RAPID CITY, S.D. – Inside a small studio at Homeslice Media, four artists shared stories that stopped the room. Their words came from places of fire, loss, and redemption. Together, they call themselves family. To the community, they are becoming something bigger: living proof that love and music can pull people from the edge.
Half Dead, Guardian Angel, C-Critt Veda, and Jordan Truly have walked through addiction, prison, trauma, and near-death experiences. Now they stand side by side, telling the truth through music and using it to heal others who are still fighting.
“It all started on a prison transport,” C-Critt Veda said. “Jordan and I met on our way to a very dark place. After years and years of addiction, in and out of prison, somehow our paths crossed. When we got out, we just decided it was time to live different.”
That choice didn’t come easy. “After twenty years of extreme addiction, I fell back in a few times,” he said. “One day I woke up and decided I couldn’t do it myself anymore, and I asked for help. I called Teal Finneman, and she didn’t hang up on me like most people would have. She picked me up, and that was the day my life changed.”
He went to the mission shelter, got two jobs, and started writing his first album there. “I put myself on tour,” he said, smiling. “When I got back, I locked in with Jordan Truly, and that’s when everything started moving.”
Jordan nodded, recalling his own battles. “I’ve been doing music since I was a child. It’s always been my dream. But I struggled with addiction and evil thinking that led me back to the streets every time. God was the number one thing that pulled me back down to my roots. He surrounded me with people I didn’t even know, people who had no reason to support me, but they showed up anyway. I put that on God. The hard work belongs to everybody involved.”
When asked how he found faith again, Jordan’s voice softened. “I think God’s waiting on everybody. I just had to be vulnerable enough to let go. I’m powerful, but not as powerful as our creator. My mama was my rock. She taught me the foundation. It’s not about religion for me. It’s spiritual. I feel it in my soul. It literally moves mountains.”
Their music reflects that light-versus-dark contrast. “We call ourselves light-side artists,” said C-Critt Veda. “There’s too much darkness out there. We don’t make it religious, but it’s about choosing light after living in darkness.”
Half Dead and Guardian Angel bring their own balance to the group. Their love story began at rock bottom.
“I got burnt alive in an oil field accident in 2006,” Half Dead said quietly. “The pump blew up with over three thousand pounds of pressure while I was inside. I had no face, no lips, my hands were gone. I shouldn’t be here. They have no clue how I survived.”
Guardian Angel smiled at him. “They wanted to do skin grafts all over his face,” she said. “He’s not supposed to be this pretty.”
Half Dead laughed softly. “When I came home, I spiraled. I drank every day. I was violent. I was done. I was ready to give up. I planned to take my own life on my birthday, but she came over. From that day, she never left.”
“I never left,” she said simply. “He didn’t name me Angel. He gave me that name.”
Since then, the two have been inseparable, pouring their pain into purpose. “With addiction, the opposite of addiction is community,” Guardian Angel said. “The kind thing doesn’t always feel nice. Sometimes it’s work and tears and sadness, but it means being there through all of it.”
Together, they and their friends turned survival into song. Their track Not Alone has become a lifeline. “When people feel like there’s no one left,” Half Dead said, “I tell them, call me. I don’t care if it’s 2 a.m. I’ve talked to strangers for hours. If you think nobody else has your back, we do.”
Jordan added, “It’s so hard to ask for help when you’re in that state. The best thing we can do is give up control and let the people who love us help.”
The group talks openly about the fentanyl crisis, mental illness, and the pain that hides behind addiction. “People are dying and they don’t even mean to,” Jordan said. “They’re being poisoned. That’s why we hand out naloxone at our shows. Somebody has to do it.”
C-Critt Veda nodded. “We have to break the stigma. I used to be a completely different person on drugs. I did bad things. So I can’t be mad at people who are still there. I just pray they wake up one day and call for help.”
Their message reaches across every divide. “We’ve got gangsters, drug addicts, homeless people, families. Everybody shows up and everybody’s welcome,” Half Dead said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. We just want to bring people together.”
They believe in the small things. “You never know what a small act of kindness can do,” Half Dead said. “Holding the door for someone might change their whole day. The little things matter.”
Their music blends pain with hope, faith with truth, and love with raw honesty. “We’re not gangster rap,” C-Critt Veda said. “The scene got tainted by people rapping about guns and drugs. We tell real stories. No glorification. Just truth.”
Now, their community is growing fast. “The impact has been huge,” Jordan said. “It’s motivational. The love we feel from people, it’s everything.”
Guardian Angel smiled. “It’s a blessing,” she said. “We’ve all been through darkness, but we found balance. There is always light.”
Amy Rose, who hosted the interview, shared through tears, “You guys are making a huge impact. You’re helping people who need to hear this right now. God is proud.”
C-Critt Veda smiled back. “That’s the goal. We’re going to keep it rocking.”
You can follow and book these incredible artists online:
- C-Critt Veda (@c-critteda on all platforms)
- Jordan Truly (Facebook: Jordan Truly)
- Half Dead & Guardian Angel (Dirty Dahg Productions on Facebook and Spotify)
For event bookings and collaborations, message them directly on social media.
They are not just musicians. They are survivors, healers, and storytellers who have turned pain into purpose and built a family out of second chances. They are proof that even in the darkest places, love can still light the way home.