Ruslan — who recently released his new album, Americana, on his record label Kings Dream Entertainment — tackled some interesting topics in an interview with Rapzilla.com.
In Part 2 of the interview (see: Part 1 here), Ruslan discussed the success of the Dream Junkies at building their own fan base, as opposed to marketing to Christian hip-hop exclusively.
“I get to do a lot of shows outside of the church,” he said, “and I get to be the only representation that people get to see of a Christian.”
The interview then transitioned to Ruslan’s attention-grabbing verse on “Shoot Me”, track No. 6 of the Dream Junkies’s album Good Religion, which addressed past legalism in Christian hip hop.
“I don’t have any gripes with these guys personally because I think they’re personally good dudes, but the era of The Cross Movement, hypertheology, very Calvinist-movement in the Christian hip-hop community pushed and kept a lot of people out that weren’t a part of that mindset,” Ruslan said, “and specifically people from the West Coast. If you look at Tunnel Rats, Future Shock, theBREAX, Propaganda, Braille, we weren’t on that wave.
“Initially, there was tension, and there was a lot of backroom politics and stuff like that, where if you didn’t fit the mold of how they wanted you to rap, or what they wanted you to talk about, it was a problem. It may have not even been those guys personally, but that tribe, that crew that supported those dudes, it was very divided and divisive.”
Buy Americana on iTunes, and watch the full conversation below.
