Recent Nammy award winner Gabriel Night Shield includes the adult illustrated novel, “Scalped” in his press kit? Right away I’ve got to find out what’s up wit dat?

Gabriel Night Shield’s CD Loved/Hated features Night Shield as artist and producer doing work with the likes of Jay Nez, Jackie Bird, and Buggin Malone, award winners in their own right. There is a unique mix and blend of talents in the tracks on this disc.

Gabriel Night Shield, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, grew up on the Rosebud Reservation cut his eye-teeth on the likes of such Hip-Hop classics as Bone Thugs N Harmony's, "Creepin On Ah Come Up", Wu Tang Clan’s, "Enter The 36 Chambers" to 2Pac's, "Me Against The World".

In 1997 Night Shield attended the Art Institute of Seattle to study Audio Production in Seattle, where he made a lot of important contacts in the business and he also started to develop as an artist recording many of his own songs.

On Loved/Hated, the Night Shield third CD there are many highlights and included among them is the dynamic What Can I Say. With a nice start and a good dance beat, this rhythm combined with the great lyric could put Mr. Shield over the top and this cut has serious potential written all over it.

With the track Boom the overall production quality and sound style is reminiscent of Eminem and the “8-mile” Detroit sound as NS pays homage to a talented white hip hop artist and explores the nuances of the sound. This piece has great audiio production quality, the strong lyric and combination of beats makes this a winner.

In the more R n B inspired track “Lil Shorty” the electric piano brings a welcome change-up to the instrumentation and include the great singing and harmonies and you’ve got more than just another R n B piece. This song has a beautiful sentiment for the artist’s baby daughter and lets us in on the soul of Mr. Shield. “but I better run along, I got a little shorty waitin’ for me at home.” I have enormous respect for this track.

Night Shield proves he can think outside the box with the cut, “Broken Dreams.” When you sample Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer) from Smoke Signals and you’ve got Jackie Bird singing you are now working from a new perspective; you are working on a work of art.

This song is a deep departure from the ordinary, It stands apart from standard hip-hop and is the Native American hip-hop voice that I personally look for in my research of the genre. Night Shield says: “Are you really ready to die / Just to prove who’s harder / How ‘bout working really hard / Just to prove your smarter /” All right class, listen up, Mr. Night Shield has something to say.

Building to the last track on the disc where the rhythm ends with The 605 (Cruelty III) in which the big daddy brings the posse together for the big finale. Perfect. Smart. It’s an inspired multi talent jam session in a format that is somewhat reminiscent of the old school free-style jam. This is an incredibly insightful and profound ending to a good work deserving of the recognition its been receiving.

Apparently the audio recording classes were a wise investment. Night Shield sheds light on walking the walk and he lets us inside the footsteps of his musical journey with his Nammy award winning CD Loved-Hated.  Thanks, bro’!