Funny how things change. In 1993 Sean “Ruc” Price probably felt as though his place in Hip-Hop was solid. If things would have gone the right way perhaps I would not be writing this story. But they did not.
Sean “Ruc” Price, formerly of Heltah Skeltah, should be one of the most celebrated lyricists on the scene. The voice, the clever delivery and the inventive word play. Very few can compare, but
few fans get the chance to hear. Is he bitter because others are cashing in? No, he told me he is just surviving the best way he can.
“I haven’t been doing anything,” said Ruc. “I’ve just been living off the land like John Rambo. Eating fruits and berries off the trees, know what I mean? I got dropped from my label and I’ve just living off the land, living hand to hand. Why don’t I have an album out? Why did I get dropped? The bottom line is I didn’t sell any albums. You don’t sell any albums you gotta go. Just point blank. No in between or nothing. It was just cut and dry. Plus, I started not getting along with some cats anyway. So, that was the best thing to do.”
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Do you listen to the radio these days? Chances are you do. If one were to listen to the lyrics of some of the hottest crews in New York City or in so-called east coast lyricists you may find
a commonality sewing them all together. That being certain catch phrases, words and imagery which finds its origin in the Boot Camp’s first releases. In essence, there is a whole lot of biting going on.
“A lot of people don’t believe that we were one of the first clicks to come out rockin’ the fresh Tims and rhyming about guns and smoking blunts or whatever,” admitted Ruc. “But people don’t believe that because none of us sold a lot of albums. They steal from Steele and Tek, me, Buckshot and the whole crew. They steal our words, our steez and everything. They take our stuff and flip it, but when we come out with it they try to say we’re biting! But, you know what,
I’m going to just leave that alone. It’s really nothing to me because if I can make that up I can come with more. It’s nothing to me.
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I’ve got an album called “Monkey Bars” coming out. It’ll be done real soon. Right now I’m chillin’. My man Roc album about to come out and we got the Boot Camp Collector’s Edition coming out. Plus there’s some secret squirrel projects going on, but even if I gotta distribute my album myself it is definitely coming out through Duck Down Records. Until then you can catch me on Amboy and Blake, I got them two-way pagers etc. You can always find me in Brownsville. I hang out with grown-ass men who drink Ballantine Ale. Holla at ya boy.”
You heard the man, if you need them two-ways you need to holla at ya boy. If you need something straight from the Brooklyn underground you can holla at him as well. Speaking of hollering, Buckshot is ever confident in the BCC collective and feels it is only a matter of time before they resurface stronger than ever. The BDI Thug had this to say about Black Moon’s trials and tribulations.
“Our music has always been able to put people in a trance. No one can bite what we do. What we have to do now is put the music out there. We have never been in this situation at all were we were on a label and put out an album, it does good and we just put out another one. It has always been, we put out an album that does well, but the second album has snags because now the public wants to hear Black Moon with DJ Premier, but the label we were with doesn’t want to give us 20 or 30 Gs to get someone of his caliber on our project. I know it sounds bugged when I come out and put it in specifics. Drama like that kept us from jumping off. I never had the privilege of being on a label where they did things for us like I see other people doing for their
artists. On our other projects things happened because Buckshot went out and got the talent or Evil D went out and got people to work with us.”
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On Black Moon’s upcoming album their will be no label politics or suburban A&R reps putting their tainted spin on the purity of art. For better or worse Duck Down Records is doing for self.
“Right now we’re just on Duck Down Records. I would love to have Duck Down distributed by such-n-such and this time such-n-such is really riding for us and not just treating us like gumbo. Someone who is riding for us because they know we have good product and the only way to sell good product is to make it available for the consumer to buy. Hopefully it will sell enough copies to where to labels will, not necessarily give us a deal, but clear some of that elbow space. I want that space.”
