Rukus Unorthodox Styles 1994 EP

Ness Tee, founder, MC, writer and producer of Rukus started his career in the early days of Hip Hop music. He opened up shows for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five back in 1980 and continued to rock the mic at concerts from Boston to Cali rolling with his boys Naughty By Nature and The Outlaws. Rukus, which was formed in 1995, also consisted of MC, Barry Pendergrass aka Focus who was the brother-in-law of Eddie Murphy's brother Vernon Lynch [who also appears on the original Rukus - Come Out 12" on background vocals]. Ness and Barry used to live on the same street in Montclair, NJ and sharing a mutual interest in the culture from way back, started to record. With some financial help from his family, Ness pressed up the 12" on his own Insignt label and it caught the attention of and was later licensed by a subsid of Casablanca records, Chocolate City Recs. Even though it was pressed twice the record is surprisingly rare. The crew still had the original reels, so when we contacted them about a deal to drop the tracks from the 12" and limited cassette version and 3 other unreleased tracks on Herring, they transfered them for us. The result is a banging EP of rare NJ flavas from 1994.