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12 Victoria Elise
July/Aug Cover Model 20 questions with Victoria Photography by Andrew Gates Makeup & hair by Nuen Nguyen
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All Access
The Latest Albums Reviewed Albums Reviewed: Tyler, The Creator Scum Fuck Flower Boy
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Game On
The Latest Games Reviewed Games Reviewed:
By Silas Valentino
Pyre
Sean Price Imperius Rex
Agents of Mayhem
By Silas Valentino
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All Access Spotlight
Artists/Bands Featured:
By Jesse Seilhan By Joshua David Anderson
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Game On Spotlight
Games Featured:
Joey Bada$$, KMFDM, and Neck Deep By Samuel Wendel
Destiny 2, Cuphead, and Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite By Jesse Seilhan
On The Cover
On the Back Cover
Photo by Andrew Gates Make-up & hair by Nuen Nguyen
Photo by Andrew Gates Make-up & hair by Nuen Nguyen
This Page
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Andrew Gates All Access Editor
Silas Valentino Games Editor
Jesse Seilhan Art Director
Andrew Gates All Access Contributors
Silas Valentino & Samuel Wendel Pit Pass Contributors
Andrew Gates Game On Contributors
Jesse Seilhan & Joshua David Anderson Contributing Photographers
Andrew Gates Social Media Guru
Rupa Begum Contributing Make-up Artist
Nuen Nguyen
Contributing Hair Stylist
Nuen Nguyen Advertising
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Copyright Š 2008-2017 RUKUS, LLC. All Rights Reserved! July/August 2017 issue, Volume 9, Number 4. ISSN 2161-4369 (print) ISSN 2161-4377 (online) Visit http://www.RUKUSmag.com for more images and content.
Flower Power
Written by Silas Valentino
Somehow it happened, right as America was stumbling towards a social riot (a chaotic atmosphere he surly would have encouraged in his younger years) but somehow, against brand and perceived logic, Tyler, The Creator has matured. The Los Angeles rapper and producer–who was the de-facto leader of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All collective– has progressed onto a major label – Columbia – and just released his most adult collection of rhymes and beats yet. Gone are those terribly fetching boasts such as “Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome” – Tyler has entered an identity crisis. Is he a “scum fuck” or a “flower boy”? Man or child? Rapper or producer? But the main theme across these 14 tracks are is he gay, straight or bisexual? With enough polarizing doubt to spin a SUPREME hat 360-degrees around, Tyler uses Scum Fuck Flower Boy, his fourth album, as a public and audio diary to air his uncertainties. The finished product is polished, cohesive and a giant leap forward for an artist who made his crash onto the scene in 2011 by literally going bonkers, eating a cockroach in the process. Tyler leads off with “Foreword” where he mixes a kraut guitar cover of Can’s “Spoon” (reimagined by Sonic Youth) with the silky, contemporary R&B delivered by the British weirdo Rex Orange County. It’s a casual blend that begins to unravel Tyler’s dubious sexual orientation when he hollers: “Shout out to the girls that I lead on/For occasional head and always keeping my bed warm/And trying their hardest to keep my head on straight.” It’s the first hint into this album’s ultimate theme, a is-he/isn’t-he quandary, and subtleties quickly fade. He really begins to delve into his sexuality in “Garden Shed” (featuring a heavenly melody that recalls the retro-soul evoked in Childish Gambino’s recent “Me and Your Mama”) and compares a garden shed with being held up “in the closet.” He invites listeners in when he spits: “Truth is, since a youth kid, thought it was a phase/Thought it’d be like the phrase; ‘poof,’ gone But, it’s still goin’ on.” Earlier Tyler records often played off the therapist-client scenario–his 2011 album Goblin begins as a counseling session– but now he’s opened the door for his legion of Golf Wang fans to hear him out, in sincerity, on a subject that’s hovered over him since OFWGKTM sprouted out of Tumblr. For what seems like the entirety of his career, Tyler has been condemned as a homophobe yet as revealed in Scum Fuck Flower Boy, that may have just been a “beard” all along. When he’s not dispelling old character tropes, Tyler fattens Scum Fuck Flower Boy with some satisfying singles, notably “911 / Mr. Lonely” and “Who Dat Boy?” featuring A$AP Rocky. The latter is a guaranteed big bass pleaser that’ll fit nicely in Tyler’s punk repertoire when performing live whereas “911 / Mr. Lonely” begins as a mid-tempo nod to the soulful funk of The Gap Band before being consumed by the clattering of an electric snare beat in the latter half of the song. The theme of duality thickens. Tyler never explicitly reveals his hand and we’re left with wondering if this aural exploration into his sexuality is just a put-on. He’s always been a hard act to pin down but he’s consistently referred to himself as a producer first–a title he backs up with the album closer “Enjoy Right Now, Today.” It’s an instrumental, full of wah-wah, cheeseball synths and a cracking beat, but it’s a confident close to an album that blossoms with uncertainty.
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The Realest
Written by Silas Valentino
“What do I love about rap?” asks Sean Price at the start of “Dead Or Alive”, the second song off his fifth and posthumously-released album Imperius Rex. With declarative hilarity, he inserts: “Me.” Whether he was one of eight within the hip-hop collective Boot Camp Clik, one half the duo Heltah Skeltah or dominating the mic on his own (sometimes using the moniker Ruckus), Sean Price was a recognizable force who lived and died in Brooklyn. Released exactly two years after his unsuspecting death–Price died in his sleep in August 2015 and the cause was never released–his final LP leaves fans with a fleeting shadow of an underground luminary. A jocular false start initiates this eulogy with Sean Price going on about “Big breasts, I’m erect, let’s have some sex” before stopping himself out of shame (subtly tossing shade to all the whack artists who rely on simplistic brags) to remind himself his guiding mantra: “Ape don’t kill ape.” The reference is straight plucked out of the Planet of the Apes series but Sean Price reimagines the expression as motor to center his focus. The simian imagery flows throughout Imperius Rex: in the album cover artwork, in lyrics (“I am truly an ape, Caesar the leader”) but, most importantly, in the characterization Sean Price spent his two-decade career defining for himself. He’s brutish and commanding, a veritable product of Brooklyn’s vicious Brownsville neighborhood, but his heart and humor are unmistakably present every time he clutched a microphone. That leads to “Dead Or Alive” where after 20 years of experience, the street-side veteran scolds the latest crop of juvenile MCs who “say anything” and are without proper “schooling.” Alongside Bernadette Price, his wife who spitfires a pair of verses, Sean Price musters to rhyme “better rapper” with “Berretta clapper” and even tosses in a classic “word to your mother” for good measure. Keeping East Coast rap in check, where big beats bounce over clashing drum while the elegance of strings keep things classy, “Dead Or Alive” now serves as a final salute to Sean Price where his bravado remains strongly intact as he pounds his chest from beyond the beyond. Humor was one of Sean Price’s strongest attributes and it’s properly represented across these 16 tracks. He’s always been readily available to clown around for good laugh (his 2007 sophomore album was titled Jesus Price Superstar) and he’d proudly proclaim himself to be the “brokest” rapper you know. Across Imperius Rex, nothing garners a solid chuckle quite like “Not97 Skit”, the minute-and-a-half skit that takes fun shots at New York City rap station Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex. He starts by stating: “Yo, I’ma keep it 100 tonight/Man, matter of fact, I’ma keep it 1000, I like that number” and then alters his voice to mimic the host. The kill shot comes when he proceeds to call out the DJ’s website, and most disparagingly, his Paypal account. Comedy aside, the chops are displayed on the eerie cut “Negus” where producer Crummie Beats manipulates a screeching guitar lick from the metalcore band The Color Morale’s song “Living Breathing Something” to turn it into a doomsday serenade featuring the greatest rapper not named Kendrick Lamar: MF DOOM. After a pretty blasé verse from unknown MC Ike Eyez (where he acknowledges his unsung status when he cries: “‘Who the fuck is Ike Eyez?’ Nigga, fuck you likewise”), the rap game’s ultimate villain appears. DOOM clears his throat with a little Spanish: “Pa’l carajo, cantaso Vil’, you know the drill, mad drool then gargajo” and continues to defend his crown, or in DOOM’s case, his metal facemask. Following his death, fans and celebrities alike joined together to honor Sean Price by donating over $95,000 to a fundraiser for his family. The Crowdwise funding page is still active and continues to gain donations. It’s been two years since he passed yet Sean Price’s influence echoes in perpetuity.
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facebook.com/fckingbadass
Written by Samuel Wendel
Joey Bada$$, All Amerikkkan Bada$$
In a year that has already featured standout releases from Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples, you can add Joey Bada$$’s All Amerikkkan Bada$$ to that list. Although the Brooklyn rapper’s sophomore album may not be the instant classic that Lamar’s DAMN was, it’s still a strong showing from one of the most promising young talents in the industry. All Amerikkkan Bada$$ resides in the sweet spot between being tastefully indebted to the classic sounds of Bada$$’s Nineties forbearers like Nas and A Tribe Called Quest while still being powerfully topical and experimental. Lyrically, he doesn’t shy away from traversing politically charged territory, tackling police brutality, institutionalized racism and, of course, Donald Trump. Yet, rather than go only surface deep, he manages to navigate tough lyrical content eloquently and with maturity that he previously lacked. Even though his anger is plain to see, he leaves room for optimism where he can and forces the listener to focus. All in all, it’s a well-rounded and welcome step forward for Joey Bada$$. Standout tracks include “Land of the Free,” “Devastated,” “Rockabye” and “Amerikkkan Idol.”
KMFDM, Hell Yeah
facebook.com/officialkmfdm
German industrialists KMFDM are nothing if not industrious: Hell Yeah is their twentieth album. Despite the adrenaline-inducing feeling evoked by the album’s title, the group’s latest is a dark, atmospheric and politically-charged work that leads the listener to grind their teeth just as much as it gives cause to shout out something like “hell yeah” enthusiastically. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however. Hell Yeah is combative and political and touches on—not surprisingly—the current state of affairs in the U.S. and Europe. Set to a background of propulsive, pummeling walls of noise and guitars, KMFDM’s pair of vocalists rally against the political status quo in the U.S., as well as fascism, conformity and the like. Between polished production, KMFDM’s songs alternate between humor and paranoia, and are incessantly topical throughout (they even drop reference to Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts” soundbite). Overall, KMFDM’s Hell Yeah is a spirited late-career inclusion into the band’s catalogue. Standout tracks include “Rip the System,” “Total State Machine” and “Fake News.”
facebook.com/neckdeepuk
Neck Deep, The Peace and the Panic (Deluxe)
To paraphrase Matthew McConaughey: Pop punk, man, we get older, it just stays the same age. That’s precisely the case with The Peace and the Panic, the third studio album from U.K.-based pop punkers Neck Deep. Without missing a single beat, The Peace and the Panic quickly establishes that it is cast from the very same mold as pop punk rockers now firmly in the twilight of their careers—echoing everyone from Blink 182 to Fall Out Boy. The tempos are fast and loud, with big melodramatic shout-along choruses that float just above furious power chords. In short, it’s classic pop punk and it wouldn’t sound out of place alongside other genre mainstays in a Spotify playlist, or as an opener for one of them during Warped Tour. It doesn’t always hit the sweet spots quite as powerfully as their forbearers did, but Neck Deep have managed to craft a worthy inclusion into pop punk’s ageless discography. Standout tracks include “Happy Judgment Day,” “Parachutes” and “In Bloom.”
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Victoria Elise
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Photography by Andrew Gates Make-up & hair by Nuen Nguyen
ictoria Elise, a UNLV business major, is at the top of her class in more than just economics. During a trip to Los Angeles for the Maxim Hot 100 Party, the former “Maxim Hometown Hotties” finalist was cast as the sexy love interest for up and coming singer Quiz Zilla in his new video “I Still Have Faith”. The super sexy model of African American, Cherokee, and French decent, has also been tapped for her acting ability, providing stunning visual art images in music videos featuring YG, Wiz Khalifa, DJ Mustard, and Rick Ross.
Victoria has graced the cover of RUKUS magazine before as you can see in our December 2013 issue. She can also be found on the pages of Maxim magazine, Rhythm n Rhyme, Body Structure Fitness, SmackTalk!, Unleashed, Mode, Performance Auto and Sound, Licked, Southern Vixens, Impalas, Lowrider, and Customs 411 Magazine.
Having opted out of a student job on campus, Victoria has no problem paying for books by serving bottles at one of the highest grossing party pools on the strip, Marquee Dayclub at the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan. All the more fitting for her to have appeared in an episode of Spike TV’s “Bar Rescue”. She was also a Corona Ring Card Girl for Showtime’s “Battle of the Border”, an event host for MMA “King of the Cage,” and has represented top brands including Miller Lite, Monster Energy, Giant Sports, Mr Olympia, and Blue Moon, among many others. It’s a good thing Victoria will soon have a Bachelors in Business Administration because she is going to need it to manage all that money from her success as a world class Glamour Girl!
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20 QUESTIONS
media has consumed a good portion of societies lives.
1.What’s your Ethnicity? I am Cherokee-Indian, French.
11.What’s one of your personal goals? One of my personal goals right now is to make it to the finals of Maxim’s Finest Competition.
Black
and
2.What’s your zodiac sign? Capricorn. 3.Where are you from originally? Born in Germany but raised in El Paso, Texas. 4.What did you like most about growing up in El Paso? The hot weather, and of course, the amazing food. 5.What kind of mischief did you get into while growing up? I was a pretty good kid, and never really got into any kind of trouble. 6.If you could have a super power, what would it be and why? I wish I could stop time. Sometimes you just need a break from everyone or have the ability to ditch a situation. [laughs] 7.What’s your favorite hobby and why? I love to play video games, I could get lost in a game for an entire day. But I’m much too busy for stuff like that, lately. 8.What’s your guilty pleasure? I love to sleep. I work so much and I’m always on the go, so I try to get my rest at every given opportunity. 9.Who do you admire and why? I guess I don’t have anyone in particular that I admire, but I do love to see when someone is working hard to achieve their dreams. 10.If you could change one thing in the world what would it be and why? I’d probably change the fact that social www.RUKUSmag.com
12.What do guys compliment you on the most? My butt. I mean, I definitely don’t skip leg day, but it’s mostly genetics. 13.What’s your favorite body part on yourself? My smile. I’ve had braces twice and while growing up, I had the worst teeth, so I definitely love to take care of them now. 14.What do you look for in a guy? Someone who is artistic and passionate about his career, and makes me feel comfortable being my quirky self around him. 15.What’s the first thing you notice about a guy? I’d probably say his hair, I like a man who takes care of himself. 16.What’s your ideal first date? A nice dinner at some swanky restaurant so we can dress up to have a nice night out. 17.What turns you on? When a man can just be himself around me and doesn’t try too hard to impress. 18.What turns you off? An arrogant, prideful and cocky person. 19.What’s your biggest pet peeve? I can’t stand people who say they’re going to do something and don’t do it, follow through with your word. 20.Who’s your celebrity crush? Jude Law, I just love those British accents. RM July/Aug 2017 • RUKUS
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...I like a man who takes care of himself.
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STATS: Birthday:
January 4
Height:
5’6”
Weight:
120lb
Measurements:
34C-24-38
See more of Victoria at instagram.com/VictoriaEliseXOXO www.RUKUSmag.com
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Ye Olde NBA Jam
Written by Jesse Seilhan There is a good chance that you will have no idea what Pyre actually is after reading this review. One part RPG, one part visual novel, all tied together with a 3-on-3 sporting event similar to basketball and a particularly rough event during American Gladiators. But if you’re familiar with its legacy, you should feel confident knowing that the team that made Pyre have yet to screw up and they are now three for three. Bastion proved that they could make a personal and charming twin stick shooter, Transistor proved that rewarding intelligent gamers can lead to unparalleled experiences, and Pyre continues the tradition by taking a simple mechanic and wrapping a whole universe and mythology around it. While Pyre is absolutely not for everyone, it is undoubtedly something special.
From the onset, Pyre shows exactly what it takes to draw you in. You’re alone in the desert, cast out from society for reasons unknown. Three masked figures approach, asking if you know how to read, an ancient and desired skill lost in this time. Depending on your answer, and you do have a choice right away and throughout the game, you can join this caravan, the first of many friends you’ll pick up along the way. Your new compatriots need you for their own selfish reasons, as they are also exiles forced to compete in the “rites,” a sporting event that allows the winners to get one step closer to rejoining society. It’s weird, it’s complex, and it’s fun. Graphically, the art shines in nearly all ways. The character models are truly unique, from the dapper mustachioed dog to the brazen worm knight: everybody instantly pops off the screen. During the Rites themselves, the effects, flourishes, and smooth motion all lend itself to an engaging and competitive back-and-forth affair, showing an influence from both fighting and sports games. The majority of the game is spent in dialogue boxes, which would suck if they weren’t so well written and informative. A wonderful little touch Pyre has is the ability to highlight certain key phrases, characters, or concepts that pop up in conversation. An overlay goes a little further in detail about each term, establishing context and history with a flick of the stick. It’s subtle, but the ability to dive just a little deeper in such an easy way is awesome. But what about this basketball thing? Between travels and conversations, you eventually find yourself face to face with a group of foes. You pick three of your best champions and put them in battle to extinguish your enemies’ pyre. You do so by claiming the ball in the middle of the field and slamming it into their flame, doing a little bit of damage each time. But each hero has unique powers, from double jumps to knockback attacks, all taking a different amount of points away from the target. Constructing your team is half the strategy, as big and slow characters fare poorly against the nimble ones, but your ability to cast out an aura and banish them might make them useful overall. Throw in a progression mechanic and skill tree that makes you faster, stronger, and more punishing, and you can get lost in the details for a long time in between matches. The overworld is gorgeous and entertaining, as the various biomes all feel different, from the layout to the music. You don’t actually move your cart from spot to spot, you just pick a destination and watch the animation unfold, but you do feel a sense of wonder about who might step up to challenge you in each exotic locale you visit. Minor scavenging is done out there, with different paths allow for some items that can be equipped to one member or another, boosting a stat or two. You can also partake in challenge rites that pit only a single character up against a certain type of enemy, much like Bastion or Transistor. While there isn’t a ton to do beyond reading and rites-ing, the little breaks in the action are welcomed and well made. Pyre isn’t for everyone and it’s very difficult to recommend casually. If reading dialogue 75% of your gaming time sounds appealing, this might work for you. Even if it doesn’t, the competitive aspect might make up for it. The music is also incredible, as Supergiant’s go-to musician Darren Korb has outdone himself once again. But even with those quantifiers, the weird charm and bold design decisions are just bound to rub even some of the most open-minded gamers the wrong way. Still, if you’re willing to go on a weird ride and trust some very talented folks down a winding path, you might just fall in love with what you find.
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Ain’t’s Row
Written by Joshua David Anderson
Agents of Mayhem is the new game from developer Volition, creator of the Saint’s Row franchise. While the game has many similarities to Saint’s Row, and even has some of the same characters, it really does differ from those previous games. This is not an open world crime game and instead, Volition tried to do something different, a game with a familiar structure but with some differences under the hood. The story of Agents of Mayhem is styled after Saturday morning cartoons, with a heavy influence from G.I. Joe, only with an M rating and plenty of swearing. The game takes place in Seoul, South Korea, after the events of Devil’s Night, when the evil shadow organization called L.E.G.I.O.N. attacked the nations of the world and took everything over. One of the members of the evil supervillain group decides to defect and create MAYHEM, the super team dedicated to stopping LEGION. There are 12 characters you can choose from, all of which have distinct, if a little stereotypical, personalities. There are also several commanders from LEGION that make up the boss fights in the game. The gameplay in Agents of Mayhem is really the focus, which is pretty standard third-person open world fare. All playable characters have a primary weapon, a special ability, and a triple jump, making traversal easier than say, a Grand Theft Auto game. There are collectables on the map to grab, civilians to save, and doomsday devices to destroy. All of this is expected, but Agents of Mayhem tries to add some wrinkles and do some things different from other open world games, with mixed results. One way Agents of Mayhem tries to add variety is through the playable characters. With 12 different heroes to pick, there are the standard ones you might expect. One has an assault rifle and can shoot a grenade as a special attack. One has a shotgun, one has dual pistols, but as you go through the roster, Volition starts to experiment a bit. Daisy, the roller derby hero, has a huge chaingun, but also happens to be on rollerskates, and so she is much more mobile than you would expect. Rama, the Indian doctor, shoots arrows from her bow, which gets more powerful the longer she charges it. Oni, the Yakuza enforcer, only has a silenced pistol, but has a fear aura around him that causes enemies to panic and run away, and an ability that allows him to slow down any enemy that he focuses on for more than a couple seconds. These characters play differently than the others, and that helps to boost the variety, leaning into some of the weirded wrinkles that most games of this ilk don’t even try to explore. Unfortunately, that variety doesn’t span too much further out to other parts of the game. Enemies are a dime a dozen, with the same three or four henchmen making up the majority of encounters. Occasionally, you will have to destroy a giant ice cannon or take down a giant walking monster made out of debris, but most of the time you will shoot regular soldiers in their regular heads. Mission variety and environments also run out after just a few hours. You will do the same things throughout the whole game, which amounts to pressing a button to hack a console, to clearing out a group of enemies, to pressing a button to hack a different console. The open city of Seoul has a small amount of personality to it, but the underground dungeons called “Lairs” in the game are all made from the same exact rooms, just with different layouts. There are also a ton of crafting material drops, costumes, upgrade cores, and vehicles to unlock, but these all involve you doing those same activities to get, and at some point it may not be worth it. Agents of Mayhem seems like the perfect mid tier game, something you wouldn’t want to spent more than $30 on during the summer when no other games are out. It is fun to play for a period of time that is less than the length of the game, and there are some really good ideas found in the design of some of the heroes. But it is a game that will wear out its welcome before you finish it, and will ultimately be set to the side when something better comes along.
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Written by Jesse Seilhan
Destiny 2
We’re days away from one of the most addicting and exciting games of the year. Destiny 2 should be better than the first in every way as long as they just stick to what made the first one fun and improve on everything that sucked. Easy, right? Not so much, but the betas thus far have shown that the magic Bungie DNA is still there, surging through every flaming hammer and robot eyeball. The gameplay feels just as tight and fun as it did before, but some of the weapon balance and loadout changes might impact the moment-to-moment combat and long term strategy. Multiplayer has been slimmed down to 4v4 action only, but all the fun modes are back as are some new ones. Give it a shot in September and prepare to shut off your friends and family in search of the coolest rocket launcher or helmet in the universe.
Cuphead
Microsoft is in need of a win and the ever-delayed Cuphead might be just the ticket. The insanely gorgeous co-op shooter is dripping with style, character, and charm, reaching back into the silver age of cartoons for one devilishly appealing game. What was originally just a boss rush experience was turned into a full-fledged platformer and the time we’ve spent at E3 proves that this was the right move. Longer levels means you get to spend more time in this amazing world and the bosses feel even tougher after slogging your way to them. It’s designed like a child’s show, but this thing is brutal and unforgiving, so expect to die alongside your teammate multiple times. If Contra invaded Looney Toons, this is what would happen.
Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite
The Vs series has always been a fan-favorite, combining systems, characters, and styles into a wacky brawler as deep as it was fun. Marvel vs Capcom has been a particularly beloved version of this formula, with licensed characters from beloved franchises going head to head (to head to head) in tag-team battles. The newest entry in the series brings back most of the returning cast, save for any X-Men related character, and adds enough newness to bring the MCU crowd to the game. A ridiculous story mode tries to explain why this game exists, but really it’s because nothing else lets you shoot Iron Man’s chest cannon at Ryu and that’s always worth the price of admission. Pick it up and beat up your buddies this September.
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