Papa J Ruiz, Follow Your Dream
by Charlie Sullivan
Local rap/hip-hop artist Papa J Ruiz isn’t a young man to be taken lightly. Ruiz delivers the goods with a well thought out blend of rap, R&B, and a history lesson. Ruiz infuses his music with sound bites from old civil rights news reports and other media. The newest album titled HR-1955 takes on political themes. For those of you who don’t recall H.R. 1955 was the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. In part it’s a bill that would have made it possible for the Department of Homeland Security to monitor internet and close sights that have a radical concept of reality and to limit and control the information on the internet with force if necessary. The bill failed to become law during the 110th Congress; conspiracy theorists better keep their eyes open.
Raised in Colorado Ruiz grew up listening to his father’s Latin music and his brothers were always jamming on hip- hop. The six foot Columbian started writing raps when he was 9 years old wanting to follow in the footsteps of Tupac, Nas, and Eminem. Ruiz’s mom bought him his first recording equipment and he started laying down tracks. Ruiz would burn his CD’s and could be found in Aurora handing them out in front of Angelo’s CD’s and More. “I wanted to prove I could rap but I didn’t have a message; I was just rapping about anything, putting words together,” says Ruiz.
About 4 years ago Ruiz started to take his music a little more seriously. Ruiz was just kind of going through the motions and trying find direction with his raps. Ruiz’s music was coming along, give Early Prep (2012) and NO R3COLL3CTION (2013) a spin, but he was still trying to find his way in the business. After Ruiz’s 2013 release things changed.
It wasn’t until life started to hit me in the face that I found the path that I wanted my music to take,” says Ruiz, “I started thinking about governments, politics, life, about our rights, and I found my path.” Ruiz teamed up with Chad A. Marshall, aka Von Poe, and started recording at KMG Studios. Marshall helped Ruiz build the platform to deliver his music to the masses, Organized Threat. “Chad is great to work with,” says Ruiz, “He was committed and loyal to the vision I had; I’m grateful that I have someone in my corner who has the same dream and vision.”
In the process they created HR-1955 with the standout pieces “Live Free”, “Domestic Terrorist”, and “Stolen Whip”. “I started the thought process on the album back in 2013,” says Ruiz, “I was writing and the ideas kept coming and a lot of the songs I wrote at the beginning didn’t even make it to the album.” “The whole album just took on a life of its own,” adds Ruiz, “We had the music done, started doing video shoots, and in the end we had a great product and just rolled with it.”
Ruiz has taken time to grow and evolve his music. He wants to bring some light into people’s lives, give them something to think about and challenge them to grow. I don’t listen to a lot of rap/hip-hop but this artist caught my attention and I think he’s worthy of being heard.
“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” – John F. Kennedy
Stolen Whip video, https://vimeo.com/138697234
Category: Buzzworthy
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