Baltimore’s Ray Lugar grew up completely immersed in music, with his father putting a bass guitar in his hands before he was barely big enough to hold it. His mother, a Black Collector’s Hall Of Fame inductee, had got him involved in stage production before he was even 10 years old. Basically, Ray was always going to pursue music as a career, and over time he’s collaborated with some of the best, including GhostFace Killah, Cappadonna, Nice & Smoove’s Smoove B, R&B chart-toppers Ruff Endz, and Dru Hill’s Scola and Jazz.
His latest venture, The Collective Force, has seen him aligning world renowned artists in both the studio and on stage, and the project stands as a powerful voice for all people. Their most recent single, ‘Paper Cha$e’, sees Ray and The Collective Force share how they believe the current culture of money can and must be changed.
Ray Lugar & The Collective Force stand at the forefront of the quest to change the world, and they grab their guitars, drumsticks, and microphones on ‘Paper Cha$e’ and roar through with hard arm punk rock tactics – slashing on guitar and bass, and with a sinister riff tearing through the track on repeat. Even the chorus has a slightly wicked vibe, the vocalists sounding ever so slightly like fallen angels, with their taunting melody. The track is a taste of their latest album, ‘Force Of Nature’, which pulls no punches and leaves no stones unturned in their quest to make the world a better place.
The video for ‘Paper Cha$e’, directed by Lugar himself, is a performance clip which captures the band united as one against the forces of evil. Wearing masks of the former US presidents, and rocking it out against a white background, it’s not immediately clear who they’re doing battle with but Lugar explains that it,
“was inspired by longtime social and political practices used by society to manipulate the people into the culture of money.”
Outside the live show, we see the world of commerce and criminality, working hand in hand. Money changes hands on street corners with a certain amount of stealth, while law abiding citizens go about their business; meanwhile men dressed in Scream hoods rob people down the barrels of their guns. It’s all part of the whole however – it’s just one big ‘Paper Cha$e’.
Find Ray Lugar & The Collective Force online on Facebook.
