The Bapti$$ is the new project from multi-instrumentalist and artist Joseph LaPlante. It’s a musical cleansing and rebirth, a blank slate for a veteran musician and songwriter—a mid-career baptism of sorts, hence the name: The Bapti$$. As The Bapti$$, LaPlante, who is from Saskatchewan but is now based in Haida Gwaii, has created a world of warm, lush, 808-driven acoustic indie-pop and cozy, stripped-back singer-songwriter R&B. There are romantic, late-night love ballads, booming hip-hop vocals and verses, rootsy folk sing-alongs, gritty country-noir slow-burns, and spacy, electronic astro-pop.
Before creating The Bapti$$, LaPlante gained widespread acclaim and recognition in hip-hop as Joey Stylez, with features in Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, Reservation Dogs, and the film Wind River. LaPlante wants to use The Bapti$$’s work to help youth stay on the right track and away from those sorts of traumatic outcomes, while also staying deeply connected to the people stuck on the margins who need strength the most. The Bapti$$ brings calming waters in a chaotic world.
