Native Sun News Today: Lakota artist remains grounded in tradition

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

JuQ revisits his ‘Tempo’ debut project

Oglala pop singer eager to reexamine the Tempo themes
By James Giago Davies
Native Sun News Today Correspondent
nativesunnews.today

RAPID CITY— Having returned from a long trip to Liverpool, England, Wanbli Ceya found himself back home in the land of his Oglala ancestors, needing to refocus on his art and commitment to helping restore the traditional values and practices of the Lakota people. That meant taking a job at a local gas station, taking a second job to augment that first job, and then sitting down, reassessing his life, circumstance and goals, and sharing them with his fellow Lakota.

“Two years ago I released ‘Tempo,’ my debut project, the first chapter of the Oglala Wolf Puppy with PTSD,” Wanbli Ceya, aka pop artist “JuQ,” wrote in a letter to the Lakota people. “I'm hoping with this, the release of my short film, ‘My Winyan,’ and all this new music and content, that will come out through my imprint, ‘Oglalapuppies,’ that will all change.”

JuQ writes all his own music. He does not play an instrument, but he can stand in front of a crowd and fill the room up with just his voice and personality. He plans on making Red Shirt Table village his base of operations. “Which is Oglala Lakota territory,” JuQ says, “in the colony known as South Dakota, which is in the empire known as the United States.”

juQ on SoundCloud: Tempo

“My primary initiatives and goals,” JuQ reveals, “are to be a major influence in the (reestablishment) of Lakota language and cultural revitalization, and the cleansing of all toxic constituents that have found themselves within my Oglalas on Pine Ridge, due to imperialism led by the American Government.”

JuQ does not want to just confine himself to the artistic realm, but continues to see that his efforts must be grounded in his Oglala heritage and traditional way of life: “Music is just one of the many avenues I’m taking, but I also have community projects like ‘Mni: the Lakota Immersion Tipi Village,’ ‘Connect the Dots,’ etc.”

JuQ wants to place his main focus on his debut project “Tempo”, which came out two years ago: “If ‘Tempo’ had been given proper release and stature, as was intended, I feel the project would’ve been huge, given the content and potential that existed with in the album itself, as well as the story that is actually being told on it, which to this day, I’m still amazed it came out of me. Most of it was written primarily when I was 17 / 18... Crazy stuff.”

Tempo had some issues in the beginning. JuQ points out “the botched release, botched mixing and mastering.” He says the debut project has “nowhere near the exposure as hoped in this span of time.”

“Tempo” is a concept album. It tells the story of the “Oglala Wolf Puppy with PTSD,” and the night “that changes his life forever.”

JuQ: “After escaping a very tragic scenario that nearly took everything from him, he goes to a place where there are more like him, which culminates into him meeting ‘Tempo,’ a Lakota winyan on a similar path, and the project itself follows everything that happens that night, and what both characters pick up from the situation they find themselves in.”

JuQ began his career three years ago with Brandis Knudson of South Dakota Records, based out of Rapid City. Knudsen is a hip hop performer and initially JuQ was too, but his natural bent was toward pop, and although he envisions future collaborations with Knudsen, and they are still friends socially, JuQ is in search of a platform and a partnership that speaks to the fundamental gist of his art and the hopes he has for impacting the Lakota people in a positive and traditional way.