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OPEN
UP SHOP…
“We want to establish credibility and respect
for Ruff Ryders through the industry and the street,
as a real record company,” says Chivon Dean,
one-third of the Ruff Ryders triumvirate, which is
sure to make all power lists for the millennium’s
last year. “This is just to stamp and finalize
and prove that we are a record company. We are not
just DMX, we’re not just the Lox.”
No,
though they manage the gold-selling Lox through their
Ruff Ryders Management and, under the wings of their
Ruff Ryders Records, ushered DMX’s rise to stardom,
Ruff Ryders are brothers and sister Waah, Dee and
Chivon Dean. Ruff Ryders are producers Swizz Beatz,
PK, and Shok. Ruff Ryders are emcees Eve and Drag-On,
R&B trio Parlé. Ruff Ryders is Powerhouse
Recording Studio in Yonkers. And, to make it clear,
Ruff Ryders is the Interscope-distributed Ruff Ryder
Records which debuts this spring with the Ryde Or
Die compilation album. As Dean notes, “Instead
of saying DMX, Ruff Ryders, you’ll say Ruff Ryders/DMX,
Ruff Ryders/Eve, Ruff Ryders/ Drag-On.”
Ryde
or Die
In
the lexicon of the street, “Ryde or Die”
is a call to arms, a battle cry, an affirmation of
loyalty. “Ryde Or Die” is all that and more.
This is seen no better than in the title track. Produced
by DJ Clue? and Duro, “Ryde or Die” is a
rousing remake of EPMD’s classic “Headbanger”
where the Lox, DMX, Eve and Drag-On trade verses like
shots from a carbine.
Results
are just as exhilarating when 20 year-old production
whiz Swizz Beats mans the boards. “Down Bottom”
is a NorthEast rendition of bounce music, complete
with the liveliest horns this side of the French Quarter,
a chorus seeped in impropriety and thugosity, and
a shining appearance by New Awlins’ rising sun,
Juvenile.
Philly
rhyme sensation Eve, who’s appeared on the platinum-selling
Bulworth soundtrack with “Eve of Destruction,”
and also added a splash to fellow Illadelph heroes
The Roots’ “You Got Me” from their
latest LP, Things Fall Apart, scores big on the bouncy
“What You Want” which also features Dru
Hill’s Nokio. On “Do That Shit,” she
assaults with teflon-coated quotables like “Ask
around partner/Got this whole shit sewed up/ Got you
crying all day like ‘Man, I wanna blow up’/Cowards
make me sick/I swear to God I wanna throw up/ Entering
a session with me?/You better flow tough.”
“Jigga
My Nigga” pairs the cockiness and high-life one-upmanship
of Brooklyn’s Finest, Jay-Z with school-girl
melodies and a bottom-swinging horn arrangement. Jigga,
who’s “been dope since Slick Rick’s
first chain,” boils over with lyrics like “See,
I scramble with priests/Hustle with nuns/I got the
mind capacity of a young Butch Cassidy.”
DMX
shows up with an adrenaline-laced number replete with
personality changes, dogs barks, grunts and growls
that can only be classified as “Some X Shit”
and “Bug Out,” a freaky interpolation of
funk-classic “Funky Worm.”
Keepers
of all things gritty, the Lox destroy competition
with witty brags and boasts on the P.K.-produced “Dope
$,” while Jadakiss boasts he “got the labels
telling niggas not to drop” on his solo-outing,
“Kiss of Death” and Sheeks teams up with
Latin heavyweight Big Pun to trade spit on “Pina
Colada.”
Then
there’s the molasses-thick R&B of North Carolina
trio Parlé’s “I’m a Ruff Ryder”
and the flossing episode of “Platinum Plus”
featuring Jermaine Dupri and Ma$e.Ruff Ryders-they’re
not just DMX’x mans and them.
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