For our next Quarantune, I present to you a gem from Grammy and JUNO Award-winning Indigenous multidisciplinary artist and producer, David Strickland. The song is “Turtle Island”. Strickland just released the video, and we have it here to share with you.
*photo by Franklin Lau
“Turtle Island” is from David Strickland’s forthcoming album, Spirit Of Hip Hop, slated for release this summer. The song is a collaboration, featuring the talents of Supaman, Artson, Spade, JRDN, and Whitey Don. David calls the song “a state of the union” and commentary on life in 2020 on Turtle Island (a name many Indigenous People use referring to North America) for Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous and Africans, either stolen or of the diaspora. The song provides a commentary on class disparity, discrimination, and the continued oppression of Indigenous people, set to the David’s signature style beat, combining traditional, dancehall & hip hop.
David “Gordo” Strickland has been quietly lurking behind the scenes as an engineer, a mixer and a producer on Hip Hop and R&B records for the past two decades. His work has graced seminal tracks by the likes of Pete Rock, Erick Sermon, EPMD, Keith Murray, Redman and Method Man. David has worked on records by almost every one of the ground-breaking Toronto hip-hop acts including KOS, Ghetto Concept, Jelleestone, Kardinal, Saukrates, Jully Black, Divine Brown, Glen Lewis, Choclair and, of course, Drake. David was mentored alongside Noah “40” Shebib by Toronto production legend Noel “Gadget” Campbell, and was in on the ground floor for the OVO explosion, turning in Grammy-winning work behind the boards on Drake’s albums Thank Me Later, as well as its monster-hit successors Take Care and Nothing Was the Same.
Music and art in all shapes and forms is and will continue to be what gets us through this crisis. Continue to support your home grown, local and most beloved artists and come together as we stay apart. Learn more about David’s incredible work through his website and social media below, and as always support our artists through this crisis!
www.davidstricklandstudios.com
https://twitter.com/certainndn
https://www.instagram.com/david.strickland/