Riff-Raff
Gig Seeker Pro

Riff-Raff

Baltimore, Maryland, United States | INDIE

Baltimore, Maryland, United States | INDIE
Band Hip Hop R&B

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


This band has no press

Discography

1999-- N.I.V. (New Improved Vessel)
2001 -- Generation X
2002 -- My Life, My City, My Block.
2003 -- Hip-Hop Songs 4 Worship
2004 -- State Of Mind
2005 -- The Outcome (Featuring ASON)
2006 -- Riff-Raff Presents... Holy Hip-Hop Unleashed (compilation)
2007 -- A Hustlers Reality
2008 -- REACH
2010 -- EMPOWERMENT

Photos

Bio

Good artists create hot songs, with beats you can dance to, and rhymes you can remember.

Great artists, however, create a sound, they have a point of view, they're on a mission.

If you didn’t know that before, you will definitely know that now, once you catch any of the creative work of Shawn “Riff-Raff” Broadnax.

And it’s a new vibe, indeed. Combining all the artistic influences that have defined him as a performer, hip-hop fan, artist and producer over the years, Riff-Raff has done something artists always tell you they intend to do, but rarely actually accomplish: He’s taken it to the next level, creating a sound that might best be described as New Wave meets-Hip-hop, old school, electro-pop with a urban street beat. Like hip-hop has always been, it’s a riveting mix of the new and the old. But Riff-Raff, along with great producers like Brandon "Bheat" Broadnax, does something with the music cutting edge of musical forms; its sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, massaging the ear as passionately as it makes you dance.

“I originally started rapping and producing records ‘cause I wanted to make people feel me,” he says. “And I’ve been quietly working on this for the last two years, taking everything I’ve learned over the years, from growing up in the 80s, to being out in the church in the 90s listening to hip-hop and watching how it affected my culture, to the 2000s, working with Penn Avenue. Add to that all the experience I’ve had traveling and being exposed to all kinds of sounds, it was time to rekindle the thing I loved."

If you are to follow Riff-Raff's life and career over the past 12 or so years, you would see a person who was in and out of different businesses and places trying to find exactly what fit him the most. In 2007 Riff-Raff developed The Reach Movement (www.ReachMovement.com) which is a multi-media enterprise based around the idea that we should be using our talents to reach out and help others.

On the surface, Riff-Raff is a conquerors story, a tale of a young man who learned to survive by using two-bit scams, then learning what it took to build a real business empire. But underneath that, Riff-Raff is a dreamer, a helpless idealist who’s balancing the dream-state of his passions with the passions of his dreams and visions coming true. In other words, what happens when you have access to everything you ever wanted and yet you still want to grow?

Which is why Riff-Raff might be the best possible name for this young man. Because what do you think about when someone says “Riff-Raff”? Riff says that he thinks that it’s when a young black man can use a system set up for him to fail, to ultimately win and give God the credit for it. That’s Riff-Raff’s aim.

As long as it moves you. “You know how you feel when one of my records comes on,” Riff-Raff declares. “You feel like you can just close your eyes, zone out, and go in to it. You know what I’m sayin?”

We do. We most certainly do.