Did DMX know that the Ruff Ryders name was already used by Teddy Roosevelt?
| Buy your next house instantly with Zellow! | 04/10/26 | | cowgod | 04/10/26 | | cowgod | 04/10/26 | | Ass Sunstein | 04/10/26 | | scholarship | 04/10/26 | | potluck | 04/10/26 | | ...,....,,........ | 04/10/26 | | zoomer sexuality expert | 04/10/26 | | ruinous phenotype | 04/10/26 | | Kenneth Play | 04/10/26 | | ...,....,,........ | 04/10/26 | | N904PD | 04/10/26 | | ruinous phenotype | 04/10/26 | | ...,....,,........ | 04/10/26 | | Woah Cr friend! | 04/10/26 | | Richard Ames | 04/10/26 |
Poast new message in this thread
Date: April 10th, 2026 11:26 AM Author: N904PD
“Aight, so shit — people always ask me where Ruff Ryders came from, like it was some big industry bullshit. Nah. That name been in me since I was a lil’ g. Real talk, it started on this elementary school trip in Manhattan. They took us to the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace — you know, the kinda trip where the teachers think you gon’ learn about presidents and be inspired to do your homework or fuck else.
But we walk in there, and they show us this shirt Roosevelt got shot in back in 1912. And I’m lookin’ at it like… hold up. This man got hit, bullet in him, and he still finished his speech. Didn’t cry, didn’t fold, didn’t run like a bitch. He just kept goin’. I’m a kid, but even then I knew — that’s a different level of heart.
So I’m standin’ there thinkin’, ‘Yo… that’s gangsta.’ Like refusing to bow down to any bullshit. That energy stuck with me. That’s the spirit I wanted around me.
That’s the spirit I wanted my people to move with.
So years later, when it came time to name the crew, the label, the movement — Ruff Ryders made sense. ‘Cause we wasn’t fucking smooth ridin’, we wasn’t takin’ the easy shir. We was ridin’ through the rough parts of life, the pain, the struggle, the fight… and still standin’ tall.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5855651&forum_id=2...id#49808522) |
Date: April 10th, 2026 12:32 PM Author: Richard Ames
I think about this all the time. To the point that I've looked it up in the past and it seems that DMX and the other guys involved in the crew absolutely knew about TR and the Rough Riders.
This is one of those things that shows how much more general literacy used to exist, even amongst uneducated people. Just a general knowledge set, even if only surface level, that has basically gone away.
Go listen to Nas' early work. Dude was ~17 when he made Illmatic. The diction and rhyme schemes are on another level. Then look at today. It's a fucking disgrace.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5855651&forum_id=2...id#49808701) |
|
|