Genre mixing is a tricky business - difficult to do right but when it hits, the impact is twice as hard as those playing by the rules. Ruder Than You take ska and reggae sounds and trick it out with hip-hop and funk stylings, creating what could perhaps be most easily described as grimy street ska.

The band slipped us a copy of their new EP God’s Ghetto. We in turn slipped Ruder Than You’s leader and founder Doug Dubrosky (tenor sax and vocals) 5 questions, which he was nice enough to return. We, however, have no intention of returning our copy of God’s Ghetto - not without physical harm that is. I’ve got plans for afternoons by the pool with this on loop.

Find out what the band name means, how African record stores work, and three tracks personally selected by Doug for RockSellout readers after the jump.

Keath: Listening to Ruder Than You, I’m struck by how well you mix genres. How would you describe your sound? Best I came up with was grimy street ska.

Doug: We are all music lovers, each with very diverse musical backgrounds and interests. We all basically all agree that Ruder Than You is a ska band first and foremost, so that defines our musical center. But depending on the song idea and who in the band collaborates on the writing it can move pretty far off center. We believe the most important thing in making great music is to love the music your make and to not pander to a given audience or scene or trend. Unfortunately for us, we have spread ourselves out among genres so much that we have had a hard time finding a strong niche in any one genre. It reminds me of our original record label Moon Records whose motto at the time was “101% ska”. Back in the 90s during the Third Wave ska boom, some of the ska kids didn’t like us because, ironically enough, we weren’t “Ruder Than You” (meaning more pure ska than you). The east coast had the Slackers and other NYC trad-oriented ska bands that were popular. California had the pretty-boy poppy ska bands like Reel Big Fish. Ska-core was happening with the Might Mighty Bosstones and Less Than Jake. But we were like a mash-up of many of those things with some other stuff like dancehall and dub thrown in for good measure. To talk about mixing in hip-hop was like sacrilege. Thankfully the ska scene is much more open minded now and we get respect for our diversity. We have been able to forge a group sound that is relatively consistent even if the style might change from song to song. For a while we were calling our musical style Philly Stylee, which to us is a hybrid mix of ska with whatever else we throw in. Obviously the new EP God’s Ghetto is a little more urban feeling with some hip hop touches. Grimy Street Ska works at least as good as any description I could come up with!

Keath: You’re the first American ska band to be released on an African label. Is this the ultimate affirmation for your sound?

Doug: RTY has been around for 18 years now without having “the big hit”, so at this point the affirmation of our sound is whether we are satisfied with the mix at the end of the day or not. My friend from high school, Matt Doherty is a rebel and adventurer and moved to Zanzibar in East Africa about 10 years ago. I visited him recently and got to meet a lot of people and hear a lot of music while I was in Africa. What I learned is that reggae truly is a universal music and is hugely popular in Africa. In urban areas hip-hop and local variations is also immensely popular. The kind of music Ruder is making seemed like a natural fit. Matt runs the label Lulu Nyeusi, which means Black Pearl in Swahili. To make a long story short he agreed to put the record out on his label. Truth be told, most record stores in Africa consist of a guy behind a laptop with and a stack of blank CDs. Even if the CD gets popular there we don’t expect to sell thousands of CDs. This is a cultural exchange project, a way to make history, and a way for me to connect with my friend who runs a record label on the other side of the world.

Keath: The band seems to get bigger the longer you guys are around - does it become more complicated having extra faces around or does it jack up the intensity even more?

Doug: The band started as a five piece, grew to a 9 piece, and shrunk again to a 6 piece. Sometimes we play out with DJ Rob Paine from Philly on turntables, but other than that I see no major changes to the lineup. We know how to jack up the intensity to 11, as often as necessary. It is true that fewer members are easier for all logistics. I envy bands like Dub Trio that are just three guys.

Keath: Have any tour plans you can share with us?

Doug: We play Philly and New York City regularly. We hope to spread out a little more in the next few months hitting Washington, Baltimore, and hopefully New England. We are hoping to get to Europe for a week in summer 2009 when our next full-length CD is released.

Keath: Where can our readers get a copy of God’s Ghetto? (Because all of them should!)

Doug: CDBaby and iTunes. Also you can get in touch with us on MySpace.

Check out these three tracks Doug picked especially for RockSellout readers. Warning: Extreme grooves will commence upon hitting play.

MP3: Ruder Than You - God’s Ghetto

MP3: Ruder Than You - Reggae-Rub-A-Dub Rock

MP3: Ruder Than You - Uncle Albert

Note: Reggae-Rub-A-Dub Rock is off Philly Stylee (2005). Uncle Albert is off Horny For Ska (1996). Band photo by Joy Moody.

- Keath (MySpace)