Video: Vex Ruffin, ‘I’m Still At It’

Kevin Bronson on August 5th, 2020

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Vex Ruffin’s third album for Stones Throw Records is titled “LiteAce Frequency,” deriving its title from the Toyota LiteAce van that his family drove in the 1990s after they moved from Northridge to the city of Parañaque in the Philippines.

And like the traffic then, Ruffin’s “LiteAce” is a wild ride.

Dishing out influences including soul, funk, rock and hip-hop — and their global variants — from his kitchen table, Ruffin exudes a free-spirited charisma, not to mention the wizened point of view of a family man himself. He lives in Chino Hills with his wife and two sons, and works two jobs, and yet “LiteAce Frequency” (his second release of 2020, following May’s “Emilio” EP) is the kind of album with a contagious love for life.

The most recent single is the album closer, “What Matters Most,” a keyboard-drenched reminder about staying grounded. “This song is an expression to the importance of the relationship you have with yourself and your loved ones, striving to be your best self for you and others in this little time we have in this world,” he says. “Stay healthy and protect your energy.”

In June, Ruffin motored through the video for “I’m Still At It,” which is so much exuberant you’d want him in your passenger seat anytime. It’s merely one flavor on a polyglot collection of rockers (“Hard to See”) and dance tunes (“Mabuhay Boy”) and everything in between.

He compares the album to a kale salad: “It’s definitely organic. It’s healthy. There’s not much music like that — healthy music. I’m not perfect — not 100% positive all the time. But my goal is to be that positive influence. When I make the music, it’s for myself first and foremost, but it’s going to reach people. And it might help them. In the end, I hope that’s what it does.”

“LiteAce Frequency” is out Aug. 21.

||| Watch: The video for “I’m Still At It”