MY RUIN And ANA KEFR Frontman Cover Rap Classic 'Natural Born Killaz' As DEATH WORK PROFESSIONALS; Free Download Available
June 27, 2010, 14 years ago
MY RUIN and ANA KEFR frontman Rhiis D. Lopez recently covered the rap classic 'Natural Born Killaz' under the moniker DEATH WORK PROFESSIONALS. Video footage is available below, the track is available for free download at this location.
Following is My Ruin vocalist Tairrie B. Murphy's account of how the cover came about, reaching back to her early days as a rap artist:
"Hello Everyone!I wanted to check in and let you know what we've been up to. In the next few weeks you will be seeing more dates announced on our page as we get ready behind the scenes for our album release and tour in September. In the meantime, we’ve been doing all sorts of interesting things which brings us to this post today!
Last week Mick (Murphy) and I went into the studio with our friends Rhiis Lopez of the band ANA KEFR and Josh Lynch [who co-produced My Ruin’s upcoming album]. As most of you know, I started my music career back in 1989 as a rap artist on Eazy E’s Ruthless/Comptown Records label. Well, I may have traded one style of vocals for another over the years but I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the fine art of rapping. I have to admit that it’s been a long time since I rocked a serious rhyme on a record and I’m not really a fan of anything rap related getting radio or video play today but I am and will always be a fan of the true hip hop classics and old school gangster rap.
Over the years a few closed minded people in the rock world have felt the need to bring up my past and talk a little sh!t about what I used to do or try to disrespect me by calling me a bandwagon jumper for switching my musical genre from hip hop to metal but the truth is, metal just spoke to me on a deeper level and allowed me to do things with my voice that I couldn’t do as a rap artist. Metal helped develop me both as a lyricist and a vocalist and over time gave me a different kind of confidence on the microphone and on stage. I came from the NWA camp. I wasn’t hanging out with the likes of Vanilla Ice. I was on a label with the SLAYER of rap. They always came hard and controversial dressed in black and never flashy, just skilled in their delivery over hardcore beats and samples that sounded doomy and sick as opposed to the type of watered down, auto-tuned, lightweight, commercialized crap that's on the radio today. I can't relate to any of it or any of the rappers I see.
I taught myself how to rap the same way I taught myself how to scream – by watching some of the guys I admired like Phil Anselmo & Henry Rollins because there were no women doing guttural howls when I started my first band and no one I could relate to but a few good men to inspire me including Ice T who formed BODY COUNT and stepped out of the rap world and into metal for a moment. I like to think that over the years of recording and releasing albums dating back to my days in MANHOLE to present day in My Ruin I can proudly say that my style is all my own and I own it. I also own the fact that a small part of me will always be a rapper and while I suppose that might be a little weird for a chick in metal to admit, I’m not ashamed to say it. I’ve never tried to hide my past, who I am or where I came from. Why would I? I know there are plenty of metal *purists* who might object to hearing this and that’s understandable but many artists have different sides to themselves and that is the true beauty of being an artist – having the ability to create and experiment musically instead of limiting yourself. Someone posted me a short but profound comment when I shared this video and a few words about our new side project on our Facebook pages Friday. It said – 'First rule of engagement, never ask permission. Just appear.' What a great quote. I suppose that’s how I’ve always felt when it comes to my music and my art. I’ve never asked permission and I’ve never apologized.
I asked Rhiis, Mick and Josh to record this cover with me to see what it would be like to rock a rhyme after so many years spent screaming and doing spoken word recordings. We all really dig the original track but obviously there were certain things we couldn’t say, so Rhiis and I decided to change it up a bit to fit who we are individually and bring the track up to date and relevant to 2010 lyrically while Josh reproduced and added his flavor to the music and Mick laid some live guitar and bass on it. Mick also put together this cool little studio video of us recording it so we could share it with you. Who knows if we’ll record anything else like this in the future but if we decide to it would most likely be an original or two however, don’t worry friends, My Ruin is not turning into a rap band. That would never happen. We love what we do too much. Side projects are simply good for the creative soul, not to mention fun as hell and this was something we had a great time doing as we get ready for the release of our new album Ghosts and Good Stories which is due out in August on Tiefdruck-Musik.
We hope you guys enjoy the track and the video and since we have gotten such an amazing response on our Facebook pages when we posted this on Friday and so many people asking us to make it available so we have a set up a special page online where you can download it for free and share it with your friends so if you dig it, click the photo at the top of the page and go get it! So on that note: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you DEATH WORK PROFESSIONALS and our cover of the rap classic ‘Natural Born Killaz’ for your listening pleasure."
Go to this location to check out My Ruin. Click here for information on Ana Kefr.