Amelia Schafer
ICT
RAPID CITY, S.D. — When Talon Bazille Ducheneaux takes the stage, he dons stark white facepaint with black lightning bolts beneath his eyes, an eye-catching display but one that elicits a variety of reactions.
It represents who the Cheyenne River Lakota and Crow Creek Dakota artist is. The white, a symbol of his spirit and the wakiyan (lightning) representing emotion and behind his neck are seven black dots representing the seven generations before him.
“These generations of people are the reason I’m here today,” he said. “(The reason) I can speak, I can do my dance without being arrested… I have that freedom because so many people fought for me.”
Bazille released his newest album, “Creator Bless the Underground,” on May 20. Just like his previous work, it pays homage to his ancestors, to his community and calls attention to issues facing Native youth.
“With this project I didn’t hold back,” he said. “I wanted to say everything, I hope I did.”
From his home studio in Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Oglala Lakota Artspace on the Pine Ridge Reservation, he crafts catchy beats and writes raps that depict contemporary life as a Lakota and Dakota person.
The album features 16 different songs, but one that really stands out is “Like 38,” he said.
The song is dedicated to the Dakota 38+2, the largest mass execution in American history, where 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, on Dec. 26, 1862, following the Dakota Uprising. Two years later, two Dakota leaders, Shakopee and Medicine Bottle, were also hanged, which is where “+2” comes from.
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Many of Bazille’s relatives participate in the yearly ride from Crow Creek to Mankato to honor the lives lost that day, his goal with the song was to channel that energy and “go as hard as they do.”
“I didn’t just want to say what the history was,” he said. “I wanted to express what we’re going through today.”
The song begins with a sample of a man describing the hours before the 38 Dakota men were executed, then it transitions into a catchy chorus describing ongoing struggles then slowing down into a more mournful song.
“Some of my brothers died just from trying to live,” Bazille raps. “We should never live how we’ve had to live.”
Bazille is an Ivy League graduate, having obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, but his true passion has always been music.
Born and raised in Eagle Butte and Fort Thompson on the Cheyenne River and Crow Creek Reservations, he grew up surrounded by music. He sang at the drum with his relatives, which is where he recorded himself singing for the first time. Eventually, he found a passion for rap through artists like MF Doom and Tupac.
Looking through old cassette tapes and CDs he found a Tupac record, which really spoke to him.
“Not just the politics and the activism but the spiritual, the passion, the life that you can hear – it spoke to me. With rap, I can fit a lot more in and get everything that’s in here out,” he said pointing to his chest.
He made his first mixtape in high school and would pass out his CDs for free. His original songs were grittier, and brash, he said. But as he grew so did his music.
“I realized that as a Dakota and Lakota person, I’m allowed complexity, I’m allowed to blend those things,” he said. “I feel like it’s just innate, and if this things is serving me then it gives me the energy to figure out how I can make it serve other people – that’s where my psych degree comes in.”
His newest album is a tribute to all of the artists who have inspired him, the relatives who have supported him, his four years spent living in Philadelphia and the underground music scene.
“People now in the underground, who might not be getting the recognition they deserve, I hear them. I feel it in my chest, my face, everything,” he said. “This is a tribute to that. I’ve made albums before but this one is the true intent of it from beats to collaborations, decisions, track alignments, it’s all how I wanted to map out this tribute.”
The album is available for streaming on Spotify and can also be purchased as a CD on Bazille’s website.