10/25/2014

Rukas (Interview) (2014)



Enter Rukas!!

01. FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH YOU, TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.

ANSWER:

Born in Scotland. Oldest of seven. Sadly Drugs and alcohol prominent most of my life, since I was 12. Started listening to Hip hop when Westwood was on Capital Radio. Long time ago. Started writing at about 13 or so. But stopped for the 7 years I was homeless. Only the last few years (7) I’ve been clean. Still like a whiskey, or a Stella, though not so much as my livers a little knackered. Left home at 15. Moved in with Dad (Alcoholic, but I loved him R.I.P. dad) Slept rough on the streets of London for 7 years, and got to know it intimately. Ran round with very dangerous people. Seen friends die with “Needles in their arms whilst listening to the Beatles in a trance” Been to prison (for Drugs) didn’t like it so much so, never went back heh. Spent years going thru the Hostel system till I was eventually given my current flat (Brixton, London) where I got clean. Trained up to become a support worker, helping homeless people. Met the love of my Life Cristina (Galician Actress, and film maker) over 4 years ago. Lost our baby son who was born sleeping over a year ago. Left my job to look after my fiancée Cristina after this loss. Depression and I are close now. But I write. I write…and it helps. Without the missus I’d be a shell.

02. WHICH ARTISTS INFLUENCED YOU IN THE PAST? WHICH ARTISTS INFLUENCE YOU NOW?

ANSWER:

Beatles, Eagles, Eric Clapton, Iron Maiden, Nas, 2Pac, Eminem. Big Daddy Kane, Big Pun, Big L, Blacksheep, Wu, Kurupt (From Dog Pound) Doctor Dre, Bob Marley, Alanis Morissette …The List Is Impossibly Long. I Like All Sorts Of Music, from a varied selection of genres.

03. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY SEPARATES YOU FROM OTHER ARTISTS?

ANSWER:

My bedroom walls? No sorry lol, okay. This is a hard question, yet easy. Listen to my songs; listen to the way I write my bars. The one thing I hate is when I hear people say “yeah I’m different” yeah sure mate…no you’re not. But I AM! So fuck you, jog on son, heh heh.


04. DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING STYLE(S)?

ANSWER:

I will list only 2… #1: “MIRROR WRITING” is the ultimate expression of my art, and the pinnacle of what I can achieve with the English language. Entire paragraph rhyming… #2: “MULTI RHYME SCHEME JUGGLING” Secret. Look, I sent my first draft of this to Fubar, with a long detailed description of these 2 styles, all was good. But a week previous I have pasted that particular info on Facebook, as a titbit for promo. Well, after that I noticed some people were starting to… well, bite my style. I don’t wanna come off all high and mighty like “who the fuck does he think he is? lol but it took me 20 years to get to the skill level I’m at, and the 2 styles above were my hard sought prize, something I accomplished. 20 YEARS! WRITING! That’s no joke, so I take offense if someone comes along and can’t be bothered to develop their own uniqueness, their own style, nah; these people are biting my style. They ain't doing it RIGHT… but they ARE trying. Heh here, for a laugh, here is me having a rant on facebook about it.

“I DON'T USUALLY RANT, BUT FUCK YEAH I WILL TODAY DAMN IT...EVERYWHERE I LOOK, I HEAR FUCKERS BITING MY FUCKING FLOW!!! THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE...THE SAME PEOPLE I BEEN FUCKING WITH, ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE THAT I SPOKE OR WORKED WITH BEFORE....NOT ONE OF THEM IS A STRANGER COINCIDENCE MY SPOTTY ARSE. I COULD UNDERSTAND IF THEY WERE CURIOUS, AND AT HOME WANTED TO SEE IF THEY COULD DO IT, THAT'D BE FINE, BUT SUDDENLY ALL YA SONGS YA FLOW SWITCHED UP OUT OF THE BLUE? C'MON....IF YA READ THIS, AND FEEL DEFENSIVE....THEN YOU PROLLY ONE OF THE PEOPLE I'M TALKING ABOUT. I KNOW THIS COZ A YEAR AGO NOT ONE OF THESE PEOPLE WERE DOING THIS TYPE FLOW. YEAH I’M TALKING ABOUT MY MIRROR WRITING AS YOU WELL KNOW. I SPENT YEARS TRYNA FIND A UNIQUE FLOW, IT WAS HARD MAN, AND I HAD SOMETHING THAT NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING (WELL, NOT PROPERLY ANYWAY) NOW I HEAR IT ALL OVER THE FUCKIN PLACE....YEAH I'M PISSED OFF...WOULDN’T' YOU BE? GET.YOUR.OWN.FUCKING.STYLE. THAT'S IT NUFF SAID....FUCKSAKE.... …And NO...pointless naming and shaming....so don't be asking for names people, not getting involved in teenage online fucking beef...I just want people to know that I am aware of what they're doing, and don't they have any integrity? I COULD NEVER, bite someone’s flow, coz deep down inside myself, I would know that I was copying someone else. AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT FEELS THIS WAY?“

05. WHY DO YOU MAKE MUSIC?

ANSWER:

Because someone has to… make actual "music" that is. Nah seriously? I’m not gonna spout all that shit about how it's my passion and shit, but I would say that I have no choice, I can’t stop even if I tried, I write 3 songs per week, have 196 recorded songs, and more than 45 waiting to be recorded, I will never record all my songs, too many concepts and bars in my head. I write more than I can afford to record….so in a bit of a pickle, unless I stop writing for a couple years….yeah exactly…not gonna happen.


06. WHO HAVE YOU WORKED WITH IN THE PAST AND WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH IN THE FUTURE?

ANSWER:

Dekay, Matt Catlow, Midi Intellect, Reno, Pro P, Chogaia, Phoenix, Tony Green, (Producers, Anno Domini Stable, Adamack and other Shadowville Producers) To be honest, this list would be too long, I have too many features and people I have worked with. Who would I like to work with in future? I dunno, whoever can write epic bars, and obviously my friends I would like to keep working with. Including my fiancé, Chogaia who has recorded her first rap verse recently, tutored by yours truly. Heh heh have to plug the missus here, or I won’t get my dinner - CHOGAIA - A talented actress (has been in tv shows in her homeland Spain), a film-maker, writer and my muse heh heh. She has done a few videos for Dekay. Here are a couple:



VIDEO CREATED, FILMED, DIRECTED, EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: CHOGAIA

Links:

Twitter
Facebook

DEKAY & The D'Mans -DARKNESS VISIBLE Promo Video HD - http://vimeo.com/69470863

07. WHICH ALBUMS HAVE YOU RELEASED TO DATE AND WHICH ARE CURRENTLY IN THE WORKS?

ANSWER:



ALBUMS OUT:

1. SLAVE TO THE WORD 2009
2. APPRENTICE TO THE WORD 2010
3. MASTER OF THE WORD 2011
4. THE TERRAN TALE TELLER 2012
5. SO UNDERRATED (RUKAS & DEKAY COLLAB ALBUM 2013)
6. THE MIRROR WRITER - 2014
7. THE SCRIBE ENLIGHTENED 2014

SUNKEN SOUNDS QUOTE:

“Check out the new 7th album from Rukas John Brannan - THE SCRIBE ENLIGHTENED - best Hip-Hop album you will have heard for at least a year from the best lyricist around... Yeah I said it cuz its true”

Sunken Sounds 2014:

https://www.facebook.com/sunken.sounds1?ref=ts&fref=ts

http://www.reverbnation.com/sunkensounds



ALBUMS IN PRODUCTION:

8. RUKAS - SELF-ENTITLED ALBUM 2014 (Release date 1st November 2014 - FREE)
9. THE GIRL THAT NEVER TAKES HER JACKET OFF – FOR AND ABOUT MY MISSUS. Cheesy shit, and what? Lol 2015
10. I’M ANIMATED – A purely humorous side of me, and my jimmy the midget and Sid the sexist personas. 2015
11. FUTURESCAPE 13 TRACK ANTI-ILLUMINATI ALBUM – 2015 EARLYISH
12. THE WITCH & THE WARLOCK – The missis (Chogaia) and I collabing, with features from Dekay – 2016
13. UNTITLED AS YET – COVER ALBUM PRODUCED BY MYSELF, sampling my fave songs
14. UNTITLED AS YET – COVER ALBUM PRODUCED BY Mat Catlow, sampling our fave songs

Matt Catlow - http://endellstreetstudio.com/

FREE DOWNLOADS!!! DISCOVER WHY RUKAS IS THE GREATEST (and speaks about himself in the 3rd person heh) 8 number 1 tracks in the UK UNSIGNED CHARTS!! 2011 saw me hold the #1, #2 and #3 spot AT THE SAME TIME!!! Follow link, press BUY NOW, then select NAME YOUR PRICE and type in 0.... There you have it.

LINKS:

Bandcamp
Facebook
E-Mail
ReverbNation
Issuu Clip
SoundCloud
Facebook (Fan Page)

I also feature on various COAST TO COAST mix CDs - http://coast2coastmixtapes.com/member/rukas

The UK Unsigned charts:

http://hitmanproduction.co.uk/Artists.html

08. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE UK HIP-HOP SCENE CURRENTLY?

ANSWER:

Boring. Sorry, but to be honest, not that impressed with any rappers really these days. No one is breaking boundaries, doing new things…and they’re all chatting the same old shit. Rappers are lazy. Shit, sorry to blow my own trumpet, but I put more effort into 1 song that most of these cats put in an album. There are exceptions to the rule, but I aint gonna list them, Well, my mates Dekay and Midi intellect are exceptions to the rule, others too, but afraid of offending people if I miss them out, I mention D and Midi as they are personal friends….in real life…not facebook life heh heh. Check all the features on my songs; THOSE are the rappers I rate. Fubar? Him? Uhm…yeah, yeah he’s on the list heh heh. Collabs already recorded, 2 upcoming son, and another coming later in the year on a cover album produced by Matt Catlow.

https://dekay.bandcamp.com/
https://midiuk.bandcamp.com/

09. IF YOU WERE GOING TO BE LEFT MAROONED ON AN ISLAND WITH ONLY 1 ALBUM TO LISTEN TO AND THE ONLY CHOICES WERE: JUSTIN BEIBER'S "BELIEVE" AND RIFF RAFF'S "ICON", WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY? (AND YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE 1)

…I HAVE to answer this? Shit…okay…erm…well I would dramatically find the highest building and jump off it theatrically yelling “HAH! This’ll teach you world”! before listening to that Justin prick, so I’ll go for the freaky looking specimen Riff, plus at least I might be able to rap over his shit to drown out his wack lyrics, as he has more hip hopish beats than Justin…I think. PS fubar you have a sick imagination asking this question, very…very…twisted. I shall not forget this, you have made a most heinous and stubborn enemy this day, LET THE TRUMPETS RING!

…Now where’s that wench of mine with my dinner? OUCH!!! Sorry babes….sob…

RUKAS 19TH OCTOBER 2014

*** Interview conducted by Fubar



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