The Ruf - one of the more controversial characters on the UK rap scene after his 'Fuck the Queen' and 'Westwood is a Twat' 12s - he's also one of the most prolific: 28 releases on his label since starting it in 1994, over 90 tracks recorded himself under one of his guises (Mind Bomb, Jeep Beat Collective, Godfather of Weird) and not bad sales records either - over 25000 units shifted so far isn't bad for a UK artist! 2000 has been a quiet year by his standards, but as you'll find out, he's planning an all-out assault for 2001.
The Ruf ponders November 5th
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So let's start with the here and now - what are you up to at the moment?
Well the Jeep Beat album really - it's going to be called "Death Race 2001"... it's going to be some like really good fuckin' driving, sort of clubby... it's all sorts really - a really different sort of album I hope, when it's finished. But it's kind of mad at the moment cuz every track I do I've done all the rough sort of versions and I'm putting scratches on them and other things and I'm completely changing them y'know what I mean? So the nature of the beast keeps changing... but there are going to be some really big tracks on that. So hopefully next year it's going to be a release virtually every month. First off we've got the Jeep Beat mix album called "The Ruffest DJ in the World", and that's basically all the tunes I've played out over the past few years and that are really hard to get and just always make an impact and have people asking me what they are. So I'm going to put them out there so other people can play them out as well.
...sometimes you have to have a little bit of a break to come back with some mad shit...
Will it be sort of mixtape style all mixed in, or...
Well the vinyl's going to be there for the junkies with a couple of special remixes that I've done, but the basic full tracks cuz that's what they want to play out, then a mix CD which'll be like mixing and remixes and little exclusives n shit too... I try to cater for the DJs y'know as well as the actual fans. So once we've got that out the way, there'll be a Jeep Beat 12", the proper Jeep Beat album, "Death Race 2001" and scratch battlebreaks versions too, and we're doing a "Thermonuclear Soundwarz Part 2" EP as well, so that'll have different artists on it, and then a "Thermonuclear Soundwarz Part 2" CD, y'know like the last one, same kind of thing ram-packed y'know, 17 tracks, quite cheap... so we've got that, then K Delight's doing a second EP and there'll be a double CD with that, and I'm doing another Mind Bomb album called "Playing with the Big Boys" which has come along from doing the Jeep Beat album actually - there're so many tracks I was doing that were like 'ah fuck I really want to do a vocal on that shit'. It started of with 2 or 3 vocal tracks but I'm just writing all the time so the Mind Bomb stuff is going to be coming back which is good cuz the last album, people are still talking about it even though it was quite an underground album and the press kind of slept on it, but a lot of people said it was like the best thing I'd done... and so then hopefully by the end of the year I'll finally get the 'Godfather of Weird' album out that I've been messing about with for the past 3 years! So with all that stuff it's like 10 or 11 releases so people are going to know I'm like properly back on the scene cuz most people'll think I've had a bit of time out this year cuz I've only put out one CD and one 12, but y'know sometimes you have to have a little bit of a break to come back with some mad shit... I think I've done that anyway...
And is there anyone else you're bringing through, like there's K Delight you're putting out, but anyone else like say The Icepick?
Well K Delight is my main priority beside my own gear simply because he’s always doing tracks. He’s always doing mix albums, he’s going to be on some of the Jeep Beat tracks again, and I’ve got another DJ in Jeep Beat now called Jabba the Cut after the Star Wars man - he’s a really fresh new DJ that I’m teaching some tricks n shit and he’s really dope. Other than that, I mean I’m looking for new artists but I’m really struggling to find ones that look long term and at doing tours n shows and albums y’know what I mean? Loads of British hip-hop people’ve got what they think is a 12” ready but from a label point of view and as someone who’s looking to build long term musical careers, I’m struggling to find people who’ve got albums. That’s the sort of hurdle that’s stopped us with Icepick, cuz he’s just sort of done the one 12” in y’know 18 months, which from my point of view doesn’t make it worthwhile pumping two grand into y’know what I mean? You’ve got no continuity … y’might as well piss your money into the wind. It’s a tricky thing for me cuz at the end of the day I’m a music lover, and you’ve got to sort of try and get through to people that I want artists that’ll sit on the label well and work and do some dope shit that I can play out y’know.
K-Delight emanates an aura for all to behold
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So how do you find it switching between label boss, music fan, artist and everything else you do?
It’s hard. I mean it’s been harder this year with having Samson [Dave’s recently arrived baby boy] around too, I mean I’m changing heads all the time, going from one thing to another and sometimes it’s just to much, which is why some of the mail order people get the answerphone sometimes at the moment because I have to concentrate on recording, I just can’t be dealing with interruptions. But at the end of the day most of them realize that I’m putting out all this shit and stick by me and are loyal and are pretty cool really. It’s hard man I mean I work fantastically long hours when you add them up, with gigs and everything, but I guess that’s the price you pay really for being your own man and being able to have your voice on vinyl and get your opinions across and all the good things, the price you have to pay is your home freedoms and your sanity sometimes with the business side y’know. More than anything, y’know, I’d love to be on a bigger label that really gave me freedom and pushed us and got the sales but in reality you’re very very lucky if you ever find that in your recording career so I pay the price for having my freedom in a way. But I think it’s important to do that because very few recording artists of any kind in music now will have the kind of freedom I have now where I can say what I want and do what I want. I just try my best to get a balance that means that I can still put music out constantly and still DJ and still play live which are the things I really buzz off and enjoy. But to survive over here, part of the reason I have survived is that I’ve put so much hard work in and I have the mail order thing and the internet and Radio Zero - I’m just promoting British hip-hop from all of the bands and all of the label stuff as well. I’m not as selfish as some who just do their own shit, I’m doing stuff on a lot of different levels. So it is pretty mad man but I’m getting it to the stage now where things are starting to take care of themselves but it is a hard balancing act when you’ve only got a little money.
So does it get frustrating when you see people in London who do a lot less for the scene than you but get much more credit and column inches in return?
Well it can be, but if anyone gets out there and does something and gains recognition for it then great y’know good luck to them, but it is a lot easier if you’re down in London cuz most of the journalists and most of the magazines are down there and they don’t send people up cuz they’re kind of lazy. I mean it is bad, but that’s not just me, there’s the Hombre label in Bristol which doesn’t get as much respect as it should, the YnR crew up in Leeds, there’s crews up in Scotland - groups that I’m booking to play at my jams in Manchester that people’ve never heard of, like FBI crew from Leicester, Scotland Yard from Edinburgh. Y’know there’re a lot of people that have it the same and really I manage to stand out and get heard at all simply because of the pure amount of stuff I put out - you can’t really ignore it y’know! And if you do it doesn’t change a thing I’m still here doing it. Just because the national media or I ain’t been on Flava it doesn’t mean shit I’m still here doing it. I’ve stopped breaking my balls trying to make it and being a star because that kind of thing, if you do go down that route you’re going to be lucky to last more than a few years or beyond whatever fad they’re trying to sell your music as runs out y’know what I mean? I don’t worry too much about it. If you can get a few reviews and a few bits of press then great y’know. It would be nice to be acknowledged, but … what can you do man? You can’t ram it down peoples throats. Unfortunately in a way most of the people who hear my stuff are the actual punters - most of the journalists and national DJs don’t know how to handle it y’know. They’re not my fans. My fans are people who go out in record shops all the time and go to jams, like to have a good time and dance preferably rather than standing around head-nodding! I don’t really make music for the critics… hopefully some’ll come through who are more interested in writing about good hip-hop, but some are more interested in writing about the big bands or about an underground group in America that might only sell a couple of hundred units in the UK but get loads of press rather than cover someone who sells ten times that but isn’t quite as glamorous because they live in a suburb of Manchester or Edinburgh or wherever y’know.
The Ruf Interview