The smooth sounds of mood ruff
Veteran hip hop trio set to release most accomplished collection to date

Mood Ruff - I Do My Own Stunts [Slo Coach Records/urbnet records]
By Angelou Flores


“Everything feels right now,” Odario says.

Odario (MC), Spitz (MC) and ICQRI (DJ) are on some Oprah shit with the release of I Do My Own Stunts. With the new album in hand, mood ruff is starting all over again.

“We had to go through all the bullshit to get to where we’re goin’ right now,” Spitz says. “Now, we got our heads on our shoulders, we know the industry and we know our music and ourselves enough to say, ‘This is who we are.’

“This is by far the best product we’ve ever put out, and we know how to push it now.”

If you listen closely to what they have put out so far as singles — Blues for Sonny, the all-format embracing Rocketship, and the throwback-in-the-day Blow the Bins — it’s obvious the mood is hitting you with a little bit of this and that. That they’ve released an end product which sounds more like a collection of singles than an album is a fact not lost on the trio.

“That’s something I think about on a regular basis,” Odario says. “What you have to do is step forward and realize that you’re living in a ‘no-album era,’ a single-driven era. People would much rather burn a single and get on with their life.”

Mood ruff’s musical rebirth comes after 10-plus years in the Canadian music industry, and I Do... is the first disc since 2002’s Antarctica.

“The general public got to watch us —” starts Odario.

“Grow,” finishes Spitz.

“Most people can’t do that because they’re not willing to fail or humiliate themselves in public,” Odario continues. “We made a lot of mistakes in the past but we did it ourselves. Hence, the name of the album.”

“(I Do My Own Stunts) seems like the next logical step,” ICQRI adds.

The less-vocal member of mood ruff has been able to dabble in production — when he’s not busting moves in a b-boy circle — with a handful of those efforts finding their way onto the new album. The first single, Rocketship, is one such track.

The group’s roll of the dice paid off handsomely in selecting the cut as leadoff single, and Rocketship is receiving fine rotation on MuchVIBE, MTV Canada and MuchMusic.

“That wasn’t supposed to be the first single. Everyone felt it simultaneously and agreed (Rocketship) was how we were gonna go,” says Spitz Diggy.

ICQRI sees the selection as some sort of metaphysical moment.

“It was more of a ‘now it’s your time’ type deal,” he says.

Though he recorded pause tapes (cut-and-paste mixes using two cassette decks to ‘loop’ a beat) back in the day, Icy never really thought of producing professionally, but that didn’t stop him from twiddling knobs at home.

“That was the first time we didn’t allow politics to take over,” Odario says. “We just really went with a — I hate the word — vibe.”

One source of inspiration was the trio’s recent trip to Austin, Tex., for the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference.

“It was organized chaos,” ICQRI says.

Odario’s surreal description of the event reads like a Marvel what-if? story:

“ICQRI chilled with Z-Trip, Spitz met Willie Nelson and I kissed Erykah Badu. That’s the only way to describe (SXSW),” he says.

Odario admits, however, that mood ruff wasn’t as prepared as it could have been.

“We were walking through a city that had two to three thousand guests armed with business cards, postcards, flyers, pins, tapes, CDs, and we were like, ‘Whoa, we’ve just gotta go out and use our charm, ’cause that’s all we got right now.’ These (promoters) were packing their own shows. SXSW is about everyone packing their own show, and may the best man win,” Odario recalls.

Despite a lack of free merch, the trio were surprised to pack a venue — especially with three big rap shows going down the same night. Having the Def Jux roster, Zion I/Frank-N-Dank, Devin the Dude and Erykah Badu within a three-block radius certainly made for stiff competition.

“There we were, biting our nails, goin’ ‘Shit, no one’s gonna come to our show,’ but we had a huge crowd,” Odario recalls.

Spitz found the key to SXSW was to come with a game plan.

“You have to be prepared for what you want to accomplish. If you’re goin’ there with a goal, you’ll attain your goal. That’s what I learned... If you’re lookin’ for U.S. distribution, you’ll find it.”

Mood ruff left Austin with a U.S. radio promotion company in pocket; U.S., U.K. and Australian distribution opportunities; and a handful of booked shows down south.

The group is understandably on a high right now and can’t wait to debut the new joints.

They did just that at a release party in Toronto on May 25. The Winnipeg release goes down May 28 at the Energy Lounge. Mood ruff be hitting the stage with special guests Shadez, Lisa Bell, Arinze and John Smith.

Be there — you aren’t going to want to miss a single stunt.