Solarize-ing Native hip-hop: Native feminist land ethics and cultural resistance

In this article I focus in-depth on what constitutes cultural resistance within the genre of Native Hip-Hop. Rather than examining multiple songs and artists I have chosen to focus on one recent Native hip-hop song titled “Solarize” which was created in 2013 through United Roots Oakland (a youth center for green arts and media) by Desirae Harp (Mishewal Wappo Tribe of the Alexander Valley), Fly50, and SeasunZ. I argue that the collective work in this song moves us closer to developing a Native feminist land ethic which privileges living with the land rather than over the land; and, at the level of praxis, their song builds alliance with, rather than isolation from, Black communities. Therefore, the song represents the productive move of employing what Audra Simpson and Andrea Smith have called “theoretical promiscuity” through hip-hop music and culture.