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Episode Synopsis "The Reason Episode #2 Connected with Ruben Torres"
RUBEN TORRES Since 2010, Ruben has dedicated himself to creating a do-good movement through Love Thy Neighbor. With his background in the entertainment industry Ruben decided to use his resources and event production experience to bring communities together to serve the less fortunate. Ruben has recently been certified as a community Chaplain and continues to network with community organizations, ministries, and companies to help those in need. Run-DMC To P.O.D., Ruben Torres Helped Shape The Future Of Christian Hip-Hop Justin Sarachik September 15, 2016 Pause for a second and think about your favorite artist. Now take a moment and think about the person behind the scenes that helped make them who they are. The picture in your head is not so easy to come up with now, is it? Who coached them, who believed in them when they needed encouragement, who slept on cold floors and toured in broken down vans with them before they made it? Today, we present to you, Ruben Torres. He is that guy that has stayed behind the scenes and helped create magic in not only the Christian music industry but out into all music and even the film industry. Torres got his start in music in the early 90s with the hip-hop group Smooth Ruffness. Back then he was known as Faceman. It’s not something he often talks about, and when asked about his upbringing in music, it’s a topic he wouldn’t necessarily bring up without being asked about it. “It was four of us, then it became two. We put out a couple of projects and toured with P.O.D. in 1993 – 94,” he said, trying to think back. While touring and performing was something that drove his musical passion, Faceman had a strong desire to perform with his heroes, Run-DMC. “I had just gotten saved and Run-DMC was doing the ‘Down with the King’ Christian sounding stuff,” he said. “It was a dream of mine to perform with them.” Smooth Ruffness was afforded that chance in 1995 when they opened up for the hip-hop legends at Belly Up in San Diego. While the memory of that night is burned into his brain as a dream come true, it also provided something else – a completely new perspective of what he wanted to do with his life. “We are in the backstage area and see who DMC is with. I see these older guys who were in their 70’s, maybe 80-years-old. They are in suits and have these big cell phones,” he shared. “At that point in my life, something just clicked in me where I didn’t need to be an artist anymore. I want to be the old guy with the cell phone behind the scenes. As an artist, your time expires, as a business guy behind the scenes, you could be 90 years old.” A few months later Torres performed one more time as Faceman. This time, it was in front of his mother, who was seeing her son perform for the first and last time. Faceman had accomplished everything he wanted to do as an artist, it was time to become Ruben Torres. “At that point, I was done. I was still writing songs and producing in the studio. I was just passing down knowledge. I had been there done that.” Throughout this mid-90s timeframe, Torres had been working with Rescue Records. The small independent label was founded by Noah Bernardo Sr., father of P.O.D. drummer Wuv. Torres was sat down, and asked: “Do you want to be an artist or a business guy?” For him the answer was simple. One of his first duties with the label was as its Vice President. Originally Rescue Records was formed so that P.O.D. had a label and a support system. P.O.D. started gaining traction so having the label brought some stability to the band. “They were large everywhere else before San Diego started to embrace them,” said Torres. “As the band blew up we became ready to sign more acts to the label so we moved into the hip-hop stuff.”
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