TALON Is Raycam Raised, East Van Made — and the V in @itstvlon Carries the Whole City

Before the industry catches up, the community usually knows first.

Before the playlist push, before the festival posters, before the interviews and write-ups, there is always a place. A block. A rec centre. A neighbourhood. A circle of people who saw the spark before anybody else knew what to call it.

For Talon Nadeau, the artist known as TALON, that place is Raycam.

And even his Instagram handle carries the city.

The Story Is in the Handle

Find him online and you will see it: @itstvlon. At a glance it looks like a stylized spelling of his name. It is not random. The "V" stands for Vancouver — the city that shaped him, tested him, and gave his music its foundation. It is TALON with Vancouver written right into the middle of it.

That is the first thing to understand about how TALON presents himself: the branding is intentional. He still goes by TALON. But the handle tells you where he is from before he says a word.

Raycam raised. East Van made. Vancouver stamped.

Public artist bios identify Talon Nadeau as an East Vancouver hip-hop artist rooted in the Downtown Eastside. Come Toward the Fire describes him as a Plains Cree hip-hop artist from East Vancouver with roots from Piapot Nation, while Music BC describes him as a Native and East Indian hip-hop artist born and raised in the DTES of East Vancouver.

TALON jokes about being a "double Indian" — Indigenous and Punjabi/East Indian — and the line works because it comes from him. It is funny, but it is also sharp. It flips the label, owns the complexity, and turns identity into something with power behind it.

East Van. Raycam. DTES. Plains Cree. Piapot roots. Punjabi/East Indian bloodline. Hip-hop.

That is not a gimmick. That is a whole lane.

And TALON is walking in it his own way.

The Backstory Is Already in the Song Titles

His public image keeps pointing back to the same foundation: the city, the community, and the lived experience behind the music. His Instagram presence has publicly identified him with Raycam Projects, and his catalog put the name into the music directly with Raycam Project, a 2023 hip-hop/rap album by TALON and Dushine. Apple Music lists the project as a 10-track release with songs including "Out of Raycam," "Politics," "Came Up," "Dream Real," and "Let Go."

That matters. Some artists spend years trying to invent a backstory. TALON's backstory is already in the song titles.

Since Raycam Project, the catalog has kept moving. Apple Music lists Did you Notice? as a 2024 single through Raycam Records, Campbell as a 2025 single, and Stamps Place with Dushine as a 2026 release. His artist page also surfaces records like "City of Rain," "Who Da," "Concrete Raised," "Sunken Place," "Campbell," and "Stamps Place."

That is not a one-video artist. That is not a one-post rapper. That is someone building a body of work, release by release, feature by feature, year by year.

A Real Creative Circle

The collaborations tell their own story too. TALON has songs with Dushine and Sekawnee, and his public catalog also connects him with artists including Rei, Chasé Scanz, and RIVAN. That places him inside a real creative circle — not a manufactured scene, but artists building together, trading energy, and making sure Vancouver's Indigenous and underground rap stories do not get left out of the conversation.

But TALON's story does not stop at the mic.

That is where it gets bigger.

More Than the Music: Youth Entrepreneurship

Through work connected to Bears' Lair Dream Camps, Talon has been tied to youth entrepreneurship programming in Indigenous communities. Public Bears' Lair posts describe youth stepping into leadership, exploring entrepreneurship, building confidence in public speaking, and bringing business ideas to life at camps including Enoch Cree Nation.

That is a different kind of flex.

Anybody can rap about making it out. It takes something else to go back into community and help young people think bigger, create opportunities for themselves, and see business as something they can build with their own hands.

TALON is not just telling youth to dream in a song. He is part of spaces where youth are being taught to pitch ideas, speak with confidence, and imagine a future bigger than survival.

That makes the music hit different.

Because when he talks about coming from Raycam, it is not only pain. It is not only struggle. It is not only "look what I survived." It is also movement. Travel. Mentorship. Community. Opportunity. A young artist turning his own path into something other youth can look at and say, maybe I can do something too.

From the Projects Into Planes

And then there is Australia.

In 2025, TALON's story crossed the ocean. Public posts tied Talon V6A to YIRRAMBOI Festival in Melbourne, with one post reading: "From the projects into planes, it's a cultural exchange." Music Sans Frontieres / 3CR also described an interview with TALON, calling him a 21-year-old Plains Cree hip-hop artist coming to so-called Australia for the first time to take part in The Uncle Archie Roach Block Party as part of YIRRAMBOI Festival.

Read that again.

From the projects into planes.

From Raycam to Melbourne.

From DTES concrete to an international First Nations arts festival.

That is movie-level if you understand where the story starts.

YIRRAMBOI's own 2025 announcement described Northern Turtle Island / Canada as the festival's Focus Nation, with the festival taking place in Narrm / Melbourne and built around international First Nations connection and cultural exchange.

That makes TALON's travel more than a performance credit. It places him inside a bigger Indigenous arts conversation — one that stretches beyond Vancouver, beyond Canada, and into global First Nations connection.

The Heart of It Stays Local

Still, the heart of the story stays local.

TALON is not trying to erase where he comes from to look more polished. He is doing the opposite. He is bringing the place with him.

That is why the Raycam connection matters. That is why the "V" in @itstvlon matters. That is why the "double Indian" joke matters. That is why the collaborations matter. That is why the youth work matters. It all points to the same thing: TALON is not building a character. He is building from identity, place, humour, pressure, and purpose.

Public bios describe his writing as honest, introspective, passionate, raw, and tied to the highs and lows of life on the Downtown Eastside. That lines up with the bigger picture: this is an artist shaped by a real environment, not a rapper chasing a borrowed aesthetic.

And the public footprint is still early enough to feel raw. Spotify search results showed TALON with a developing listener base, while Instagram search results showed @itstvlon with more than 3.8K followers at the time of lookup. Those are grassroots numbers, not industry-machine numbers — and that is exactly why the timing matters.

The Headline Writes Itself

Every city has artists who become obvious later.

TALON feels like one of those names Vancouver should be paying attention to now.

Because the foundation is already there: the records, the collaborations, the community ties, the international travel, the youth mentorship, the identity, the humour, the city, and the name.

For Dopest Natives Alive, that is the whole point.

DNA is not here to wait until mainstream media decides who matters. DNA exists to catch the voices already moving, already building, already carrying stories the industry usually misses.

TALON is one of those voices.

He is the rapper who wrote Vancouver right into his Instagram handle. The Raycam-raised artist who can joke about being a "double Indian" and still carry the weight of two worlds in one voice. The East Van kid whose catalog includes work with Dushine and Sekawnee. The artist whose story stretches from the DTES to Indigenous youth entrepreneurship camps to Melbourne's YIRRAMBOI Festival.

Some artists need a machine to make them interesting.

TALON just needs people to pay attention.

Because once you see the full picture, the headline writes itself:

From Raycam Projects to international stages, TALON is not just coming out of East Vancouver — he is carrying it with him.