"We all deserve to be happy, healthy, and respected."

January 17, 2016 8:08 PM

“Sometimes, music is the best medicine.” Frank Waln is a 26-year-old Hip-Hop artist; a Sicangu Lakota person who grew up on the Rosebud Reservation, taught himself to play piano as a child, and mixes his own music in his basement studio.

There's no definite date announced yet, but Frank Waln will soon be releasing a full album sometime this year. For now, here's a selection of his great music:
White War

Oil4Blood (All Red Everything)

My Stone, YT with lyrics

AbOriginal

What Makes The Red Man Red, yes he flipped that Peter Pan song!

And a couple more articles about the artist:
Paper Magazine: One major element of hip-hop is that you can bring to it who you are. For me, it was a catalyst to reconnect to my own culture and own indigeneity and look at it from a non-colonial lens. It was a safe space to look at who I was as a Lakota person.

The FADER: I'm trying to give this country the spiritual spanking it deserves.

posted by one teak forest (2 comments total)

I have almost no exposure to hip-hop so I never would have seen this. I’m glad I did. I grew up not too far from there and now that I’m miles and decades away, it has been really interesting observing the changes in my own understanding. I wonder how the attitudes of people I left back there have changed. I like that young people are finding ways to make their voices heard. In the Paper Magazine piece he says:

"... I want people to feel what it's like to be where I'm from. I want them to know what it smells like, tastes like, what the wind feels like, what historical trauma and hope feels like. I want to try and musically take people there."

I think he's doing that.

If you don't think you like hip-hop: Give the My Stone video a shot . It's just lovely. (Can I say that about hip hop?)
posted by evilmomlady at 1:12 PM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

> In general, if you aren't following Native American hip hop these days, you are missing out on some amazing stuff. It's exploding as a genre.

Hey, spitbull (and anyone else following this thread, and also one teak forest!), if you have any other particular recs for Native American/First Nations hip-hop/rap artists, please please drop them here or in my askme that I asked today or via memail or etc. Thank you! I love this guy's stuff.
posted by rtha at 8:48 PM on February 3, 2016