Born blind, Mattmac (Matthew Monias) doesn’t let his lack of sight keep him from envisioning a bright future. On June 28, 2024, the multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, rapper, and producer from Garden Hill First Nation released All Eyes on Us via N’we Jinan Records. The album follows the global success of his debut and sophomore recordings, 20/20 (2020) and Blurred Visions (2022). The title – a play on Tupac Shakur’s All Eyez on Me – was partly inspired by the musician’s love for the seminal 1996 hip-hop album.
Select the image to play the YouTube video of the Mattmac x Mariame song “Find My Love”
“At the time, my mom didn’t allow me to listen to rap,” he says. But Mattmac found ways to listen. “I’d wait until my mom was out of the house. My sister would bring me a mix of songs on CDs her friends would make for me,” he says. “There were some gems on Shakur’s album.”
Mattmac has shared the stage with Nelly Furtado, and has performed at notable events such as WE Day and Indigenous Day Live. He’s been covered in Billboard Canada, on CBC Music, and in Exclaim!, and has accumulated more than 30 million streams. Twice, he’s reached No. 1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown, and he’s been featured on CBC Radio, Virgin Radio, and SiriusXM. He’s also earned an RBC / Canada’s Walk of Fame Emerging Musician Award, and in June of 2024, he curated Spotify’s Indigenous playlist. In 2023, he won the CBC Searchlight contest with “Rez (Remix),” featuring Indigenous rappers Dakota Bear and Okema.
During the final stages of recording Blurred Visions, Mattmac started thinking about his next album. “I make beats every day,” he says. “I love writing them, but I can’t realistically write songs for all my beats.” He and his manager David Hodges reached out to the 15 Indigenous artists that ended up collaborating on the album. Fulfilling his vision, Mattmac produced 18 songs on All Eyes on Us, creating soundscapes that span many subgenres of hip-hop, and sharing tales of resilience, growth, community, affirmation, and pride.
For “Find My Love” with Mariame, a Cree and Algerian R&B singer-songwriter from Montréal, the musicians sent files back and forth electronically before ever meeting in person. When Mattmac first heard the song come together, his reaction was, “Heck Yeah! This sounds fire!” The tune, written by Mattmac and Hodges, is undeniably catchy, with Mariame’s rich vocals lending the song a nostalgic ‘90s feel.
In “Imposters,” Mattmac raps with Stella Standingbear, a Lakota artist from Salt Lake City, Utah, singing, “I wanna see my people at the top.” The two musicians, who co-wrote the song with Malik Isaac Wilson, first met in person at a concert. “I sent a pack of four or five beats,” says Mattmac. “She sent three songs back, including one that was over a slower and more emotional beat. The feel was nice,” he says, “but I felt like her energy was a bit more hype. So, I took it and made it more upbeat. I matched her energy.”
Select the image to play the YouTube video of the Mattmac song (featuring Toosick) “Still Got Love”
Mattmac wrote “Out of Reach” with Wilson and Drezus (Jeremiah Manitopyes), an accomplished Plains Cree rapper and activist based in Calgary (and co-winner of a SOCAN Award in 2022, with Snotty Nose Rez Kids). The two had previously worked on “Play the Hero” in 2020, a song they reference in their more recent collaboration, when Mattmac sings, “I made it this far, I’m out of your reach / They see that I’m blind they calling my bluff / Still play the hero shout out to big neech.” Drezus travelled to Mattmac’s current hometown of Winnipeg to record their new track. “I was in the studio in front of the microphone and the lines, the lyrics, just kept coming at me,” says Mattmac. He told Drezus, “Trust me on this one, bro. I can hear something in my head,” when asking him to “punch in” his parts, something the rapper wasn’t used to doing.
Going with his gut is important to Mattmac, as is celebrating his roots. When he sent some beats to Indigenous hip-hop artist Toosick (Anthony Tootoosis), from Poundmaker Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Toosick started “vibing” on them right away. Within five minutes, he came up with the concept for “Still Got Love,” writing a chorus and a verse. “He’s basically talking about how he still has love for where he comes from, even though there was a lot of hardships,” says Mattmac.
The rap polymath could relate to that: “I left the rez, but I still remember some of the lessons,” he says. Though his success is taking him far from home, Mattmac loves his Garden Hill First Nation, and how his family and community have shaped him. “I just wanna go back home and show all my cousins and my nieces and nephews that we made it,” he says. “They’re very, very close to me.”