Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, I am on the phone with Rufus Johnson, you know. Thank you, Rufus Johnson. But he has a new single. We're going to talk about that in just a few minutes. But Rufus, how are you?
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I'm great. How you doing?
[00:00:13] Speaker A: I'm doing fantastic. Now, where are you from so everybody can kind of get caught up on Rufus Johnson's life?
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Sure. Absolutely. Well, like I said, my name is Rufus Johnson. I am from Richmond, Virginia, and I'm born and raised, and that's where I currently live. And that's just, that's me. I'm in Richmond.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Vaeheh, you're a southern guy.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I like coming to Detroit every now and again, but I definitely am Richmond, Virginia, and I went to college in North Carolina. So between Virginia and North Carolina, that's like my stomach ground.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Well, I want to talk about, first of all, when you came out with a song. Thank you. How long had you been trying to record or already recording projects that you had already done before that became such a big hit?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Well, man, that's a long story. Is probably similar to any other artist. We, you know, we record and we do music and we sing at our churches and stuff like that for years and years. But I had done a couple of little projects before that, but nothing that was like a major release or anything like that. I had only done one single before. Thank you. And I think that was in 2010 or something like that. So, I mean, it's just a little something I put out there on Spotify and stuff, but nothing else before that. And then I had a run with my boys GI from about 2015 to 2019, and that's when I really got my first taste of, like, oh, wow charts and, you know, traveling to perform and you looking in the crowd and people are singing your song and they send it back to you and, and that kind of thing. So once I, you know, I got married in 2019 and just took a hiatus from the group and decided, you know, I want to do this on my own. I hadn't, like I said, part of it is you're not confident about it and it's a fear thing. So I didn't want to, you know, live my life and I didn't try.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: So thank you was the first song to come out of that. And, you know, we swung for the fences and thank, thank God, you know, we got some traction with that one.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Absolutely. Home run.
Well, you have a new single out, and it's called so good. And tell me a little bit about that song.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I have a main producer that I work with, and his name is Dee Bryant. He's out of Atlanta. And so whenever we get together, you know, we try to cook up some new tunes and some new stuff, and I love that he gets my sound. I think, you know, I'm a yemenite. Always like to call myself a saved r and b singer. I've tried to do a worship. I've tried to be a worship leader and all of that, and that's great. I tip my hat off to anybody who's able to do that, and because I really appreciate that. But for me, it's not necessarily my strong suit. So I love soul music, and I love music with a good groove and a good beat and guitars and horns and so, you know, like I said, he gets my sound. So when we started picking out stuff to put on the record and the sound we were looking for, this is what kind of came of it. So we're delving a little deeper from where we left off with thank you and some of my other singles, and we're just kind of sonically trying to go to the next level. You're so good, and you never change.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: On the phone with Rufus Johnson, that was so good, and it is so good. I do love your flair. I told your promotions people that before. I just like your sound. It's different than a normal church sound, but it's all about Jesus nonetheless.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. Yeah. Yeah. The music is just the music to me. You know, I could get in the weeds with that stuff, but I feel like where you come from with your heart is where it is. Church. Church has a sound, but church is Sunday morning. You know, it has a specific sound for that and for those environments, but that's not necessarily what I'm listening to when I'm just riding in my car or I'm at the gym or I just want to hear some good music, you know, that's not of that. Of that flavor. So I think there's room for it all.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Well, I can see myself having my windows down, going down. I 75 listening to this.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: See, I already know that. See?
See? Moving the point. There it is.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: How do we find Rufus Johnson and is so good available now?
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah, so good is available everywhere you stream your music. It's on YouTube. It's on Spotify, Apple Music, tidal. All of that stuff. Y'all can find me at IG. I am Rufus Johnson. I'm on Facebook. Rufus Johnson. And also my wife and I run a scholarship, a nonprofit for HBCU students. With both HBCU grads, you can follow that on Instagram. At KR scholars. We unfortunately have already wrapped up our, our scholars for this year. We're just wrapping that up. But you can definitely apply next year. Yeah. And try to get you a little money if you're an HBCU student, we want to definitely give back and keep our students going. Hbcus.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: That is amazing. I love to hear stuff like that. And it's a pleasure to talk to you as well. Thank you so much.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Rufus, you also, thank you so much.
