Hip Hop Pops: MC Red Cloud

Hip Hop Pops is a series of profiles highlighting fellas who’ve carved out careers in hip hop while raising a family.

See our first installment with Humble Beast Recording Artist, Propaganda here.

It used to be the case that parents and hip hop just didn’t mix; the regal Fresh Prince of Philly taught us as much.

Even today, some people wrongly assume the spirit of hip hop and the spirit of fatherhood are antithetical. Hip Hop Pops prove that assumption wick, wick, wack!

Today, Big Brown Dad sits down with Red Cloud, a west coast rhyme maven with Native American and Mexican heritage. Red Cloud has toured North America with his partner in rhyme, Crystle Lightning, as Lightning Cloud. Lightning Cloud recently won Power 106 “Who’s Next? Battle for the Best,” beating out over 1,000 submissions from across the country.

Check their video profile here.

Even more, Red Cloud is the current Guinness Book of World Record holder for the longest freestyle: 18 hours w/o stopping!

Read about his incredible accomplishment here and peep his training footage.

BBD: Tell us about your son. Did you think about naming him after you?

I have a 5 year old boy (6 next month). His name’s Isaiah Hawthorne and he’s the love of my life! The kid is a genius. Extremely into monster trucks, dinosaurs, Plants Vs Zombies and football! I didn’t want to give him my government name – Henry belongs in the 1920s! But his middle is my hometown, so booya!

kisses > disses

What’s his favorite food?

My son loves grilled cheese, pizza and plain old bean and cheese burritos from Taco Bell, kinda like a lil baby stoner.

Eat Street > Beat Street

How is your son most like you?

He’s very particular and can be a little obsessive compulsive and anxious when he doesn’t have control. But he’s most like me when we are drawing – loves drawing and that’s one of my things.

What does he think about his Dad being a rapper?

He’s been to 3 of my shows and he loves it!! He’ll go up there on stage with me and Crystle and hand out CDs to the crowd for us! He’ll jump around and dance- he really likes it when he can go to his dad’s rap concerts!