RedCloud is an American rapper based in Los Angeles, California who creates hip hop tracks recognizably influenced by his spiritual and Indigenous heritage.
Moving from gangs to hip hop and gospel in the early 90s, RedCloud signed with Syntax Records in 2000 and recorded Is This Thing On?, his first studio album released in April 2001. This album got two four and a half star out of five reviews by AllMusic's Jo-Ann Greene and Scott Fryberger of Jesus Freak Hideout, yet The Phantom Tollbooths Brian A. Smith rated it three clocks out of a possible five. His second release, Traveling Circus, was released on December 16, 2003 with Syntax. The album received a five star review from Jesus Freak Hideout's Scott Fryberger, while attaining a four star rating from Jo-Ann Greene at AllMusic. While Cross Rhythms' Tony Cummings rated it a nine out of ten, and over at Rapzilla they rated it three and a half R's. Tony LaFlanza, indicating for The Phantom Tollbooth, the album was a four clock release. His most recent album, Hawthorne's Most Wanted, was his third studio album with Syntax Records that came out on May 22, 2007. This time around Scott Fryberger rated the album four stars, while Jo-Ann Greene rated it four and a half stars. Wayne Gough, rated the album nine out of ten for Cross Rhythms, and The Phantom Tollbooth's Bert Saraco rated it four clocks. RedCloud released a mix tape in 2006, The Warriors Society, again with Syntax Records. RedCloud moved more than 50,000 units of his releases in his decade with the label. He toured with KRS-One, Immortal Technique, Evidence, Tech N9ne, and Murs, among others. After splitting with Syntax Records in 2010, he formed the independent 1491 Nations record label and released his underground mix tape, 1491 Nation Presents: MC RedCloud. The following year, RedCloud subsequently redefined his music with the help of collaborators Crystle Lightning and DJ Hydroe, creating a performance crew known for its electro-house/hip hop fusion featuring RedCloud’s underground spit. Called LightningCloud, Sam Slovik of the L.A. Weekly called the crew, "a near-earth object inventing new realms of the Electro-House-Hip-Hop revolution on the planet. Urban futurist, MC RedCloud and Crystle Lightning are L.A.’s subterranean Bonnie and Clyde." Their self-titled debut is an eclectic mix of straight hip hop, the digital groove of electro house dance styles, hip hop inflected French yé-yé, with a twist of B-movie slasher flick tango. He travels North America as a performance artist and is known for songs that travel the globe in geography, message, and experience. His collaborative LightningCloud album features the work of time-honored collaborators, including Pigeon John, DJ Wise, and producer Greg “DJ Ei8ht” Leonti. The LightningCloud album received recognition from the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards for Best Hip Hop Album in November 2012. In 2013, RedCloud battled against MCs across Southern California to win the “Who’s Next: Battle for the Best” contest on the number one hip hop station in the United States, Power 106. As winners, his LightningCloud crew received a cash prize, a performance with Kendrick Lamar, and represented west coast hip hop against Hot 97’s Brooklyn-based, east coast representative Radamiz in a freestyle battle in Austin, Texas on March 15, 2013. After winning that MC battle, LightningCloud received the opportunity to use a beat produced with Timbaland for a subsequent track called Sake Bombs. RedCloud’s rhyme connects to Native American hip hop, a musical genre popular with American and Canadian indigenous peoples. Like comparable MCs old and new, RedCloud raps about Native issues, politics, and social consciousness. He also fuses traditional native musics to contemporary hip hop style and provides workshops and performances to raise the indigenous consciousness of tribal youth. In 2014, RedCloud broke the Guinness World Record for freestyle rapping that was previously set at 17 hours, and he went 18 hours one minute and 14 seconds.
