David Chance and Dante Jordan are the vocal duo from Baltimore, Maryland called RUFF ENDZ. They reached number one with their debut song “NO MORE” on the R&B charts in the year of 2000, and crossed over to the pop charts to reach number five, being a part of some of the greatest R&B groups and singers in the top 10 at the same time. I had a chance to catch up with the both of them to tell me about that special time in their lives, and what they’re working on now. Dubose - Take me back to the week of September 2, 2000. That’s when your song “no more” peaked on the all-important pop charts, and being in the top 10 at the time with some of the biggest artists in the history of R&B, including Destiny’s Child, Janet Jackson, and Aaliyah? Ruff Endz - It was a big time for me. I remember we were in Atlanta, we peaked at number five on the pop charts, but we also peaked at number one on the R&B charts. We went to the club in Atlanta that night, we saw Ludicrous as well as other celebrities. We really celebrated. Dubose - Tell me more about other highlights in your career? Ruff Endz - I thought our follow-up song “Someone To Love You”, was another great part of our success as well. Being able to work with Melinda Williams from the movie “Soul Food” was huge. We were grateful for the song “No More”. It was more like a club up-tempo song that had a hip-hop feel to it. But we knew we were an R&B duo, and the song “Someone To Love You” was really where our hearts were. Dubose - What was the key to the reinvention of RUFF ENDZ? Ruff Endz - The uprising in Baltimore in the death of Freddie Gray played a key role in our reuniting together. We created a song called “Time For Change”, that spoke about the need for the city to come together. It reignited the two of us wanting to put the group back together again. Love is our banner now, we feel like we can make a difference with our music, and we believe we can impact the world, especially with everything going on right now. Dubose – Tell me about your new album REBIRTH? Ruff Endz - Shout out to Mike and Claude Valeni and SRG Universal. It was actually their idea to name the album REBIRTH. It was like the state of the world, or rather it was really the state of us as a group. We’re making music again, and we’re back together. To me, it was perfect. It was natural to get back together. It’s like we’ve done it before but we’re older now. There’s a point where we clicked and things started flowing again. Dubose - What do you believe is the state of R&B today? Ruff Endz - It’s definitely at a growth spurt right now, but also at a crossroads. The spurt happens when people find a way to do a new type of music, We went from Records, Cassettes, CD’s, and so on. Music eventually just goes along with the times. But the crossroad is between R&B and Rap Music. You can say that it’s been heightened because of the melodies, But the lines between R&B and Rap sometimes get blurred. Some believe that you need the energy of Rap to make a good R&B song, which is fine, but we’re against crossing the line calling women out of their name.
Issue #14 2022
