Rufftouch Movement started out in1991 as a sound system. Original members included Leon Welsh, Meshaq Welsh and Richard Lindsy. Using their pocket money on a Saturday, they would go to Dub Vender, a record shop in Ladbroke Grove, to buy records to spin at local parties and events.
They quickly began to make a name for themselves with their unique juggling style, similar to Rory from Stone Love Movements, hence the name Rufftouch Movement. They soon started to gain a fan base of a young following, which grew month by month.
In 1993 they entered a local youth sound cup competition which was attended by a bolstered crowd of 1000+ attendees. To the surprise of the crowd, Rufftouch won the competition, playing some of the latest dub plates from some of the biggest and most popular artists in Jamaica, mixed with popular local artists, which further boosted their popularity in the London area.
A year later they entered a London sound clash competition and won that also, now cementing themselves as one of the best youth sound systems in England. Due to great reviews, Rufftouch was offered to play a weekly spot in a popular night club called Trends in East London, with Asher World Movements, now more commonly known as Chris Gold Finger, from BBC Radio. With help from One Love Sound System with Steve and Jumbo and Plastic from Java Sound System, the Rufftouch calendar became very congested, playing all over England, Birmingham, Sheffield and Nottingham, to name a few.
Due to the heavy workload, Rufftouch Movement decided to recruit another selector named Little J, to be later known as J-View. With J-View as the mics man and Leon and Starky as selectors, Rufftouch started to fulfil their potential as one of England’s best sounds by playing with the major sound systems around the world and holding their own. This included playing with the likes of King Addis with selector Face and Tony Matterhorn from New York, Base Odyssey with selector Squingy from St Annes, Metro Media with Sky Juice from Kingston and Travellers sound with selector Juksies Killer from Kingston, to name but a few.
By 1999 Rufftouch had formed their own promotion team called Love Lords Promotion, but was later changed to RTM Promotion, where they would stage events to please their growing fan base. With time moving on, Rufftouch recruited another up and coming school boy selector called Crazy Taily aged 16 with J-View taking him under his wing to show him the ropes. Crazy Taily’s popularity grew with the sound system and was soon put in as a front runner with J-View honourably passing on the baton. Crazy Taily was then later known as Crazy 1.
With Rufftouch Movement fast growing as a brand, they then started up a Record company with selector Leon building a beat from him bed room and voicing local artists such as Gappy Ranks, Darghead, Lady Shan and Dark Angel, plus many more. This later lead to making music videos and being broadcasted on Channel U on rotation. The record label has slowly progressed to a point at which Rufftouch can say they have recorded many top Jamaican artists such as Gyptian, Fantan Mojah, Lutan Fyha, Natural Blacks and Esco Levi, to name a few. Rufftouch now has a fully equipped recording studio where they record local and international artists on a daily basis.
In January 2014, Rufftouch launched their own Radio Station called RTM Radio.Net. which has a unique model of over 30 DJ’s logging in from all over the world in their respective countries, for example; we have DJ’s from England, Jamaica, Barbados, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan and Australia, creating a multi-cultural family but also spreading Rufftouch Movement to different parts of the world as a musical entertainment brand.
