Oglala Lakota Singer Songwriter JUQ Scores Tik Tok viral hit with New Music Video
“the oglala wolf puppy”, “tempo”, “nya” & “yamni” are the characters that are portrayed in multi NAMA award winning singer / songwriter’s JUQ latest animated visual for song “*” off his previously released 3rd chapter “yamni”, released November 6th, 2020, in the middle of a raging pandemic and presidential race that’s left this imperialist country in shambles. “I obviously with in the realms of the pandemic, I had to sit with my feelings more than anything because I was stuck at home. I wanted to put people through what I went through, this aggressive space where you have to grapple with your thoughts and reshape the way you’re responding.” In this visual, with this ever-commending component of truth coming to fruition, the 4 main characters find themselves in a position they never imagined.
“I feel like I just wanted to give a piece that showcased the manners in which I experience my identity”, Wanbli states, which is in reference to him having only came out bisexual, polyamorous end of 2019. “My desire to be perfectly clear about where I stand with in our certain perameters and issues, and I wanted to tell people who I was. How much I cared for our people, especially our women, 2slgbtq+ and our youth, how much I know this representation was important with guidance in mind. I wanted people to know how I truly am in my own endeavors of love and so on, that whether I’m with 1 women, 3 women. To know their safe, loved, taken care of. But I’m also Ikce, just another Lakota and I can be a lover, sexual being, so it just comes with so much nuance like every other person.”
The big news portion comes from the major climax scene where bridge goes “We’re the ones who set it alright, we’re the ones who could change this paradigm, we’re the ones they wish they could be, but they can’t”. “This part was a mix of not only standing proud in our love but also standing as indigenous, it feels like the whole world wants what we have when at 1 point it wanted us gone. That’s why them blowing up Mt. Rushmore and displaying various social issues caused by systemic oppression is such a heavy moment, because unless love is at forefront every motion we carry out, then the effort will always be weaker. And my desire to see my people free is something I dream for extensively.”
What makes this release all the more palpable, is outpouring of support for the initial song itself, which was produced, mixed and mastered by Aqqalu Berthelsen aka Inuit producer / DJ Uyarakq, primarily from native tik toker @modern_warrior__ (Lance Tsosie), who has accumulated 1.7 million followers on tik tok. With the song and video gaining tons of traction, Wanbli acknowledges the final scene as a proper way to send off this write up. “It’s a reference to a closed practice with in our Lakowicohan, something I put in cleverly so that my people would have something, a simple metaphor about how my story “the oglala wolf puppy w/ PTSD” and everything I do down to my love life is designed to be “pejuta” for the people. I hope that’s clear enough.”
Watch the animated music video for “*”: Here
Listen to “*”, or 3rd project “yamni”: Spotify:
Apple Music: Here
Follow me on tik tok, use the song “*” by JUQ in a video, and tag him:
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