Iqaluit (Nov 01/04) - Wearing a silver necklace with a huge dollar sign dangling from it, Lena Nuyalia, 20, was grooving to West Coast rap music coming through her headphones in Iqaluit last week.

Nuyalia, who considers herself "half" Inuk --she has an Italian father and an Inuk mother -- likes rap music a lot.

Lena Nuyalia, 20, grooving to a mixed rap and hip-hop CD she mixed herself on a computer in Iqaluit. - Kathleen Lippa/NNSL photo

Many young people in Nunavut that she knows can relate to rap lyrics about growing up poor, doing drugs, using guns, even going to jail.

She said rap "tells it like it is. That's how it is for us."

Tupac Shakur -- the talented American rapper who was shot and killed in a drive-by in Las Vegas when he was just 25 -- especially appeals to Nuyalia and many of her friends because his personality came through in his lyrics about growing up in poverty and having to fight for everything he got.

"He tells it from his heart," says Nuyalia.

Her favourite song by Tupac is The Last M***** F***** Standing, and she has also watched the film about his life, Resurrection, many times.

Nuyalia and her friends like rap music and hip-hop so much -- hip-hop is urban music like rap, but is often easier to dance to -- that they make their own mixed CDs on computers.

Ivan Joamie, 25, is one of Nuyalia's friends, and a rapper in his own right.

Joamie likes to write down lyrics of popular rap songs and rap them in Inuktitut.

Joamie was shy about doing a demonstration of Inuktitut rap last week, but said he thinks it's time for Inuit rappers to start getting noticed.

There are more of them than people realize. The raw power and energy of the music enables young people here to tell their stories like no other popular art form.

Inuk rapper eyes Quebec

"Maybe I'll go to Northern Quebec," Joamie said, sitting in a coffee shop in Iqaluit last week. "They've got a couple of rap groups there."

One of Joamie's favourite rap songs is Better Dayz by Tupac -- also known as 2Pac. The song contains the lyrics: "Time to Question our lifestyle/Look how we live/Smoking weed like it ain't no thing/so even kids wanna try now."

Listening to rap gives Joamie ideas for his own music, which he likes to create using guitar, keyboards, and bass.

Joamie isn't so much a fan of the "Thug Life" concept that Tupac popularized. He is a fan of good music with heart.

In fact, Joamie said he doesn't think young people should listen to rap at all until they are a little older.

"Mostly because of the language," he said of the lyrics. "(The songs) are too violent."