How it all began..
I started performing as an opening act for local shows in my community at 8 years old. My mother saw the talent my sister and I shared and became a manager for our developing music careers. At first it was something we all did for fun. We weren't too serious about it. We started taking singing lessons from my aunty in Shiprock and practicing daily at home. Her and my mother gave us a makeover that resembled 80s Diva Glam, a lot of makeup and big hair. We took professional photos and to this day they hang in our parents house as a funny embarrassment of us giving them full control of our look.
My sister and I both entered Selena look-alike contests. We were deeply inspired by her and signed up to be a part of her fan club. She was a great role model to both of us. We placed in our age categories and won different places for each contest. First, second, or third and we accumulated many Selena prizes, photos, posters, and trophies. We had a great collection going for ourselves. The judging was based on your outfit, make up, hair and performance. My mother filmed everything.
As we got older, life stepped in to change our paths completely. Conflict between my parents grew, my sister became distant, and at times I found myself alone. My brother was too young to understand and my sister was gone. My parents seperated and I didn't know what to do. I stopped singing.
Time went by, our family healed and slowly came together again. We moved to the reservation and tried to put the pain past us. My sister lived with us for a few years before she left for college and my brother and I were finishing middle school. The three of us started learning piano and my sister was the first to play acoustic guitar. My brother excelled at piano, then he picked up her guitar. He was able to play by ear and replicate songs easily. Later in highschool he became a well rounded guitarist and I started to sing again.
It was my junior year in highschool and I finally had the courage to stand in front of an audience and sing since I was 8. A brand new pavilion was built next door and we wanted to have our highschool talent show there. The paint was fresh, the stage was new, the lights were hot and the seats hadn't been packed with an audience yet. I really wanted to be on stage again.
The rehearsals were daunting but I wasn't going to back down from singing publicly again. I sang at home all the time but this was different. This show was one of the best shows I have ever been to or a part of. It was basically a teenage metal show and everyone was there to witness. Full bands of friends played together. Each band was better than the last. The drums, guitars, and mics were so loud and glorious. The room was filled with teenage Navajos who were the freest I've ever seen. The scene was such a polar opposite from our lives of feeling stuck sitting in our classrooms quiet and obedient from the suppression of generational trauma, the white washing of our elders. These expressions endlessly reflected off of everyone's face in class. It was a dream come true to see my classmates so alive, expressive, and happy. Metal music truly opened our hearts to being what we were always told to be ashamed of. Savage behavior. I felt so good.
I performed alone and sang a capella. The first line of my cover song was, "I'm so tired of being here.." I was one of the first acts to start the show so everyone was still hyped about being there. As soon as I sang that line, a girl, one of my classmates, from the audience shouted all loud with her rez voice, "Yeah! Me too!" and the entire theater filled with laughter. It made me laugh too. I loved it. It broke my nerves. I began to sing again and repeated the line. Afterwards the rest of the song just flew through me effortlessly. They started clapping a cadence and cheered me on through the end. I sang my last note and everyone screamed. My voice was finally back.
This was around the same time I fell in love with Underground Hip-Hop. A year before the talent show, I was 16 and started to meet some really cool heads in Shiprock. I was invited to bboy jams and watched the different elements take their part at these events. Graffiti, Breakin', Emceein', and Turntablism. I loved it all but graffiti caught my eye first. Then the music. I became obsessed with beats, instrumentals and diggin'. I started to hang out with some bboys and learn beginner freezes. More and more the lifestyle became my own.
After I graduated from Shiprock Highschool, I got my own apartment and moved to Farmington. In these first two years my life was mostly focused on graffiti and art. I worked part time, went to college and got my associates degree in Auto-body. I finished college and moved to Phoenix to live with my cousin. During that time we became close friends with our neighbor who happened to be a producer. We spent a lot of time together sharing our playlists and exploring different parts of Phoenix by foot. We attended Hip-Hop shows, concerts, bboy, and graffiti jams. We really didn't think much of making music then. As we moved on into our separate lives the music came together through the distance. This is how my first single came about, Thomas Road. That was the street we lived on and we had many great memories there.
I've been a visual artist and singer as a teenager but emceeing was a talent I picked up after highschool. I've been around it since I started writing graffiti but I never actually tried it. I wrote poetry and started to recite them to my favorites beats. There were so many things I wanted to say and the songs started to write themselves. I got to work, developed my mixtape, posted my tracks on Soundcloud and started performing.
After Phoenix I lived in Albuquerque for 5 years. I performed at Burt's Tiki Lounge, El Chante, The Launchpad, several clubs downtown, small shops, house parties, block parties, schools, skateparks and my favorite place Warehouse 508. I traveled back to Farmington and performed at Three Rivers Brewery. I traveled to Taos and performed at Taos Mesa Brewing and also in Santa Fe at Warehouse 21. Between working and all of the traveling I always made it back home to Shiprock for the unforgettable Under the Bridge Hip Hop Jam, organized by DJ Cedro. That's where Underground Hip-Hop began for me.
After my time in New Mexico, I personally made the choice to permanently move to Hawai'i. On my way there I spent a week in San Jose, California, to visit a cousin that I've never met before. Turns out he is a House music producer who loves house just as much as I do. I love singing House. I have a wide vocal range and this genre does it for me. We made plans to make music together during my stay at his apartment. While he was at work I sang and wrote my lyrics. As soon as he returned we started recording right away. I layed out my vocals in about 2-3 takes which made it much easier for him to master the tracks quickly. We did this every day for 5 days straight.
Our first single was released on March, 20, 2020. We titled it, Free Your Soul. Everyone was going through it and we both agreed to release it early before we finished our EP.
From California I went straight to Hawai'i, moved into my rental house, set myself up with a good job and started to meet new people and make friends. I continued to make music with producers in New Mexico online. My new friends began to invite me to perform at the Hilo Town Tavern, KuhuAu Studio, many small events, island bboy jams, cookouts and open mics at diferent venues and coffee shops.
My music is a mix of Underground Hip-Hop, Lo-fi Jazz Hip-Hop, Neo Soul, RnB, Soulful Trap, Hard Trap, and Meditational House Music. I look forward to greatly expanding my discography in the years to come.
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