Jen Loves Hip Hop: The Ruckman Record

Review:
The Ruckman Record
Re-released in JB Hi-Fi, Sanity, and on iTunes TODAY
10th August 2012

“So who's your favourite rapper's favourite rapper?”

It's a question that immediately commands our attention because we assume that those that we admire and look up to would have the knowledge and insight needed to play the tour guide and successfully lead us through this jungle that we call the rap game, making sure that we saw more than just the tourist sights. Our favourite rapper, we assume, would have such a vast knowledge of the music scene that as a tour guide he would be able bring us deep into the culture, showing us the intricacies of the local and international scene. It goes without saying that a lot of thought would have to go into the answering of such an important question.

Well I'm not a famous rapper, but I reckon if I was I would have to have a clever answer ready for when someone put this question to me. Maybe even an unsuspected and surprising answer. It would have to be someone smooth, cunning, intelligent, underrated, underground, with wicked flows and smooth as silk voice. It would have to be someone who is just as comfortable spitting a clever diss at an opponent in a rap battle as they are busting rhymes over a chilled out beats in a song about loving life. And that rapper for me would have to be Kade MC. But hold up, wait a minute, ok let's just make this clear: I'm not actually saying Kade is my favourite rapper, I'm just saying that if I was a famous rapping heavyweight, I would be quick to mention Kade as one of my favourites in order to show that I was still hip to the Sydney underground rap scene. And that being said Kade MC is definitely a name that you should know, and if you don't know, it's time to get familiar.

Meet Kade & the Karneez

Kade has been secretly toiling away in the background, busy working at perfecting his craft over the last ten years, and still he is a youngster in the scene. How many people do you know that can say that they have been on the grind for more than a decade at 21 years of age? Having first stepped on stage at the almost unheard of age of 10, Kade has successful jumped through many of the hoops and hurdles that will hopefully lead him down the road to a successful music career. He has become known as a deadly emcee to battle, with his witty asides and quick flips leading him to victory over several prominent emcees, most notably The Tongue of Elefant Traks. (See below for several battle video links.) But although he is very talented at battling, Kade will never find it as fulfilling as making music and performing it to a live audience. Although most emcees perform with a live DJ, Kade prefers to travel with a live band, the Karneez. The addition of a live band provides a refreshingly different take on hip hop music.

me bopping to Kade & the Karneez at the Annandale

The past few years, Kade has been strongly focused on delivering the best debut album that he possibly could. He has been polishing to a perfect shine, what could only be recognised as a gem, The Ruckman Record. The album has been available now since late 2011, but it's re-release into a more commercially successful platform this year was all but prophesied by Kade in the song Underrated where he says “I hear the world ends in 2012, which is when I plan to have my album on shelves...” It was a goal that he had often vocalised that he had to hoped to have an album out by the age of 21. And I think that goal, although not yet realised at the time that the album was in production, is a main theme of the album.

The album takes us on a deeply personal journey of discovery. It feels like a balance sheet weighing out the reasons to stay positive in life against the reasons to succumb to the darkness and doubt that overtakes everyone's mind at some point in life. It's a refreshingly open and honest look into this young man's psyche. As Kade explains himself in Lonely Lyricist, “bi-polar has me racing up and down like a staircase.” And even though, just as explained, the music bounces from a dark personal internal struggle type of track like that to the happy, positive, and carefree track, Pull it Together, the transition seems natural and organic. Through all the darkness which is enclosed in the human psyche that this album dredges up, I feel like the positive messages far outweigh any negative.

Kade has some profound messages in the album, but I think the clearest, and most obvious message is this: “You can achieve anything you set your sights to,” in the song Make It Happen: not only only spoken knowledge, but inarguably proven.

Notable tracks : Undderrated, Idiom Ideology, Headphones

Pick up the Ruckman Record today on iTunes, here, here, or at a live show (possibly for free if you're lucky.)

enough of me, listen to Kade himself talk about the album...

Catch a live show
Friday 17th August- Fitzroy Hotel, Windsor- Supporting Limit Infinity with Deadbeat and Hazy
Saturday 18th August- Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst- Supporting L-Fresh the Lion with DJ Ology
Sunday 16th September- Valve Bar, Tempe- 1 outs Battle Event
Sunday 30th Septmeber- Lansdowne Hotel, Broadway - Headliner
Tuesday 4th October- Fbi Social, Kings Cross- Headline

Links
Triple J Unearthed - listen to download and rate some of Kade's songs
Oz Hip Hop Forum- The Ruckman Record- talk some crap about Kade's album
Kade MC Facebook page- up to date info by the artist himself

Music Videos
Kade & The Karneez performing "Huntsman & the Player" live at the Annandale Hotel, new music off the NEXT album, coming soon.