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DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION
A young man in Fort Resolution credits an unusual saviour – rapping – for rescuing him from a life of alcohol and drugs, and even with helping him return to school.

Sam Biscaye raps during his first and still only live public performance in March at a talent show during the Fort Resolution Spring Carnival. - NNSL file photo

Sam Biscaye has been writing his own lyrics and rapping for about a year and a half, after starting to deal with the "bad emotion" he was living through.

"I used to drink and I used to do drugs," the 20-year-old explained. "I used to be on the street and have no home. I felt mad all the time."

Biscaye said rap saved him by allowing him to express his feelings.

"It made me look more on the bright side of life," he said.

Other people also tell him that his raps help them, he noted. "They hear my music and they tell me it helps them feel better."

Most of his raps are about living in Fort Resolution and the NWT, and deal mainly with "real-life stuff" like pain, drugs and alcohol – often using gritty language – but also with a positive message of how people can choose a better life.

When Biscaye tells his life story, it is understandable why he had problems. Alcohol split up his family – he never knew his father – and he was raised by grandparents from the time he was three years old.

His inspiration to write rap lyrics came when he was staying with his sister because he had nowhere else to live.

One day he was in his bedroom listening to a CD, he recalled. "I had nothing but a little mat on the floor and a little stereo, and this one song popped on. It was a rap song and he was talking about how he felt really down, and music got him up. I wanted to do the same thing from right there. So I just started writing."

The inspirational song was 'The Saga (The Remix)' by American rapper Cormega.

"It tells the story of his life pretty much and how he was drifting bad and into drugs and booze and all that," Biscaye said. "And he started writing what he felt."

The Fort Res rapper has always enjoyed that style of music.

"I grew up listening to Tupac and Eminem and Biggie Smalls all my life," he said. "I really liked it. I could sing their songs. I'd sing along to them. That's probably what gave me the vibe."

Biscaye uses the performance name Sammy Seagull, because his family name means seagull in Chipewyan and the nickname was given to him when he was a child.

With his raps, Biscaye said he is also trying to show people that there are different ways, positive ways, people can choose to live their lives.

His own turnaround has been dramatic.

"I'm not on the street," he said. "I have my own house now. I have everything I need."

Most importantly, he no longer uses alcohol or drugs; he does still smoke cigarettes.

Biscaye has also returned to getting an education, after being in and out of school for two years, and he credits that to rapping.

"I was trying to go to school," said the Grade 12 student at Deninu School of his life before being saved by rapping. "But I had nowhere to stay and I had no money for food and all that, and I had to go work instead of going to school, and that kind of made me mad, too."

Biscaye is not sure what he will do after Grade 12, but he is leaving open the possibility of becoming a professional artist.

"It's probably all I really have right now to try, so I probably will," he said. "I really like doing it."

However, while he said it would be pretty cool to be a professional artist, he doesn't have the confidence to do it. "I have the confidence to make the songs and all that, but I don't really have the confidence right now to go big-time with it."

Biscaye's raps – he has written 15 in total – are all on YouTube, including one entitled 'Hip Hop Saved My Life'. Most videos just show various images as he raps, but one features him rapping into a camera.

"I just constantly write every day more and more. It keeps getting bigger and it keeps getting better," he said. "If I feel happy, I'll make a happy song. If I feel sad, I'll make sad songs"

Biscaye, a member of Deninu Ku'e First Nation, would like to one day try to write a rap in the Chipewyan language, but right now his Chipewyan is not that good.

"I probably will in the future," he said. "That would be cool."

Biscaye has only performed live once, during a talent show at Deninu School during the Fort Resolution Spring Carnival in March of this year.

Biscaye said he didn't want to do it and it was nerve-wracking, but it had to be done. "I wanted to break my stage fright at the time."

Afterwards, he felt pretty good about performing, he said. "I wanted to do it again."

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