Rup
June 19th, 2007 by sparky
When Gilles Peterson, Mr Scruff and Jazzie B all buy (yes, buy!!!) your last 12”, then you’ve got to be doing something right.
Rup (pronounced Roop) first came to the attention of Zebra Traffic when he appeared on TM Juke’s debut album for Tru Thoughts. Hailing from south London, Rup’s music is somewhat of a contradiction. Lying somewhere between the south side of the river, and the true wilderness, his metaphors and similes manage to blend the day-to-day routines in SE5 with a refreshing zest for life outside of our capital. While he is content to drop the staple hip-hop braggadocio – he is equally at home being self-effacing and examining his regular tendency for over-excess, all of which instils his music with an undeniable and appealing honesty.
He is no stranger to the stage either, having toured Europe with the TM Juke Live Band, plus playing a series of gigs in London to promote the album (including Shepherd’s Bush Empire).
The label were recently approached by Hed Kandi about licensing one of his tracks to one of their compilations…how many Hip Hop artists from the UK can get support from the likes of Rodney P and Skitz on BBC 1xtra and also interest from Hed Kandi? He was also recently asked to record an exclusive Live Session for Somethin’ Else (the production team behind most of the BBC’s cutting edge shows including Mr Petersons Worldwide Show). We feel this goes some way to showing what a unique talent Rup is. He has the ability to appeal to forward thinking non-specific hip-hop music fans while maintaining a solid fan-base in the hip-hop community.
Currently hard at work on his follow up album set for release later this year and also putting a live band together in order to promote it more extensively, Rup is definitely one to watch.
