Jeremiah Manitopyes (Drezus)
Drezus and the Music that Made Him - Demo Magazine - text only - Official - 2020 - Demo chats with the Calgary-based rapper about his path to commercial success and cultural healing - by Saba Javed for Demo Magazine
“…On using music to navigate these relationships, Drezus notes that he is wary of being labelled and put in a box. After releasing his 2013 album Red Winter, the creation of which he credits as emotionally healing, he felt much of the mainstream were quick to limit his work and discuss it solely through a vague racial lens. “I am that guy because the public made me that guy, but I’m an artist first. I like to make music for myself. My new album is just a good vibe, but there are elements that show how I’m Native. I’m starting to learn how to get people to listen to deep stuff and they don’t even know it.” (Source: Demo Magazine)
Drezus Walks: Meet the Native American Rapper Merging Old Sounds and New – Vice.com - text only - 2014
“Only once you listen to its lyrics closely do you realize that Warpath, Drezus’s latest single, is about his Native heritage. At first take, it comes off like a more standard trap anthem, complete with stuttering 808 drums, a thudding bass line and Drezus’s baritone bark. Drezus can sell this sound—after all, he spent much of his career making tough gangster rap that reflected his life in the streets selling drugs.
“But Warpath tells a different story than its sound lets on. Its lyrics revolve around spiritualism and overcoming adversity, with lines like, “They left our people broken, but homie don’t play the possum.” And its video shows Drezus channeling his Cree forefathers by standing in front of a tipi in colored buckskins and traditional warrior paint and pounding on a drum made of birch wood. Both the song and video, he says, were meant to give hope to Native men, who often struggle with self-confidence and get into crime as a result.” – Reed Jackson for Vice.com
“Like I'm living in a dream”: Sask. Indigenous hip-hop artist stays true to roots as he works with top talent - Penny Smoke for CBC News - text only - Official - 2018
Professional Information
“Jeremiah Manitopyes, a.k.a. Drezus, became the 1st Indigenous Canadian to ever win an MTV Video Music Award” - CBC News
Indigenous rapper Drezus shares inspiring story with Sask. First Nations youth - 2:13 - Official - 2025
“Jeremiah Manitopyes, a rapper and activist from Muskowekwan First Nation also known as Drezus, shared his story and performed for young people inside the old gymnasium of the former Lebret Indian Industrial School, the last standing relic of a residential school that only closed its doors in 1998.” - CBC/Radio-Canada
The Reinvention of Drezus – Great Big Story - @1:41 “We don’t see a lot of Native People succeeding.” - Drezus - 2:18 - Official
Drezus - Get Up! - “I think my mom is made of magic.” - Drezus 3:08 - Official
Rap, hip hop, traditional
Musician, songwriter, video artist
Vocals
Video
Warpath -
The Reinvention of Drezus - Drezus
Muddy Water Festival 2024 - Drezus, Northsidebaby, Stella Standingbear, Adam Banx, JR Rhodes, Mic North, Deafening, Gurlz Gurlz Gurlz, Black Eagle Band and Tre Chad
Tribal Information
Plains Cree
also known as "Plains Cree"
.There are over 630 First Nations communities in Canada, which represent more than 50 Nations and 50 Indigenous languages. As in the United States, the Canadian Constitution is the supreme law of Canada.
Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982 explicitly recognizes and affirms the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Section 35 also indicates that the term “Aboriginal peoples of Canada” includes the First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
Further, section 25 of the Constitution Act, 1982 protects the Aboriginal and treaty rights that are recognized in section 35 and ensures that no other provision of the Charter can take away or supersede those rights.