Northern Dial Artist Profile

A Tribe Called Red

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Ottawa electronic group A Tribe Called Red, now known as The Halluci Nation, became a landmark force in contemporary Indigenous music by bringing powwow singing and drums into dialogue with club production, hip-hop, dancehall and electronic bass music. Emerging from the Electric Pow Wow parties in Ottawa, the group created music that was designed for a dance floor but also asserted Indigenous presence inside urban spaces and genres where that presence had often been marginalized or treated as historical rather than contemporary.

The self-titled debut and Nation II Nation established the group nationally, while We Are the Halluci Nation expanded the concept through collaborations with artists including Tanya Tagaq, Black Bear and Yasiin Bey. Songs such as “R.E.D.” and “Sila” made the project's political and cultural framework inseparable from its sound. JUNO recognition followed across electronic and Indigenous categories, and the group's 2017 JUNO performance with Tanya Tagaq and the Black Bear Singers became a particularly visible presentation of contemporary Indigenous music on a national broadcast.

The later name The Halluci Nation reflects a broader idea of community that the group had already articulated in its music. Its influence is not simply the fusion of powwow and electronic production; it is the insistence that Indigenous music belongs in the present tense, in clubs, festivals, hip-hop spaces and experimental electronic culture. That approach helped open wider mainstream visibility for a generation of Indigenous artists working across contemporary genres while remaining grounded in distinct cultural traditions.