Ricky Raphel Brown (born January 28, 1985), known by the stage name NoClue, is an American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. He is best known for obtaining the title of the world's official “Fastest Rap MC” by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

, for rapping 723 syllables in 51.27 seconds (14.1 syllables per second) in January 2005.

Early life

NoClue grew up in the city of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. He was reciting raps by the age of four and began writing his own lyrics at age 9. Brown grew up around the music business, as his grandfather was a member of the gospel band, The Singing Galatians, and earned studio experience while attending his grandfather's every-other-Sunday recording sessions with that band. Brown's first recordings were

overdub Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

s of popular rap beats, made with his cousins while Brown was still in junior high.

Style and name

NoClue is a Hip Hop artist influenced by

West Coast Hip Hop West Coast hip hop is a regional genre of hip hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast region of the United States. West Coast hip hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the ea ...

. He has established himself as a multi-dimensional lyricist with sharp, upbeat energy expressed in each of his songs. Brown counts rapper

Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the Li ...

as an early musical influence. He explains that his stage name NoClue is derived from “the fact that the world had no clue what kind of impact he was about to bring”.

Sponsorships and endorsements

Wix Music and YouTube Space NYC

To celebrate the launch of

Wix.com Wix.com Ltd. ( he, וויקס.קום) is an Israeli software company, publicly listed in the US, that provides cloud-based web development services. It allows users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and dr ...

Music in November 2015, NoClue was selected by the #OpeningAct campaign for a special 6K 360 virtual reality production at the

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Space New York, featuring his single, 'Voices'.

Mercedes-AMG

NoClue's song, 'Movement', was featured in a nationwide commercial in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

for the

Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG GmbH, commonly known as AMG, is the high-performance subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz AG. AMG independently hires engineers and contracts with manufacturers to customize Mercedes-Benz AMG vehicles. The company has its headquarters in Aff ...

luxury vehicle A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars. The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and the ...

line (2014 models) throughout the year 2014.

Microsoft Windows Azure

NoClue was chosen as the face of Microsoft Windows Azure in October 2012. The relaunching commercial has gone viral and proved to be controversial, being criticized for Brown's lightning-fast, difficult delivery yet praised for his articulate lyrics. An online contest is currently being held on behalf of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

to compete with Brown's rap.

Samsung's Galaxy S III with Optus 4G

NoClue teamed up with the world's fastest speaker (Sean Shannon), fastest reader (Howard Berg), and fastest texter (Melissa Thompson), to launch

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore, Si ...

' debut of consumer 4G networks along with the introduction of the

Samsung Galaxy S III The Samsung Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold phone in the S series. I ...

in September 2012 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Long Live LLC and Cinema 28

NoClue is the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and founder of Long Live LLC. A video production subsidiary launched during the fall of 2012, aptly named Cinema 28. The company is specializing in professional model portfolios, music videos, and wedding cinematography, with the inclusion of drone cameras and 4K equipment. Long Live LLC's debut video short was premiered on

World Star Hip Hop WorldStarHipHop is a content-aggregating video blog. Zurawik, David.Worldstarhiphop.com makes a name for itself with shocking viral videos". ''The Baltimore Sun''. March 23, 2012. Retrieved on April 22, 2012Alternate link to the same article fro ...

on January 21, 2014, amassing a total of more than 950,000 views, featuring Jenn of Bad Girls Club, Season 10 and NoClue's music single, 'Clapp'.

Music Centro

NoClue has been named Co-Chief Executive Officer o
MusicCentro.com
a global music marketing and distribution hub geared toward independent artists as of February 2014, alongside Liam Toller, o
ThisIzHot.com

Media appearances

iTunes

NoClue's album, NoClue, debuted on the front page of

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Top 50 Chart in October 2014.

Discovery Channel

NoClue was featured on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

's television program,

Daily Planet The ''Daily Planet'' is a fictional newspaper appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Superman. The newspaper was first mentioned in ''Action Comics'' #23 (April 1940). The ''Daily Planet'' build ...

, on their Top Ten Fastest Things on the Planet compilation countdown on April 23, 2014.

Music releases

Discography

*''NoClue'' – EP: (2014- Available o
iTunesAmazon
an
Rhapsody
*''Just Landed'' –

Mixtape A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette ...

: (2012- Available for free download o
ThaNorthWest.com
*''4Warning'' – EP: (2011- Available o
iTunesAmazon
an
Rhapsody
*''The Beginning'' – EP: (2010- Available o
iTunesAmazon
an
Rhapsody

Music videos

*''12th Man - Seattle Seahawks Anthem'': Featured on KUBE 93.3. 600,000+

views. *''Limelight feat. Sean Carson'': Featured on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's website. *''Ima Mash'': Featured on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

's ''Ya Heard: Videos of the Month'' *''Movin Slow'': Featured on

(WSHH) with over 4.3 million views

Guinness World Record

As a 20-year-old, Brown broke the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

in 2005 to become the fastest rapper in the world. The attempt was recorded at Seattle's B&G Studios on January 15, 2005, in front of a licensed speech therapist. Brown rapped at a clip of 14.1 syllables per second, beating the previous 12.5 syllable-a-second record set in 1998 by Chicago rapper Rebel XD. NoClue's since beaten record is recorded in ''Guinness World Records 2006'', released in August 2005.

References

External links

*
MTV Artist Profile: NoClue

NoClue's Music on Rhapsody
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noclue 1985 births African-American rappers Living people Underground rappers Rappers from Seattle Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American rappers 21st-century African-American male singers 21st-century American male singers