RA the Rugged Man

Back to the music...

I couldn't find too much information about RA the Rugged Man. His web page has been dead since 2005 it seems.

He's from Long Island and has been in the rap game for close to twenty years working with the likes of Notorious B.I.G. and Mobb Deep. He's been signed before but was dropped apparently because of his behavior. He hasn't put out an album until 2004 when he released Die, Rugged Man, Die through Nature Sounds.

Rugged is old school. Down and dirty, spray paint totin', subway ridin', cardboard breakin' with a boom box old school. The lyrics can get raunchy at times too, so it's not exactly work-friendly.

American Low Life (bootleg) - Grizzly

I saw him on DJ Battle TV where he was going off on whack MCs and the decline of New York hip hop since the days of the grandfathers that created it. I liked him immediately. :)

http://www.djbattle.net/tv.php?tvID=11

The episode is quite big (225MB) but if you download it, defititely check out the turntable routine in the middle by DJ Klever.

Here's another Klever routine on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JZbnMDHvg9I