Ruffstuff Biography
(1989-Present)
Ruffstuff is one of the Drum & Bass scenes rising stars. Although many may think he is a relative newcomer, The South London born and grown dj has been lurking in the shadows for many years but over the last decade he has been building a reputation that has brought him to the forefront of Drum & Bass.
In the early 90’s whilst working in a South London record store ‘White Label’, Ruffstuff met up with Carl Collins, Head of Hardleaders which led to him learning more about the label side of things and progressed on to joining up with the label to help with A&R. Around the same time, through a mutual friend, he also met up with Bryan Gee and Jumping Jack Frost, founders of V recordings. After a while, he got more involved with V and the guys eventually took Ruffstuff in to the camp where today he is the A&R and label manager of Chronic Records.
It was back in 1994 when Ruffstuff held a weekly show on Pressure FM/Rinse FM where he met up with the likes of Stamina MC, Flight (Metalheadz), Slimzee and Genius from Pay as you go crew. Along with Wiley, Riko and Target who are now more commonly known as Roll Deep. At the same time he linked up with MC Fun, which today they still work as a team. These days they are rolling as a collective which many people now know as Uncontrolables (UNCZ) that includes MC Skibadee and Harry Shotta, with Ruffstuff being the dj for the crew. UNCZ have been pushing their sound via their award nominated Kool FM show which they do every other Sunday evening 9-11pm. This show is one of the biggest drum and bass shows on the FM dial that has attracted many listeners and many high profile guests such as: DJ Marky, Dizzee Rascal, Clipz, Asher D, Eksman, Bryan Gee, Top Cat and many more. As well as the Kool FM show, Ruffstuff does a fortnightly slot on the ever growing Pyro Radio internet station.
Thanks to the success of the radio shows stated above, this has led on to Ruffstuff being nominated by the people at the Accelerated Culture Awards for ‘Best Breakthrough DJ’ and ‘Best Radio Show’ for his efforts on Kool FM and this year been nominated for both awards again for the Raveology Drum & Bass Awards.
The V Recordings/Chronic representative and Movement resident has been smashing up dance floors up and down the country and around the world.
Ruffstuff has performed in countries such as Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Miami and many more. Brazil was one of Ruffstuffs highlights of his international djing career, playing in front of thousands of revellers at the world renowned Skol Beats festival. But back on home soil he has been creating waves at large scale events and club nights such as Homelands Festival, One Nation, Tru Playaz, Jungle Fever, V-Cycle, Heat, Knebworth Festival, Innovation, Grace, Valve, Fabric and Ministry of Sound nights, and regular spots including residencies at Raindance, Movement and Unity which Ruffstuff is co-founder of. Alternative dj work included playing for Nike with DJ Marky to help promote their new ‘Shox’ range.
Ruffstuff has built his reputation purely on djing which is hard to accomplish these days given that a lot of the people breaking through now have done so from their production skills. But over the last couple of years he has been spending time in the studio and is due to come with some releases for 2008 with the remix of ‘Shook Ones’ for Chronic Records and also a track entitled ‘Fightback’ on Nam Musik which is done with Majistrate and himself. One other recent track to note is ‘Purge Them’ that is out on general release on Calypso records featuring MC Fun. Also Ruffstuffs been in the studio with the likes of Shimon, Nightbreed, Mechanism and Murderation. There will be much more stuff to come from the duo of Ruffstuff and Majistrate in ’08. Also watch out for the debut mix album from Chronic Records entitled ‘Big, Bad & Heavy’ mixed by Ruffstuff.
All in all 2008 looks set to be a good year for Ruffstuff and is definitely one to look out for.
