Pabineau First Nation hip-hop artist gets first ECMA nod

A hip-hop artistfrom the PabineauFirst Nation has scored his first East Coast Music Award nomination, andhe's just19-years-old.

Tristan Grant is nominated for an Aboriginal Artistof the Year award andhe comes by his musical precociousness honestly. Both his mother, who raps under the nameRedSuga,and his uncle, known asMO3,are hip-hop artists and past ECMA nominees.

Grant, who studiesat Mount Allison University,said he found out about the nomination almost by accident.

"Iwent to a class, came home, opened up my laptop and boom! On twitter, I was tagged in the East Coast Music Awards feed," he said.

Speaking to Information Morning Moncton, a clearly ebullientGrant said the nomination was a big surprise andvery exciting, especially ashe will also be performing at the ECMAs,being held in Sydney, N.S. this year, from April 13-17.

Growing up in a musical family opened his mind to the idea of an artistic, expressive life, said Grant.

When he was a little boy, his mother and his uncle were touring the country with their music and "to me, that was so inspiring," especially coming from a small community, he said.

Grant loves working with the rap/hip hop genre, because he likes the way it allows him to express himself.

"Because you can be just about as metaphorical and brash as possible. Like, you can say beautiful things about any subject or you can just bring itdown to the most crude, most honest [level], and it's just so fun," he said.

Grant is adrama student andfinds similaritiesbetweenacting and rapping.

"It's kind of like a part of the hip-hop persona that you have. There has to be that confidence in spite of having to perform and feeling nervous," he explained.

He credits his family for notonly love and support, but also for inspiration and for providing just plain fun, especially when they all get together at Christmas to do somehome recording.

"We write it and we make our own beats. We put it all together and we're all, like, rapping these songs together at four in the morning in my grandmother's kitchen."