INTERVIEW | INTRODUCING RAPPER, DESIGNER AND ENTREPRENEUR RUEBX QUBE

By Rishma • On Interviews

Tell us a bit about who Rue­bx Qube is?

Rue­bx Qube is a com­plic­ated man. Haha I’m an entre­pren­eur who hap­pens to be an artist, pro­du­cer, song­writer, fash­ion design­er, and author. I developed my music­al tal­ents at a young age in a little coun­try church in a small town right out­side of Hou­s­ton called Rich­mond, Texas. Being a young entre­pren­eur, I star­ted selling pickles to oth­er neigh­bor­hood kids with the mind­frame of try­ing to turn $5 into $20. At that time, I didn’t know what was ahead for me. The only thing I knew was that I loved music and the arts with a deep pas­sion. I didn’t know how they would cor­rel­ate later in my youth.

I’ve always been a per­son that believes in fin­ish­ing what I star­ted. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I was told that “Fin­ish­ing” is an actu­al skill set. I’m also a dream­er and a per­son that doesn’t take time for gran­ted. I believe every moment on this earth is a gift, and I try not to take a minute for gran­ted. I feel that we all have a divine power to make our life into what we want it to be as long as we’re will­ing to put in the work and sac­ri­fice. And most import­antly, have the will to finish.

How import­ant is it for you to remain inde­pend­ent as an artist?

Well, grow­ing up hear­ing the hor­ror stor­ies of great artists like Prince, TLC, etc., I knew that being a slave to a con­tract with the prom­ises of wealth and fame wasn’t some­thing I was going to fall for. At first, I used to be frus­trated when the deals didn’t roll in as a young teen. Then some years passed, and I star­ted to real­ize it was a bless­ing in dis­guise. What I was build­ing was some­thing organ­ic, and with the inter­net I didn’t need someone to val­id­ate my tal­ents only to make mil­lions from it and leave me with pen­nies. I real­ized that through the inter­net if I mar­keted my music right, I could build my own fan base. And that’s exactly what I did.

You fuse togeth­er a lot of dif­fer­ent genres, where do you draw your influ­ences from when it comes to your sound?

EDM, Reg­gaeton, Dance­hall, and Hip hop are the genres that form my sound. Hip hop in par­tic­u­lar has a rare influ­ence in every genre of music. You can even hear trap snares, rolls, and 808’s in coun­try music now. Music­ally I’m like a chef. I find out what the people are inter­ested in, and I put in my own herbs and spices to please their music­al palettes.

How did Hip-Hop change your life?

Hip hop has been everything to me. It’s in the air I breathe. Hip hop is the only thing that has been there with me from the begin­ning. I lost a lot of people due to death and to life. But hip hop has been the con­sist­ent love that has got­ten me through those dark days even before I made a dol­lar. It’s been my ther­ap­ist and my best friend at times. Hip hop has made a small town kid dream big­ger than life. And it has taken me places and into rooms that I would have nev­er seen otherwise.

You did a dance chal­lenge on social media for your pre­vi­ous track ‘Red Room’, how did that go? What advice can you give to upcom­ing artists who focus on social media as a main point of promo?

The “Red Room” chal­lenge went great. It was a R&B/Hip Hop record that I wrote, pro­duced, and per­formed. We shot the offi­cial music video in a Pent­house over look­ing the Atlantic Ocean in Miami Beach. This is one of my favor­ite places to chill for a relax­ing week­end when I’m not on the road.

I would tell upcom­ing artists to nev­er release a song without a mar­ket­ing plan. Mar­ket­ing is more import­ant than the music itself. There’s no point in releas­ing fire music if you don’t come up with a plan to have as many people hear the music. If you fail to plan, then you’re plan­ning to fail.

 

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Dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, many artists were strug­gling without the rev­en­ue that may have come from live shows. Tell us a bit about how you were able to expand into fash­ion to keep your brand afloat dur­ing this dif­fi­cult period?

As an artist, it’s import­ant to think busi­ness first. Diver­si­fy. You have to think of what hap­pens if you can’t per­form or no pro­moter will book you for shows. How will you make your money? I’ve had that mind frame way before the pan­dem­ic. So when the pan­dem­ic hit, I only thought of how I could cre­ate con­tent that I could sell in the mean­time dur­ing the lock­down. Since I grew my fan base years pri­or to the pan­dem­ic, my fans were eager to get anoth­er fix of my product. So I went into my thoughts and wondered how I could feed them some­thing oth­er than music. For years, I was always com­pli­men­ted on cer­tain ways that I dressed and even had fans con­tact me and ask which design­er I was wear­ing. Of course, if I’m not get­ting paid from those brands to pro­mote their product my mouth would stay zipped. That’s when I thought, “Hey maybe I should make my own brand of shoes and clothes, and not only wear them but engage with my fans and post pics and videos of them wear­ing the product.” Win/win situ­ation. I love my fans and sup­port­ers so giv­ing them a shoutout and giv­ing them the shine for the day for being a sup­port­er is the least I could do.

Fash­ion and Hip-Hop go hand in hand, how would you describe your style and the mer­chand­ise you sell?

Just like music, if it feels and looks good to me then I’ll release it. My style of clothes might come from things that I like to wear myself. And some­times it might be items that I’d love to see on oth­er people. Major­ity of my fan base are women. So my num­ber one pri­or­ity is to make sure the women are sat­is­fied. I’m always doing product research. I get input from mod­els and fans about what they value when wear­ing cas­u­al wear. I often get the same answer: quality/comfortable clothes. We strive to meet those expectations.

You do a lot of phil­an­throp­ic work, what les­sons have you been able to take from this to apply to your music and busi­ness ethics?

Cour­age. It takes cour­age to sur­vive an under­priv­ileged life­style. It also takes tons of cour­age and dis­cip­line to rise out of poverty. I apply that cour­age in busi­ness. Being a reflec­tion to less for­tu­nate chil­dren is some­thing I hope will encour­age them. See­ing myself in them is just as inspiring.

Tell us a bit about the non-profit you run ‘IHope4you’ Inc?

IHope4you Inc is a non­profit I foun­ded 4 years ago. It focuses on early child­hood devel­op­ment and lit­er­acy. I know how import­ant read­ing and writ­ing is. Without it, I wouldn’t be the cre­at­ive that I am today. I would have got­ten myself in worlds of trouble with con­tracts as well. In efforts to push the read­ing nar­rat­ive, I cre­ated a children’s book series entitled “E.J. and Friends” which I’ve writ­ten and pub­lished. The concept is to teach import­ant mes­sages to chil­dren in a fun way. We cre­ated the “E.J. And Friends Book Club” where we part­ner with schools and read to the chil­dren. After­wards, we have them do a book report on each story for each event. Then we reward them with ice cream for par­ti­cip­at­ing. My part­ners at Wal­mart, Pub­lix Super­mar­kets, and Blue Bell Homemade Ice Cream have con­trib­uted tre­mend­ously to make each event a success.

Tell us a bit about the Rue­bx Qube action fig­ure? How did it come about and what was the pro­cess of cre­at­ing it like?

To be hon­est, the action fig­ure deal was some­thing I per­son­ally nev­er thought of. But I was approached by an action fig­ure man­u­fac­turer about pos­sibly doing it. I thought the idea would be so cool and some­thing that would be a great leg­acy for my future gen­er­a­tions after me. I was very humbled to be approached about being immor­tal­ized as they say. But once I flew out to Cali­for­nia and saw the pro­to­type, I was sold. We talked num­bers and got the busi­ness stuff handled, and just like that the deal was done in a few days. I even brought one home with me and will have it added to my life cap­sule. I know one thing. My great great great grand­chil­dren will know that their great great great grandpa was a bad man! Hahahahaha. And I hope that leg­acy of inspir­a­tion will inspire hun­dreds of gen­er­a­tions of my blood­line going forward.

What music have you got com­ing out for the rest of the year?

Well for the rest of 2020, I’ve pro­duced some records with huge artists in South Amer­ica, Hol­ly­wood Cali­for­nia, and South Africa. It will be up to their labels when they want to release them. But the end of 2020 and the begin­ning of 2021 you’ll be sure to hear some new Big Chunes!

Where can we fol­low you and find out more?

You can fol­low me on Ins­tagram @Ruebx_Qube . I engage with my fol­low­ers daily and post inspir­a­tion­al and funny con­tent on my stor­ies. If you want to be inspired and laugh, you should def­in­itely fol­low me. I’m a nut lol

To keep up with news, updates, and mer­chand­ise go to my web­site: www.ruebxqube.com . The clothes are super high qual­ity and you won’t be disappointed. 

 

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.