Vex Ruffin

You hear that rumbling?

Ominous right?

The sound's fucking bearing down on you like a rabid rhino with a taste for blood and hatred for bearded, waify white men.

Lucky for you it is only Vex Ruffin’s Crash Course EP. Relieved right?

Vex Ruffin fucks with bass the way I fucks with food and British Ciders. It is a feast, it is decadent. it is erotic, It is deep, guttural and aggressivly grabs you by the meat sack. It occupies that weird space between your soul and your mind, often crossing over between the two causing some sort of event horizon in your groin.

The Crash Course EP reminds me of what would happen to rap music if it ever grew up and became interesting. Imagine if hip hop heads decided to travel the world and experience new things, broadening their horizons, and becoming a complete people, you know instead of just calling people who strive for more than “the real”, faggots.

That is Vex Ruffin. He takes the bones of hip hop and mixes them with a cultured universe. He adds a dash of 80s dance punk to the mix, while still stomping around your chest with bass and drums. Vex Ruffin manages to jam everything I have ever loved about music into every track, without ever sounding forced or like he is trying too hard. It is wildly aggressive music that is also vulnerable and honest. You can hear the journey in the music, it is tough and delicate at the same time, and it is the type of a thing that you always want, but never knew.

With the Crash Course EP, Vex Ruffin manages to catch the energy of early hip hop, early punk, and early new wave. It sounds like he then he got them drunk, gave them some ecstasy and video taped them fondling each other’s bits, and then dropped a buzz saw bass and power hungry kicks on it for good measure.