Saskatoon-based Kainai/Blackfoot hip-hop artist RaytheNihilist (Raistlin MorningOwl) is preparing to release FLWRS//4DaCritics on October 21, 2026.
Photo credit: Tasha & Ray Morning Owl
RaytheNihilist has decided to give his critics their flowers. The Saskatoon-based Kainai/Blackfoot hip-hop artist, whose name is Raistlin MorningOwl, is preparing to release FLWRS//4DaCritics on October 21, following two wins at this year's Saskatchewan Indigenous Music Awards. The song draws on the support and doubt he has encountered in his career, including criticism he has sometimes directed at himself.
MorningOwl won Rap Artist of the Year at the 2025 Saskatchewan Indigenous Music Awards. At the 2026 ceremony, he received Rap/Hip Hop/Electronic Person of the Year and Male Artist of the Year. The Male Artist honour surprised him, while both awards meant a great deal in light of the work he has put into building an independent career.
“I've had people show love and support, I've won awards, I've had opportunities I used to dream about, but I've also seen the criticism and the doubt that comes with putting yourself out there,” he told SCENE 49 in a written interview. “At some point, you realize you can't let either one determine how you feel about yourself or what you create.”
MorningOwl wrote FLWRS//4DaCritics while thinking about the difference between learning from criticism and feeling he constantly has something to prove. He says he has often been hard on himself, and wanted to acknowledge those experiences without turning the song into an angry response to people who doubted him.
Giving the critics their flowers
The title takes the familiar idea of giving people their flowers while they are still here to receive them and applies it to those who doubted him. MorningOwl says critics, difficult encounters and people who pushed him to work harder have all contributed to his career, whether they intended to or not. There's humour in thanking them, he says, and a way to acknowledge their role without carrying resentment.
“I don't look at every critic as somebody I need to defeat,” he said. “Some criticism makes you look at yourself differently, some of it motivates you, and some of it just shows you that not everybody is going to understand what you're doing. That's life.”
MorningOwl produced the beat himself. He describes the first half as a laid-back blend of boom-bap and neo-soul, with room for listeners to follow his words. Partway through, the arrangement changes: the bass comes forward, the drums take on a trap influence and the energy rises. He wanted the transition to have an impact while keeping the lyrics at its centre.
Matt Stinn, a collaborator on MorningOwl's two most recent records, handled engineering, mixing and mastering. Stinn also played guitar, electric bass and synth bass. MorningOwl credits those live elements with adding texture to the production and says he wanted listeners to be able to enjoy the track's sound while finding more in its words on repeated listens.
MorningOwl appreciates the awards, but questions how often streams, follower counts and viral moments are treated as measures of artistic success. “Some of the most meaningful music I've ever heard didn't necessarily come from the biggest artists,” he said. He believes one song can mean more to an individual listener than a million streams.
Building an independent career
MorningOwl estimates that he has been making music for about ten years. Saskatoon has been home through much of his development, and he credits Saskatchewan's music community with helping him connect with musicians, producers and other people who make space for independent artists. He specifically mentions Stinn and Rainy Day Recording Co. among those who have helped him realize his ideas.
He is equally candid about the administrative work that happens outside the studio. Writing and recording are only part of an independent career, alongside booking tours, promoting shows, managing finances and organizing releases. MorningOwl has spent recent years touring and building connections, often creating opportunities rather than waiting for someone else to offer them.
Being Kainai, MorningOwl says, influences his writing even when a song is not explicitly about culture. He cites sobriety, healing and family among the experiences that inform his music. He feels a responsibility as an Indigenous artist while recognizing the limits of speaking for others. “I'm not trying to represent everybody's experience, because I can only speak from my own,” he said.
He wants younger Indigenous artists to feel free to experiment with subjects and sounds beyond what audiences may expect from them. For MorningOwl, those possibilities include personal stories about relationships, ambition and uncertainty alongside work that speaks more directly to Indigenous identity.
What RaytheNihilist means now
MorningOwl's artist name dates to a period when he was younger and searching for direction. He was drawn to the word “nihilist” at a time when life seemed to lack purpose, but he began thinking about how a person might create meaning for themselves. Music provided something to pursue, and the name gradually took on a more personal significance.
“Instead of looking at the world and feeling like nothing had meaning, I wanted to use that perspective as an opportunity to create my own meaning,” he said. He now connects that sense of purpose to his family, his development as a person and the possibility that his music could stay with someone after they hear it.
MorningOwl released Everybody's Running on July 24 and is continuing to promote the album. He has more music in development but says another full-length project may be some time away. He wants to give listeners a chance to discover the songs already available, rather than continually releasing new work to keep pace with an industry he says puts pressure on artists to remain visible.
“I'd rather let my work marinate over time,” he said. His understanding of the name RaytheNihilist has also changed since he first chose it as a younger artist looking for direction. He now sees it as part of his own history, and as a reminder that his reasons for making music have evolved. “Sometimes you create something before you fully understand what it will come to mean to you.”
Ontario alternative pop-rock duo Little White Lies released “String Me Along” on October 2, a song that Katie Rose Campbell says grew out of a difficult U.S. tour and a change in how the band approaches its career