Known for their amazing live shows, Nation Ruckus brings a refreshing new sound to Hip-Hop music. Hailing out of Montreal, the unsigned collective consists of rapper E. aka Milk-E Fresh, multi-instrumentalist Quality and DJ Wim.
The group also collaborates with some of MTL’s best musicians on stage and in the studio to bring that “live” element that has characterized their approach to beatmaking since their beginnings. Influenced by a wide range of artists, Nation Ruckus fearlessly blends genres drawing its inspiration from Old School and 90s Rap, as well as Rock, Funk and Electronic music.
Their eclectic style is buoyed by a musical quality that ventures off the beaten track, with fresh conscious lyrics, infectious grooves, raw turntablism, catchy guitar riffs and a well-packaged production. In previous years, instead of going the mixtape route as it is accustomed in rap music, Nation Ruckus used live performances to grow awareness across the nation and build experience.
They notably distinguished themselves by playing at the Sounds of Blackness Awards, Canadian Music Fest as well as the world renowned Montreal Jazz Festival. In addition to playing at several Festivals and winning some of MTL’s most prominent urban music contests, the group had the opportunity to open for international artists such as Ludacris, Talib Qweli and Big Boi from OutKast.
Their upcoming album entitled Boombox Manifesto is set to be in stores in Winter 2011.
Q & A with Nation Ruckus
I consider myself very fortunate to have attended one of your live shows. Can you tell us why you've chosen to go the live show route rather than pushing out mixtapes?
Basically we’ve always done music from a perspective where we wanted to bring something different to the game. Having live instrumentation and incorporating different styles of music has been one of our main focuses since way before Jay-Z started rocking with live musicians!
See, as major music fans and as major fans of rap, we felt that it was often misrepresented by live shows that were often lacking creativity and also craftsmanship, as well as a lack of musicality at times. So we had the idea of being an alternative hip hop group that would blend different genres together and make for real pure good live entertainment that would shed a different light on hip hop. We even had the idea of being a big band type rap collective, and we did that for a while, but with time it became complicated to keep a group like that together and keep the vision in line without enough money coming in.
But in any case, throughout the years we’ve had the chance to play with some of the best musicians in Montreal and our live show experience has giving us an edge that can’t be imitated or duplicated. You can’t fake that shit. Rocking many shows does that to you, you learn how to be in your element and control the crowd at the same time. So when people will hear out the jams and decide to come out to the show they won’t get a group that’s learning how to rock a show while blowing up, they’ll get the real deal!
One of the dopest aspects of your live show is that you can switch from spittin' in English to French effortlessly. How has your bilingualism helped your career so far?
I mean, I don’t how much it’s helped us so far but I do think it’s something people appreciate and that once again sets us apart a bit. On Sin City for example, which is the first video we released, a lot of people really liked when I switched from English to French for little lines here and there or even a word (even did Spanish in that one for that matter!). I think it added a cool ring of multi-culturism especially for a song that talked about Montreal. Yet I can’t necessarily pull it off with every song.
We also wrote some tracks in French throughout the years but for the present record we decided to go with English only since our mind was set on an international release rather than local. Nonetheless, especially if we play in MTL, bilingualism is always something I bring to the live shows to give a personal touch to the emceeing and rep my roots as they say.
To me, it’s just how I envision the city. Everybody speaking two or three languages at least! Plus, it’s a diversity me and the boys will always be proud of representing. Now, as using French in the lyrics, you guys just made me feel like I should be on that tip again… maybe for the second record!
If you had any advice for any younger cats coming up in the game, what would you tell them?
That’s a good question. No doubt I would tell them to study, practice and invest time in owning their craft. As an artist, that is the most important thing you can do. That’s the foundation of your music and your business. Without it you got nothing. So if you really wanna make it in this. Invest time everyday and don’t get discouraged. Don’t be so worried about being great at first. Push yourself and focus on getting there, one step at a time.
Also, I would tell them to start investing money in their craft, as soon as possible. You wanna be your own business in this, especially these days. Don’t wait on anybody to invest in you. Build a plan to make yourself into a viable business. To do that, you will probably need people around you still though. Finding the right people is key, people that you can trust, people that do what you can’t or don’t have the time to do. That’s it. My words of wisdom for the day.
Known for their amazing live shows, Nation Ruckus brings a refreshing new sound to Hip-Hop music. Hailing out of Montreal, the unsigned collective consists of rapper E. aka Milk-E Fresh, multi-instrumentalist Quality and DJ Wim. 