Over the last decade , a number of African youth have created yet another sphere of influence for Jamaican popular music, taking the beat obsession, party focus and super-brand consciousness of dancehall and infusing it with African-derived sounds and images, moving freely, for instance between their take on Jamaican patois, a smattering of English and a number of their own native tongues. To that mix, they’ve added top-notch visuals,(just peep the videos for “Ye” or “Putuu” or “Bounce”) and are even engaging their Jamaican brethren.
Lagos, Nigeria- born Michael Adebayo, who took his stage name, Ruger, from the well-known handgun (started by two well-known families in 1940s Connecticut and still there today), is blazing his own trail in the firmament, helped along by his distinctive pink hair, eye patch (he won’t say exactly why he wears it, just that he’s honouring someone”) and the equally distinctive semi-nasal tone of his voice. As a teen, Ruger was part of his church’s choir. He was also part of his school’s musical band. He started composing songs and performing back in secondary school.
Having come up through the burgeoning Lagos music scene, Rugerfirst emerged in 2003 with “The Commencement” an aptly titled first disc that included such bangers as “Down n Dirty” and “Make Moves n’ Planz” Evidently, the process of making said moves was more involved than we might think, as the youngster continued to build pretty much under the radar until teaming up with fellow producer-performer D’Prince (himself the brother of international Afrobeats label founder Don Jazzy) of the Jonzing World camp. That has led to a new deal, and new EP, titled “Pandemic” . In addition, adapting sounds from rap and dancehall with mentions of Dancehall artists like Popcaan, Gyptian, and Sean Paul being a few of his early influences.
Thus locked in and super-focussed, its merely a matter of time before the name Ruger joins the aforementioned Afropop stars and others at the top of playlists and on stages globally
