumpolar North, a feature-length documentary film produced by the Anchorage Museum in 2018, profiles rising stars of Northern Indigenous hip-hop, their connections of experience and inspiration. The film documents the formation of Circumpolar Hip-Hop Collab, and their first mainstage performance at the 2018 Riddu Riđđu Indigenous peoples' festival in Olmmáivággi, Norway. This album is one of the many positive outcomes that began with these artists sharing their stories on film.
Circumpolar Hip Hop Collab is an Indigenous hip hop collective with members from across the Arctic. Rappers, yoikers, throat singers, and beatmakers from Alaska, Nunavut, Kalaallit Nunaat and Sápmi gathered during the Riddu Riđđu Festival 2018 in Norwegian Sápmi to make a high concept concert on the festival’s main stage. This album is a result of the recording sessions that followed. By incorporating their cultures and languages into their raps and beats, the members of the Collab strengthen and reimagine hip hop in the North. The album features throat singing from Nunavut in which two or more notes are produced by the human voice at once, as well as Sámi yoik, a traditional form of song and expression. On this album many Indigenous languages can be heard: Inuit languages from Alaska, Nunavut and Kalaallit Nunaat, Sámi languages of northern Scandinavia and northwestern Russia. English and Russian, languages brought to these lands by colonizers, are also used by the artists. Hip hop serves as a tool for resistance and the transmission of culture and language. The rhythms and words found on Holvut//Howl express the vitality and innovation of hip hop in the Circumpolar North today." – Aqqalu Berthelsen, Producer and artist