King Cruff, Grandson of Bob Marley, Signs to Major Label and Releases New Single
Solomon Marley-Spence, known by the moniker King Cruff (as a stage name) is making efforts to establish himself as a rapper and has just dropped a new song as well as signed on with a prominent record label.
Marley-Spence is the grandson of the highly decorated Reggae Legend, Bob Marley. His mother is one Stephanie Marley who gave birth to Solomon in London, England before moving to Jamaica and taking on the duty of managing the Bob Marley Museum.
Using the name King Cruff, he signed a record deal with Universal Music Canada and also released Samurai Chop, his first single with the agency.
During an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), King Cruff gave some insight into his childhood and his inspiration for music. He mentioned that growing up he was highly influenced by the presence of family with the Marley name and by the life and music of Bob Marley himself. He also lays the credit for his musical aspirations at the feet of the late Reggae genius.
“I feel like when you look up on Marley’s career, he didn’t really waver on any of his beliefs, whether they were religious, spiritual, political,” he stated. The up-and-coming artiste is a fan of how Marley always stood firm in his beliefs even when judgement was cast by others. Continuing, he voiced, “so I kind of feel like he influences me that way the most.”
Speaking on the path he decided to travel as a musician, King Cruff stated that he will imitate Bob in choosing his own road, despite most of the Marley family, including Ziggy, Skip, Damian’ Junior Gong’ and more choosing to focus on reggae music. Cruff, a United Kingdom (UK) native, divulged that aside from reggae, he grew into an artiste listening to hip hop. He named Andre 3000 and Kendrick Lamar as influences, but also included artistes like Protoje, Chronixx and Runkus as “the new school of reggae” artistes that he admires.
Moving on to his image and name, the Let Me Forget singer dived into the history of its origin. ‘Cruff’ is a Patois word used to describe someone who is not ambitious and carries themselves in a deplorable manner. Explaining that he thinks society relies too much on what they see to draw conclusions, he declared “I feel like people focus on how you dress and how you move instead of actually asking you questions about what you think and what kind of music you listen to and what kind of person you are. So in adopting that, I kind of wanted to challenge people to be able to be like, ‘You have this name, but let me try and figure out more about you before I make that judgment call.’”
As a young artiste in the business, King Cruff has already been recognized for his budding artistry by being named as Hip Hop Artist of the Year at the Forest City London Music Awards in June of this year.
king Cruff’s Universal Music Canada deal is a collaborative effort with the Tuff Gong Collective, which is owned by the Marley family. He commented that the deal with Universal presented itself when, although his career was progressing ascending, the “King Cruff status” was undecided. “When the deal came through, and the signing happened, it was like a very clear vision, a kind of epiphany of a sort, and I’m very excited to see where it goes from here,” he declared.
The single that was produced with the label since his signing is called Samurai Chop. The song displays Kings Cruff’s creativity as an artiste and also incorporates dancehall into his sound. Available on digital platforms, the music video has garnered just over 1,000 views on YouTube.
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