Ruger’s debut album is a relentless showcase of his talent. Across 17 tracks, he deftly navigates numerous soundscapes from Dancehall and Afro-Swing to Afrobeats and Amapiano to Hip-Hop—using his immense mastery of his artistry to blur the lines between these genres for a wholesome album experience.
Ruger is probably the most unique artist of his generation. His profile as a dancehall artist is unique, in the sense that most of his peers are either RnB artists disguising as pop singers (Fireboy DML, Tems, Ayra starr) or have strong Hip-Hop backgrounds or influences in their music (Omah Lay, Rema, Asake.) Ruger on the other hand is fundamentally a Dancehall artist, who regularly treads the territory of Afrobeats and Afro-Swing, the fusion subgenre that stems from merging Dancehall and Afrobeats.
Ru The World displays an elite level of mastery of skill that’s quite scary for a debut album and its most impressive feature asides its sonic cohesion and dynamic production, is the fact that Ruger flexes every facet of his musicality, from melodic rapping to heartfelt singing, whilst retaining his bad boy persona that makes him stand out. Lojay and Omah Lay make fuckboy music too, but there is a certain level of emotional vulnerability in their records that can’t be found on Ruger’s songs. The other duo might be using women as a coping mechanism to fight their demons, but Ruger on the other hand is just a bad boy for the fun of it.
There is an interesting relationship between Dancehall, Hip-Hop and R&B and Ruger’s execution on this album shows he understands the intricacies on an innate level. Dancehall and R&B might have different topical directions and requirements for vocal deliveries, but they share the same BPM and so it’s easy to coast on R&B beats with Dancehall deliveries and vice versa. Elite Dancehall delivery also requires some level of melodic rapping, which makes it fusion friendly with Hip-Hop. It’s with this formular that Ruger blurs the lines and delivers one of 2023 best albums yet.
Ruger comes out guns blazing with his most energetic delivery on the album opener, Tour an Afro-Drill track with very grand, dominant synths going off intermittently like gun shots. It matches the defiant, triumphant sentiment on the track and what’s even more impressive about this track asides from Ruger’s tight melodic rapping cadences—is that he manages to create a larger-than-life atmosphere of gratitude on a track where he’s giving the middle finger to his detractors and also iterating the fact that he’s the hottest thing amongst the ladies since slide bread.
Legendary Beatz produced Ashana and for a duo of their caliber and reputation, it’s a very minimalist, simplistic beat that could have resulted in a monotonous moment with another artist but thankfully Ruger’s prowess at delivery is so good that he elevated the beat, when it should be the other way round. “Your friend is awake, right? We gwan fit fuck till da late night, hmm” he sings, making hedonism sound appealing and attractive. Only few artists can pull off such moments.
Of course a toxic relationship wouldn’t be far from such debauchery antics and so is the case on I Want Peace, where Ruger’s love interest is spiraling and throwing temper tantrums because he isn’t the man she wished he was. The whole thing escalates to the point of Ruger telling her off, singing “Do What I Ask or Let Me Be” emphasizing the common trait of bad boys’ unwillingness to compromise and conform to inconveniences.
Blue is an heartfelt R&B song that would tug at heart strings and it makes a lot of sense, coming after the whole toxic ordeal on I Want Peace, aptly representing the duality of playboys and their tendency to be sweet and toxic which is a manipulative tool. The sonic make-up of the song is a bit derivate of Ruger’s own Snapchat, a stellar R&B cut on his sophomore EP. Blue is still a really good song nonetheless, however it’s a slightly less stellar version of Snapchat.
“Me ready to stress myself for you” Ruger sings, persisting with his serenading mission on Addicted ft. Stefflon Don. Both artists assume personas that put them at the receiving end of their flowery declarations laced with yearning that can only be quenched by intimate loving. Stefflon delivers a memorable performance, letting her vocals convey emotions that can be put in words over the delicate, midtempo beat. Thus ends the impressive opening track sequence of the album.
In between the 2 singles, Kristy and Asiwaju, we get All My Days ft. Sauti Sol, a celebratory record that highlights the pleasures of life as its most significant thing. The beat is very heavy on visceral African percussion and drums and it gives it that cultural element. That coupled with how Ruger and Sauti Sol breeze over the beat makes for an exotic scenery of scantily clad women, twisting and swiveling in response to the erotic nature of the beat.
Nine is the ingenious fusion of Afropop, Amapiano and House music. It is the 9th track on the album and Ruger cheekily sings about having 9 lives and 9 wives. He also understands that on such multifaceted production, the beat needs to breathe and he needn’t find as many pockets as he normally would. Kukbeatz is the true hero on this track as he fuses EDM elements with Amapiano in such a seamless way that hasn’t been done since Nonso Amadi’s Paper, produced by London. The similarities between both records is an interesting one and this writer wonders if Paper inspired by the latter record.
We return to Dancehall territory on Likely, where he implores the services of Jamaican artist, Govana on the Caribbean soundscape. It’s a good song but perhaps for the first time, Ruger and the production fail to do something out of the box. Govana’s rap is also safe and although it’s in no way mediocre, it hardly elevates the song. Nevertheless, Likely is one that will surely set the dance floors on fire and get the ladies to gyrate their hips, because of the simplicity in its resonance and grooves.
Boy Toy is one of the more explicit sexual songs on the LP that details a very vivid, raunchy sexual encounter where Ruger is in his most unruly element. He iterates constantly that their tools for each other’s pleasure and even goes the extra mile of recording the whole ordeal, just because. When Dear Ex rolls around, it has Ruger in his most emotionally vulnerable moment, where he’s reflecting and wishing he had done better.
Despite Ruger sounding genuine through confessional and brilliant writing, it’s most likely another symptom of his bad boy persona to gaslight and avoid accountability. It’s an emo-trap cut and Ruger exerts his voice in the needed way to compliment his somber emotions. Classical guitar strings and a rumbling baseline set the stage on Island Girl and Projexx brings a refreshing dynamism needed at that stage with his rhythmic delivery and silk vocals, that is a nice contrast alongside Ruger’s.
After a final 3-track sequence in which the other singles are lumped together, we finally get to album closer, Holy Ground, where Ruger treads the familiar path of gratitude, whilst taking stock of his blessings and also asserting his own success. When you realize that the song was recorded in 2020, a year before his breakthrough, it makes Ruger’s declarations on it even more emboldening as it’s almost like a prophecy. This is a man who knew he was destined for the greatness and that nothing could stop that reality.
Artists with expansive sonic palettes and immense versatility usually come across the challenge of marrying all multiple spheres of their musicality into a body of work, that sufficiently showcases them without one facet outshining the other. Ruger on the other hand, triumphs over this hurdle and it results in one of the best debut albums of recent times.
Like his pirate eye patch signifies, Ruger is a swashbuckling menace and Ru The World is his ship that he commandeers and takes listeners on an exhilarating ride on the vast ocean of sonic soundscapes that defines his artistry.
Final Verdict:
Sonic Cohesion: 1.7/2
Unharried Transitions: 1.6/2
Expansive Production: 1.8/2
Songwriting: 2/2
Optimal Track Sequencing: 1.9/2
Total: 9.0/10
–This review is written by T.J. Martins, an avid lover of music.
