Featured artist: RUKAS - INTERVIEW ITH THE MIRROR WRITER RUKAS
Below is a short interview with the upcoming underground artist RUKAS.
How did you decide to become an artist?
RUKAS: Since listening to Westwood on Capital Radio 20 years ago.
I knew then I loved rap. The Plan… The plan in my mind then was to completely blow peoples minds away with a combination of out of this world beats and lyrics that shouldn't be humanly possible! Now, The plan is for me to create a goddamn work of Art! A literary linguistic, long lasting legacy…a masterful man-made musical mosaic! I intend to murder the word and resurrect it in the same breath, and force it to do my bidding for me. I'm gonna coheres the English language to strip and dance for me! Inspired by the story telling genius of Slick Rick! The sheer audacity of ICE-T, the comedic punch line of MAD SKILLZ. BIG DADDY KANE had the swiftness; BIG L had all of the above. And there was me…just a kid with a pen and a notepad. I tried to rap like these legends, but how did they put those clever words together? So I started writing, I was 14 at the time, I was wack! I stopped writing at the age of 20, left home to do all the shit you will hear in my songs, and miraculously came thru it alive! I took up the pen again when I was 30. Shit I've been thru changed me, I guess, made me more focused, seeing friends die around you does that I guess. So I retreated within my mind, feverishly writing, making 1 word rime, 2 words rime, 3. Then more! I learnt to tighten those phrases till the little fuckers squeaked! And so I had my style. A fellow rapper labeled my style as "mirror writing". WHOLE PARAGRAPH WRITING! I'M NOT ABOUT PUNCHLINES, though I do use them when I feel the need. I knew then that my style was unique and original. Well…the time has come. I've waited in the shadows too long now, and as I leave the darkness, I emerge blinking into the light…groping for purchase…and as I do I reach for a hand, and I find the hand of Hip Hop. Heh heh sorry, that last line came from the poet in me.
”RUKAS HAS…HUGE POTENTIAL, KEEP AT IT” Ras kwame – RADIO 1. Quote during 2011 radio show where Rukas won the 16 bar rap competition
What about concerts? Do you play live?
YES, AROUND SOUTH LONDON, and parts of CAMDEN
Best punchline you ever wrote?
i’ll give you my best bars, I don’t stick to just punches, and my MIRROR WRITING is by far the cleverest thing I’ve come up with… – And it begun, I step in wars field/ The weapon steady swings ya gotta duck!/ I branded my tongue, sweat and Forged steel/ The second petty kings are horror struck!/ The amulet I hung, eleven lords kneel/ The legendary Sings to God above!/ A banquet for one, a seven course meal/ The seven deadly sins get swallowed up!/ "The offering of a rose basket I bare the lid closed tight/ The coffin was a closed casket affair the widows cried"/ ”In every starving land there’s a fat King/ And every laughing man shares a sad grin”/ Heights to gain ya got purpose a calling come/ Life's a game of God versus the fallen one/ Across a Chessboard and the revelation seen/ like Gods at rest bored the Devil takes the Queen/
What are you currently working on? Did you release something in the past?
ALBUMS OUT – 1. SLAVE TO THE WORD 2010 2. APPRENTICE TO THE WORD 2011 3. THE TERRAN TALE TELLER 2012 4. MASTER OF THE WORD 2013 5. SO UNDERRATED (RUKAS & DEKAY COLLAB ALBUM 2014) 6. THE MIRROR WRITER 2014 7. THE SCRIBE ENLIGHTENED (JUST RELEASED 2014) 8. "RUKAS" self-entitled album (ALSO JUST RELEASED) ALBUMS IN PRODUCTION – 1. FUTURESCAPE (13 TRACK ANTI-ILLUMINATI ALBUM ) early 2015 2. EPIKA (SELF PRODUCED ALBUM FOCUSING ON EPIC ORCHESTRAL BEATS) 2015 END 3. THE GIRL THAT NEVER TAKES HER JACKET OFF (ALBUM DEDICATED TO MY GIRL, WHO BEEN THRU TOO MUCH) 2016 4. BLOODY BALLADS – (HORROCORE, though not in the way you might think) SELF PRODUCED ALBUM with lots of features. 2016 5. IS THIS ALL THERE IS? 2016 (I HAVE A HIGH WORK RATE, THIS IS TO BE A CONSCIENTIOUS AND MORE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF ME) 2016-2017ISH 6. 11 THE WITCH & THE WARLOCK (COVER ALBUM COLLABING WITH MY GIRL, covering our fave songs from the likes of IRON MAIDEN to THE BEATLES) PRODUCED BY MYSELF – 2017 7. COVER ALBUM #2 – UNTITLED AS YET) MY FRIEND IS PRODUCING – AGAIN A MIX OF OUR FAVE SONGS 2017
Last but not least: Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
Possibly, I did sign up with 2 in the last 10 years, nothing ever came of it, so I’m dubious.
Any last words?
Shout out to South London, my girl Chogaia (Cristina) my fam, Dekay (friend and fellow rapper also Don’t Flop Battler) Shout to Producer Matt Catlow, Shout to Adrian from Anno Domini…Shout to Midi intellect, M-Acculate, GM Pits, Janice Barrie, Donna the shit still, Ryan The Phoenix, shit, shout to anyone that knows me. Not forgetting my arge family. (We’re scottish heh heh we like having big families….we love haviing to remember all those birthdays….err…yeh…ahem.
Where can we contact you?
RUKAS: https://www.facebook.com/rukas2007
Thank you for your time. We wish you and your career the success it deserves.
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Rap's new generation is a long time urban lifestyle and entertainment blog dedicated the underground rap music field.
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