Iditarod musher Lance Mackey's Comeback Kennel is breeding more than champion racing dogs. Under his tutelage, Mackey has also managed to mold two young mushers, Cain Carter and Braxton Peterson, with a knack for music and a love of rap, who've formed the rap duo The Musherz.
Like any artists, they're inspired by what surrounds them, the joys, ups and downs of daily life. When you're a competitive musher, that means dogs, trails, sleds, other mushers, and a thirst for victory. There's also a healthy dose of boy bravado on some of the tracks, but it works. They're good looking young guys with the same charisma as their superstar mushing mentor.
"Girls hit on us 'cause they know we're the sh**," they fire off in a piece called "Freestyle." Later on in the same song, they continue, "You know you can only catch me in your dreams / 'Cause you know I'm on the winning team."
Carter, 20, who is Mackey's son, and Peterson, 25, are having so much fun with their creative calling that they now sport some very-hard-to miss personal bling around their necks: saucer-sized, silver pendants featuring the kennel logo recreated in jewels. They custom-ordered the pieces from TraxNYC, a jeweler whose hip hop line caters to musicians. Mackey thinks Peterson should carry the pendant with him on the trail, but Peterson, who will be running the race for the first time this year, hasn't decided.
They've also come up with hand signs to flash to "represent" their home turf: an "L" and "M" for Lance Mackey -- and a solo, different style "M" for "Musherz."
The men have known each other since they were boys. As early as ages 10 and 14, they would venture out to help Mackey harness dogs, then harness another 8 dogs for themselves and follow with their own team, taking turns driving while the other rode in the sled. In the years that have followed, the bond of friendship grew so deep that the once-young boys scrambling around a dog lot now consider themselves brothers, and Mackey considers Peterson as much of a son to him as Carter.
This close friendship and intimate knowledge of mushing is evident in a more soulful piece Peterson put together after Carter's successful Iditarod finish in 2011. "Dedication II" begins "Bootying the dogs / I be taking off / Two feet on the track / I'm slightly dazing off / I take a deep breath / It's cold so I start to cough / I come up a hill / my feet I be lifting off."
Deeper in the nearly three-and-a-half minute composition is a line that this year must resonate with Peterson as much as it did for Carter in 2011: "This gonna be my time / It's my time to shine / It's an amazing feeling / When you cross the finish line."
Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com