By Dennis Asiimwe
Seeing that he has an anniversary concert coming up (is it 20 years? 25 years? Can’t keep up with this stuff), it makes sense that we go down memory lane and look up this track.
Here’s the thing about Navio – he has grudgingly gotten the industry to admit that he simply does not rest on his laurels. Heck, the very idea of an anniversary concert is proof of this, because setting that up is no walk in the park.
The fact that Ruckus dropped 12 years ago will wake you up to the idea that Navio has been around for a while, eh? And where the heck did Peter Miles vanish off to? Their collaborations were often effective, the two artistes acting as counterfoil to each other – Navio with his rap delivery and Peter Miles with his ragamuffin style.
It was an intriguing mashup of hip hop and dancehall, and a tribute to the times, where this sort of thing was particularly popular with hip hop collaborations.
Over the years, Navio has refused to rest on his laurels, but that is old news – the novelty is in the way he keeps on re-inventing himself. So the production style he has on Ruckus would probably be completely unrecognisable to his fans today.
Rukus sounds like something that was put together by producer named Dawoo, who was often behind the boards for a lot of Klear Kut’s early work. Which brings to mind an interesting thing to note about Ruckus – this was a period when Navio was testing the waters to get a feel for what he probably could do as a solo artiste.
Klear Kut was never too far behind (heck, he pays tribute to the group on this track), but these were defining moments for Navio, the artiste.
Twenty years later (or 25), he is still “walking the walk and talking the talk.” And causing a ruckus. Which reminds me: where the heck is Peter Miles?
