
Yesterday was the official release of Legendary Classics Vol. 1. Whether it was the distributor’s fault or the label, something got fucked up and it’s being shipped to some stores a day or two late. I apologize to fans that ran out to support on the release date only to be fucked over. Also call Best Buy, call FYE, call my distributor and get in their ass, tell these motherfuckas to get on their jobs. If your store doesn’t have Legendary Classics Vol. 1 threaten to hurt one of the clerks in the store make them order the shit ASAP.
Being that this is (*supposed to be) the week my new record drops, I’ve been insanely busy, but for my first stop of the day I gotta head to 48th street to have a lunch meeting with the biggest superstar of them all; the man, the myth, my greatest influence. Yup, My pops. Staff sgt. John A. Thorburn! In case your unfamiliar with him, here is the 44 bar true story I wrote about him (second verse). This song appears on Legendary Classics Vol.1 collection album in stores now (or sometime soon.).
We got a million and a half views on that one.
Growing up my pops was the man. He had guns under the pillows, under the mattress, in the closet; he loved his weaponry, boy. When times got tough, he slowly got rid of his weapons. He’d pawn them shits off until finally them shits seemed to all disappear. But as a kid I remember being 4 or 5-years old and my dad used to let me bust off this little .22 he had and shoot up cans and shit. All that gangsta rap, shooting guns shit, I was doing before I was in grade school. Ha!
Here’s a little interview they did with my pops at one of my shows in Boston.
We lost three of the children in our immediate family due to diseases and sicknesses that most likely were Agent Orange induced. My father lost his daughter at 26, his son at 10 and his grandson at 6-months-old. I don’t wanna get all political on this shit but let me tell you, 55 American troops were killed in Afghanistan this month, beating the previous high of 51 in August. I don’t care if folks get mad at me, but we need to stop making it a race thing and somebody gotta get in Obama’s ass the same way the media got in Bush’s ass for the same shit. Obama hasn’t been bringing troops home he’s been putting more in, Just ’cause Obama knows how to speak and Bush didn’t, it don’t give him any more right to get motherfuckas killed. And stop acting like the White House is just cleaning up Bush’s mess, that’s the card they play so the government can keep doing what they were doing before.
Let’s move on to a less depressing topic. Last night I got a call from Bone Thugs’ publicist telling me they was in town with my man Flesh Bone. In the early 2000’s Flesh came after some dude with an AK-47 while he was on probation and got sentenced close to 10 years. Shit, i didn’t even know my man got out, that’s my homeboy from years ago, so I rolled up to B.B. King’s to show my man some love and say what up.
While I was up at B.B. King’s the Clipse was just getting offstage, so I didn’t get to see if they was rockin’ or not, but I did get to see Cory Gunz from the Bronx and my man Grafh from Queens spit a few bars. Then I guess the headliner was Omarion. I don’t even know what the fuck his set was. I think he did half a song or some shit. Ha! That mo’fucka was probably in a rush to go and not get pussy from that Kardashian bitch.
For the amount they must of spent getting Omarion and Clipse and everyone I was kind’a surprised how few people were there. We had more folks at the Rugged Man NYC concert I did with Jedi Mind Tricks & Reef the Lost Cauze last month And shit, all it cost to book me is my rent money and a couple bottled waters.
And please as soon as the distributor and the stores stop fuckin’ shit up and they get Legendary Classics Vol. 1. up in your hood, pick that shit up. It features never before released commercially material from The Notorious B.I.G., Sadat X, Mobb Deep, Kool G Rap and much more. And to the mo’fuckers tired of seeing my face or hearing my voice and just want me to disappear, I appoligize but I was here before you was rappin’ and I’ll be here after your careers’ are over. I outlast everybody. I got that Bernard “The Exectuioner” Hopkins longevity.
And to those people I’ll just leave you with this clip from my homegirl Millie Jackson…
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Bloggers, R.A. The Rugged Man
Share it:
.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
DIRECTORIES
Rakim Soldiers Through Sound Issues At NYC Release Party [With Pictures & Video]- 17 hrs ago
XXcLusive: Lil Wayne & Young Money Albums Will be Released Separately- 18 hrs ago
Eminem to Re-Release Relapse in December, Promises Sequel for 2010- 1 day
XXL & ThisIs50 Present Live Screening of 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct Online Tonight- 1 day
Ice Cube Lands on Forbes’ “Most Overpaid Actors” List- 1 day
50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct Projected to Sell 150-160K in First Week- 3 days ago
Method Man, Ghostface & Raekwon Collabo LP Postponed- 3 days ago
October 28th, 2009
at 12:57 pm
tensensi says:
Finally, somebody exhales the smoke Obama has been blowing up our asses.
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 1:11 pm
latino heat says:
“i outlast everybody”
*thinks about all the rappers that have come and gone since the early 90’s*
damn R.A. you ain’t lying!
i’m convinced that only roaches and R.A. can survive a nuclear attack.
as far as your distribution issues. it’s happened to all the greats this year. Slaughterhouse, Raekwon both had the same problem. true fans will be there to support.
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 1:33 pm
Federal Ranga says:
i’m convinced that only roaches and R.A. can survive a nuclear attack.
LMAO!!! Funniest shit I done heard all day, nigga!!!
Blackout Freestyle up!!!
youtube.com/federalranga
Commission!!!
I’m so shameless….
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 3:02 pm
Hanch says:
I think I heard Slaughterhouse actually on printed up like 35,000 copies and basically sold them out. thats why it was so hard to find. They realized its better to print the copies as you go along then to print up a milli and then only sale 100,000 of those. Make the most of the buck you feel me. Im sure Raekwon did the same shit cause in my opinion thats the way they should be doing the shit now.
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 1:28 pm
AZ40 says:
They’ll never get to the real problems cuz they worryin’ about if his wife is wearin’ shorts on vacation and all the other irrelevant shit they talk about…I’m surprised to see all those artist on the same bill Grafh,Gunz,Clipse, and Omarion wtf!!!
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 1:51 pm
Tony Grands says:
You guys should’ve boo’d “O”, like Da Juice man.
Yeah, my grandfather was in WW2, & had this awesome fascination with guns & western movies. He died before I could pick his brain on a cognizant level, though.
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 2:40 pm
Papoose says:
HAHAHAHAHAHA
YOU AIN’T GONNA SELL 10 COPIES OF THAT SHIT YOU DROPPIN
EVEN WIT BIG, MOBB, AND KOOL G. RAP ON THERE
ITS NOT A DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM, ITS SIMPLE SUPPLY AND DEMAND
AIN’T NO DEMAND SO THEY AIN’T SUPPLYIN IT
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 3:16 pm
Brooklyn says:
i guess omarion is trying to salvage his career after that abomination that was his collabo album with bow wow. they tried to do a jay-z/r.kelly “best of both worlds” type thing only that neither of them have the talent to actually make that work for anyone other than preadolescent bitches. my uncle was a vietnam vet, and in between the agent orange, the heroin, and the massacring of vietcong babies, he lost his mind and is now one of them niggas you see on the streets dressed in military fatigues, talking to themselves, crying for no reason and ducking every time he hears a loud sound. he’s not really in the right mindset to own a gun, but he lives in south carolina where the guns own guns, so he has quite a few. hell, he’s a citizen, he lost four years of his life and his sanity defending this country, so crazy or not, i think that nigga earned his right to exercise the second amendment.
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 3:22 pm
EmCDL says:
I ordered your album off of Amazon yesterday but they saying that I won’t get it until the next 2 or 3 weeks; WTF? The distributors trippin’!
My dad was in the Navy and was in Vietnam…I don’t really talk to him anymore because of personal issues, but I know that he was a Merchant Marine around that time. As far as Afghanistan, ish is getting outta control out there, and Iraq as well. They had a car bomb go off about a week ago that killed a large amount of people; although shit was worst when I was out there.
Keep shooting them blogs off R.A. you just got a new fan dawg!
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 4:25 pm
Adam says:
Real talk R.A! This race thing with Obama is gettin out of controll, U cant even question anything about his decisions without people yelling racist! I mean giving him the peace price n nobody even mentioning the hundreds of soldiers dying in Afghanistan. I voted for Obama, supported him for a long time, but all u be seing now is just empty words, dude just hides between his BIG rhetoric, he needs to step up!
Anyways keep representin R.A. Been a fan for a long ass time! Peace
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 5:19 pm
DV8 says:
I remember Camron used that Fuck You symphony back on his 1st album. I used to have that shit on my voice mail back in the day when I was in high school.
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 6:23 pm
BIGNAT says:
the word play on that song about your dad is crazy.
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 6:49 pm
Caino says:
That track about the Vietnam war was bananas!!!
i’ve been to vietnam, its a dope country!! food, booze, woman, and weed!!
Reply
October 28th, 2009
at 6:53 pm
Barry Washington says:
Obama said he would bring troops out of Iraq, and he has. Notice much hasn’t been talked about with Iraq. Afghanistan is another story, fuckin taliban. Things will look up, I have faith.
Reply
October 29th, 2009
at 1:32 am
GIBZ says:
wow R.A. that second verse about ya pops was bananas!!! God Bless him and every soldier like him. We will never understand why God does what he does, but there IS a reason.
Obama puttin more troops in is not a shock to me. In fact, fuck the bullshit about the gov’t playin the “card” that the white house is cleaning up Bush’s mess, we gotta wake up and realize the gov’t is playing the “card” that Obama is gonna bring “change”. I’m sorry but Obama is a Harvard nigga if I’m not mistaken, which means he is in that group of “Elite” that have nothing but their own agenda. I mean, cmon, Obama and Hilary attended The Bildeburg Group’s annual meeting last year while they were on campaign for Christs sake!. Cats that are associated with The Bildeburg Group were voting for Obama. Why??? Because they are pushing their agenda through Obama. I’m sorry ppl but your president is just another puppet on a set of strings. We need to wake up and take shit back. You right R.A. it aint about white, black, brown, or yellow. It’s about the POOR vs the RICH!! Genetically there is no such thing as racism, theres only classism!!! REVOLUTION IS IMMINENT!!!
Reply
October 29th, 2009
at 1:33 am
hate says:
you straight son. i pretty much co-sign your whole post
Reply
October 29th, 2009
at 3:13 pm
XXLmag.com - » It’s A Beautiful Thing Being R.A. the Rugged Man says:
[...] if you didnt read my Wednesday XXL blog on Obama and Afghanastan War go back and read that shit, It was my favorite Blog for XXL so [...]
Reply
October 29th, 2009
at 4:46 pm
beaver says:
yea your right bout da obama thing..never noticed till noww..
i’ll cop da albumm..
Reply
October 29th, 2009
at 6:40 pm
Nwabe from Paris France says:
Yeah R.A., your pops has become a living legend.
What about the album project with Vinnie Paz ? Still up ?
Your CD is on its way to my home from UGHH ! Can’t wait to peep the DVD too. You’re an audiovisual beast too, hahaha !
COME TO FRANCE !!!
Reply