Art is not meant to hold your hand. It is not meant to be diluted through the weak efforts of this current toxic cancel-culture. It is, as Detroit’s raw and real-as-fuck hip-hop artist ruffi0 suggests it is; a pill almost too hard to swallow.
Daring to release a music video so emotionally and visually intense that most record labels wouldn’t have the balls to place it on rotation, of course, we took notice, and of course, it is our choice for this month’s Music Video Submission Winner!
ruffi0’s single ‘Mayday’ asks us to help him save his life. It is a catchy and darkly anthemic track that fills the listener with questions buried deep under the weight of ones own personal oppression through overthinking and living in a state of numbness; it is a call to those struggling to make it through, to let them know that they are not alone, even if they feel that they are. For ruffi0, music has given him so much that he feels the importance of sharing it and giving some inspiration and hope back. Yes, it is not the expected dose of sunshine-hope that society desires us to share through motivational quotes from coffee-shop philosophers, but instead chooses to ask the viewer to tread a darker path to find the light, and you are going to get a little bloody here.
Mayday is a violent video, it doesn’t pull any punches to get ruffi0’s intense message across, and by the end of it you feel the need to reach out to tell this artist that things are going to be ok; and isn’t that the point of art? To get us caring about one another just a little more?
Well played ruffi0. Well played indeed.
The track itself is a stripped-down effective beat laced with ruffi0’s signature aggressive and smooth vocal style. In regards to your music collection, you can place ruffi0 right alongside other potent acts such as NF, Tom MacDonald, and Lil Peep, and he deserves that respected company.
In a world that still finds it so very hard to talk about depression, or bipolar disorder, or any form of mental illness, it is songs and videos like this that cut straight through the silence, demanding that we shine a light on someone’s darkness before we end up dressing up for their funeral.
ruffi0 understands the mission of art. He understands the power to be found in pain, and he courageously uses his own inner-struggles to help others through their own darkness.
I am personally thankful for any artist that respects their audience enough to be as real and raw as this because sometimes, this is exactly what is needed to help save someone’s life.
ruffi0 can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and his official Website.