Menominee rapper Richy Rich hopes to leave his mark on Indigenous hip hop

Richard Turney, AKA Richy Rich, just wants to leave his mark on Indigenous hip hop and hopes his young son will one day take up the mantle.

“A lot of rappers rap about nonsense, especially about cars or women,” he said. “I wanted to rap about awareness and the issues and do good with my voice.”

Led by Indigenous hip hop artists from Canada, such as Drezus and Snotty Nose Rez Kids, the genre has been mostly about highlighting issues in Indian Country, such as the fight to maintain and increase sovereignty by tribal nations and the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

“A lot of Indigenous hip hop is really, really underground,” said Chris Sharpe, who organized the Indigenous Hip Hop Awards in Canada in 2015. “But to be honest, it’s really good. It’s like hip hop at the beginning. It’s more about issues like social consciousness and the environment.”

And more Indigenous artists from the United States like Turney are trying to elevate the genre here.

He’s only recently started releasing his music to the world now, in his late 30s.

But it all started in middle school when Turney, a member of the Menominee Nation, started writing poetry based on what he was seeing affecting his communities in Green Bay and the Menominee Reservation.

They were serious issues, such as intergenerational trauma, poverty, discrimination and the drug epidemic.

In high school, Turney started pairing his poetry with beats, but performed only for family and friends.

As an adult, he put all that to the side as started a family and a career as a welder.

But with Indigenous hip hop’s popularity on the rise, Turney started writing and performing again in his late 30s with a record label called HGM.

He has since left HGM and started his own label called Street Native Entertainment and has released a couple new songs currently streaming on music platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Turney’s “Native America” featuring Rezzy Redd was released July 4 and delivers a strong message about tribal sovereignty.

“We some Native Americans and we were here first,” Turney raps in the song. “Y’all sent us to reservations, no choice, we were forced. … It’s time to take our land back because this is Native America.”

The “land back” movement has been steadily growing in Indian Country and has different meanings.

For many, it means honoring treaty rights that state-abandoned federal land should be returned to Indigenous nations. An example of this is the takeover of the abandoned U.S. Coast Guard Station in Milwaukee in the 1970s by the American Indian Movement.

“Land back” also means Indigenous management of public lands, such as national parks.

And it means returning reservation land to tribal nations that had been taken by non-tribal members during a period known as “allotment.”

Another of Turney’s new releases is called “Drug Epidemic” featuring his cousin, Wayne Silas, who provided the pow wow singing vocals to the track.

“Let’s put an end to meth, heroin and fentanyl,” Turney raps. “Addiction to drugs is so evil. It’ll stop a heartbeat. It’s so lethal. And it’s killing too many of my people.”

At a rate of 172 per 100,000 people, Native Americans are dying of opioid overdoses in Wisconsin more than any other race or ethnic group, according to Dr. Lyle Ignace, CEO of the Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center in Milwaukee.

"Drug Epidemic" releases Aug. 16.

Turney is planning to submit the songs this month for awards consideration at the upcoming Native American Music Awards ceremony.

He’s hoping to earn some recognition and said he would love to perform in shows across the country like other Indigenous hip hop artists, such as Mike Bone or Sten Joddi who were catapulted to fame in Indian Country for their roles in the hit comedy TV series “Reservation Dogs.”

But Turney said his goal is not money or fame, but to spread the message.

“My goal is to spread awareness speaking about the issues, but also to have something for my children for when it’s my time to go so they have something of me to listen to,” he said.

Turney said he also hopes his youngest child, who’s 7, will continue his interest in Indigenous hip hop and take it further than him since he’ll be able to record him using their own equipment and show him the road to success starting at a younger age than he did.

Sign up for the First Nations Wisconsin newsletter Click here to get all of our Indigenous news coverage right in your inbox

Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Menominee's Richy Rich raps to spread awareness in Indian Country