A dreadlocked American Indian rapper from the streets of East L.A. described positive ways to channel frustration Friday during an assembly at Roosevelt High School.

Rapper RedCloud and DJ Wise got students cheering, chanting and even dancing Friday afternoon as they spread their messages of staying in school, avoiding gangs, and the redemptive powers of music.

RedCloud, who was adopted and raised by a Mexican family in gang-ridden East L.A., said his experiences growing up made him feel like an outcast - an experience that may have been shared by some of the Roosevelt students who nodded knowingly as he told his stories.

"All my life I had this feeling I didn't belong," he said. "Right off the bat your mom didn't want you and your dad didn't stick around."

He said this feeling of isolation led him to join a gang in the sixth grade. By the next year he had been arrested two times.

His life began to turn around, however, when he discovered hip-hop music.

He told a story of how one day he saw two students getting in each other's face, and he thought they were ready to fight. Instead, they surprised him by starting to battle each other lyrically in a hip-hop song.

"I thought, 'What, no blood?'" he said. "When the bell rang they left … the two dudes took care of their business by rapping."

After that, he was hooked. Eventually, he managed to leave his gang and, in 1996, became the first person in his family to graduate high school. After graduation, he concentrated on music.

And while many people associate rap music with violent, misogynistic messages, RedCloud's music has lighter, more positive tones. He is also considered a Christian rapper, and was scheduled to perform at Christ United Methodist Church.

Those positive messages are exactly why Roosevelt Principal Mike Pickett said he wanted RedCloud to come to his school.

"It's a good message for my kids that's not all about murder, death, killings," Pickett said, " and it's in their kind of language, in rap."

He said while he, personally, does not understand the appeal of rap music, he knows it is important to reach kids using what appeals to them

Pickett also said that the recent controversy over the shock rock/rap group Insane Clown Posse has brought to light the importance of having quality, positive music.

RedCloud "is exactly on the opposite side of the fence from those guys (ICP)," Pickett said.

To Pickett's delight, RedCloud told students how he once competed in the Rap Olympics in Los Angeles, where he beat Shaggy 2 Dope of the Insane Clown Posse.

"It was the easiest battle I ever won," he laughed.

RedCloud has spent the last several years traveling to reservations and schools, where he tells vivid details from his previous gang life and performs for audiences.

And all of his messages are not serious.

When it came time to perform, RedCloud began with freestyle rap in which he asked for audience participation and included a line that poked fun at Principal Pickett's moustache.

Brittany Woods, 16, and Dacia Cornett, 17, danced to the music from their chairs and said they really enjoyed the show.

"I like hip-hop," Woods said. "It's all about individuality, not all about being like everyone else."

RedCloud said he got the idea for touring schools because he remembers a rap group that visited his school in eighth grade.

"It was so intense, with kids crying - they had to close school for half the day," he remembered.

He hopes to inspire kids with his message and his love of hip-hop, showing them that they can express themselves through music and put meaning into their lives, hoping it can get them out of trouble like he did.

"Music saved my life," he said.