The Halluci Nation
About The Halluci Nation
The artists formerly known as A Tribe Called Red.
The Halluci Nation are a Canadian electronic music group, who blend instrumental hip hop, reggae, moombahton and dubstep-influenced dance music with elements of First Nations music, particularly vocal chanting and drumming. The group describes its music as "powwow-step", a style of contemporary powwow music for urban First Nations in the dance club scene.
Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the group consists of two DJs, Tim "2oolman" Hill (Mohawk, of the Six Nations of the Grand River), and Ehren "Bear Witness" Thomas (Cayuga First Nation). Former members include co-founder DJ Jon Deck and Dan "DJ Shub" General (Cayuga First Nation), who left the band for personal reasons in spring 2014, and was replaced by Hill. Co-founder Ian "DJ NDN" Campeau (Nipissing First Nation) left the band for health reasons in October 2017, with the band opting to remain a duo for the time being.
After releasing a number of tracks online and DJing at various dance and aboriginal events, the band released their first EP, Moombah Hip Moombah Hop, in 2011. A year later they released a self-titled debut album as a free internet download. The album A Tribe Called Red was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize on June 14, 2012.
The Halluci Nation released their second EP Trapline at the end of 2012. Their second album, Nation II Nation, was released in 2013 and was named a longlisted nominee for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize on June 13, 2013; in July, it was named to the prize's final 10-album shortlist.
The Halluci Nation won several awards at the 2013 Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards, including Best Group and Best Album for Nation II Nation. The band has toured extensively across Canada and the United States and has performed festival dates in the United Kingdom, Germany and Greece.
The Halluci Nation has been involved in activism from its very origin. The band has been a vocal supporter of the Indigenous movement Idle No More. In 2013 they issued a public statement asking non-aboriginal fans to refrain from cultural appropriation by wearing headdresses and war paint to their shows, and Campeau filed a human rights complaint against an amateur football club in Ottawa that was using "Redskins" as its club name.
The Halluci Nation have been featured on CBC Radio's Q and Canada Live, and have been playlisted on both CBC Radio 2 and CBC Radio 3. In 2014, they garnered two Juno Award nominations at the Juno Awards of 2014, for Breakthrough Group of the Year and Electronic Album of the Year, winning the award for Breakthrough Group.
In 2014, The Halluci Nation released "Burn Your Village to the Ground", a protest song about the complicated Indigenous relationship with the colonialist connotations of Thanksgiving. In 2015, they released pro-wrestling-themed EP Suplex, with appearances from Smalltown DJs, as well as a remix of Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "Working for the Government". In 2015 they won Best Music Video by the Native American Music Awards.
In 2016, they released the album We Are the Halluci Nation in September. Guest collaborators on the album included Narcy, Yasiin Bey, Lido Pimienta, Shad, Tanya Tagaq, Joseph Boyden and Black Bear. Later in 2016 they also released their fourth EP, Stadium Pow Wow.
The album was a shortlisted nominee for the 2017 Polaris Music Prize. The Halluci Nation won the Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award at the Juno Awards of 2017 for their work on We Are the Halluci Nation. The duo also won the Group of the Year award at the Juno Awards of 2018.
In 2020, The Halluci Nation released "Land Back", featuring Boogey the Beat and Chippewa Travellers. The song was available for free and intended to show support to the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nations who were opposing the construction of a Coastal GasLink Pipeline. They released their fourth album, One More Saturday Night in July 2021.
In 2024, with Saul Williams and Narcy, they released “Voices Through Rubble" in solidarity with the people of Palestine - a song which Steven Ward of Grimy Goods described as "spotlight[ing] the shared oppression and violence endured by Indigenous populations, inflicted by colonizers, that’s ingrained in both our history and cultural mythology".
If you're an Indigenous person living in a country that has been forcefully colonized, it's all too common to find yourself underrepresented and misrepresented if not blatantly and systematically devalued and attacked. Positive role models and a positive self-identity are hard to come by, yet the collective DJ group, The Halluci Nation is a modern gateway to urban and contemporary Indigenous culture and experience, celebrating all its layers and complexity.
The Halluci Nation promotes inclusion, empathy and acceptance among all races and genders in the name of social justice. They believe that indigenous people need to define their identity on their own terms. If you share this vision, then you are already part of the Halluci Nation.
"We are the Halluci Nation."