ruff sqwad

gumdrops

Well-known member
How are they not albums though? I'm not a very "album person" these days but GNR2 seems to be up there in terms of format and quality as most contemporary dancehall artist albums. Is it the lack of skits or a huge cover booklet or something?

well just where were the adverts on the tube for GNR2? or lost and found? i didnt see an ad for slix once during pop world on ch4 or 'the brits are coming' on ITV. seriously though, i thought GNR2 was good but not exactly that consistent. so yeah i suppose that could make it like a lot of albums these days lol, but i dont really consider them any diff from other mix-Cds you get from lil wayne, or whoever. its new tracks, yeah, but it was made as a mix-cd, ie just something to keep the name out there, keep your profile up, but kinda erratic, and not really trying as hard as they might have done if it was a proper album being released on say, big dada.
 
while typing I forgot my point

lol

what kind of deal does TS have cos on his myspace it says his single is gonna be available on CD?

RS are so respected in the scene (for staying together, not losing members, not adding members for no reason, still on this ting after all this time) and outside of the scene (for progressing, showing development, getting better, changing sounds) - there badmen simply for being majority Ghanaian and all African for me lol :D !

that said they are a bit unorganised. my boy wanted to do a piece on them in jan...and they've just got back in contact now...same with TS...that took nearly 6 months!

their not serious lol
 

john eden

male pale and stale
well just where were the adverts on the tube for GNR2? or lost and found? i didnt see an ad for slix once during pop world on ch4 or 'the brits are coming' on ITV. seriously though, i thought GNR2 was good but not exactly that consistent. so yeah i suppose that could make it like a lot of albums these days lol, but i dont really consider them any diff from other mix-Cds you get from lil wayne, or whoever. its new tracks, yeah, but it was made as a mix-cd, ie just something to keep the name out there, keep your profile up, but kinda erratic, and not really trying as hard as they might have done if it was a proper album being released on say, big dada.

OK, so it's more of a level of promotion and exposure thing? I was thinking more of the content and it seems to me that GNR2 holds up really well in terms of quality (as does "Rules and Regulations"). Best 6 quid I've spent for ages.

Sure we can all agree that these things should be given more support/promotion but at the end of the day it has to be about the tunes. Whether they be overground or underground is a side issue for me.

As a Johnny-come-lately I would say that if Ruff Sqwad keep making tunes as good as the best of GNR2 then someone will have to sit up and take notice.

The only dancehall albums I can remember seeing adverts for last year was Cham, Sean Paul. Damian Marley, etc...

Simon - not as pleased as I am. :)
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
*gunfingers*

lol

I am also pleased with john eden's conversion (if it could be called that) - welcome!

may I ask - what first drew your interest?

It was in the air for ages (radio, blogs) but I ignored it I think because I figured being obsessed with dancehall and reggae was quite enough.

But last year the combination of seeing Flowdan and Killa P at BASH and then picking up the Kano and Vybz seven inch lead me to do a bit of digging.

And of course it has many similarities, culturally (for me at least) with all the Saxon fast chat MC stuff from the 80s that I love. Anyway, thanks for the welcome ha ha!
 

Logan Sama

BestThereIsAtWhatIDo
It is basically a tribute to I Will Not Lose and Wickedest Ting.

And it is available in UKrecordshop, Juno, HTFR, Handsonwax, Chemical Records, Uptown, Rhythm, Independance and Mixing this weekend.

Now when they decide to put them up on their site is down to them, but i definitely deliver/sent them out to those places
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
that makes sense. the tracks pretty good.

i checked out the other tracks on rapids myspace - simon silver dollar made me all excited, thinking that they might be 'the next step' but they just sounded like midtempo hip hop type stuff to me... oh well (c) girl from i luv u
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
enough of this mixtape nonsense, let's have a proper album. they should have released it ages ago. i feel like things are being put on hold indefinitely, it's depressing. by the time they release an album all the hunger, subtlety, experimentation of their music may have disappeared. groups change, destroy their past achievements thorugh re-recording, overproduction. groups tend to split up. time is running out.

You may not have noticed this, but when grime artists try and make proper albums, they typically are very, very bad. This is because they think that the album will be their break into the mainstream, and so they try and ensure that they make an album they think will be more commercially appealing (i.e. it hardly resembles grime music at all). This is why:

Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
Kano - Home Sweet Home
Lethal B - Against All Oddz
Roll Deep - In At The Deep End
Shystie - Diamond In The Dirt

all sucked.

I like the mixtape era right now, because the product is of a much higher standard and more true to what the scene is when the artists' unrealistic expectations are removed.
 
S

simon silverdollar

Guest
that makes sense. the tracks pretty good.

i checked out the other tracks on rapids myspace - simon silver dollar made me all excited, thinking that they might be 'the next step' but they just sounded like midtempo hip hop type stuff to me... oh well (c) girl from i luv u

did you listen to 'get down' on his myspace? it's not hip hop: it's more like grimey, odd speed garage, if it's like anything. i'm not saying this is the next step forward in the uh 'continuum' but i do think that ruff sqwad are going to branch out from grime quite a bit: when i interviewed slicks the other day he was saying that he didn't listen to grime at all anymore.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
ill check it out... i know you didnt say they were the next step in the 'continuum', that was my reading... is that interview gonna be online? i dont know how much id take seriously that he doesnt listen to grime, that seems to be what a lot of MCs say just to show theyre bigger and have broader tastes than their genre. not sure if it bodes well for grime if *he* doesnt even listen to it though. but if it means forging something interesting, then cool...
 

bruno

est malade
You may not have noticed this, but when grime artists try and make proper albums, they typically are very, very bad.
true, but i never lumped ruff sqwad with other grime artists, for some reason. they had tunes, they had promised an album since forever and what we got instead was a half grime half hip hop mixtape.

i think artists should do what suits them best, i just i hate to see talent go to waste. that was my fear and it was dispelled when gnr 2 came out.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I'm sorry, but 'ruff sqwad'? Pffffft!

I can just imagine a bunch of 14-year-old schoolkids in Peckham trying to look really hard. :D
 
S

simon silverdollar

Guest
ill check it out... i know you didnt say they were the next step in the 'continuum', that was my reading... is that interview gonna be online? i dont know how much id take seriously that he doesnt listen to grime, that seems to be what a lot of MCs say just to show theyre bigger and have broader tastes than their genre. not sure if it bodes well for grime if *he* doesnt even listen to it though. but if it means forging something interesting, then cool...

yeah. i'll put the interview online soon, may be it'll be my first blog post for god knows how long.
i know loads of MCs talk about not being really into grime, but with ruff sqwad i think it's quite genuine: i think they're far more into 2-step, R n B, and pop music than they are into hiphop or grime. that's one of the reasons that they're so good- they care about melodies in the way most grime producers don't.
 
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