In a flawless era of Greensboro, North Carolina hip hop history, two names remained at the top of nearly every event during the years of 2005-2012; Ed E. Ruger & Ty Bru.
Those names meant power, strength, arrogance, grit and grime mixed with one hell of a stage show and a deep, deep crew. Watching vintage footage of them performing ‘Ty Bru’s That Jerk’ from a whopping 18 years ago at Greene Street, you can tell that the power, talent and uniqueness that each of them possess is like a thunderstorm; the lightening never competing with the thunder, just giving each other room to fuck shit up.
They both had the audacity to do what others would or could not and that forever paved the way and laid the foundation for the Greensboro and Asheboro music scene. For those that are questioning it, there are plenty of receipts that Mightier Than The Sword Records have provided us with. Hundreds of flyers, with names like, Wiz Khalifia, Snoop Dogg, Big Sean, A$AP Rocky, Skrillex, Linkin Park, Justin Timberlake, Avril Lavigne, Wu-Tang Clan, and the list seems to never end. Ty Bru was even documented to perform over 250 shows in one of those years alone from the USA, Europe, Asia and South America.
In the middle of that run, Ruger & Bru took time from their solo ventures, to team up with their DJ, PHILLIE PHR3SH and engineer, super producer, Jon Jackson and bring a collaborative album entitled, ‘Brown Bag Special Vol. 1’ and the marketing behind it was a stroke of next level genius.
Bru recalls, “It was really the first time I could use my business degrees from Appalachian State to go all in with marketing. There was no streaming or digital, it was a fun time for sure. Ruger trusted me and I trusted him, shit we still do, but back then the vision was unmatched. The peak of it all was that I actually wrapped the CDs in brown bags and stamped them. I still haven’t ever seen anyone do anything quite like that before. The fans loved it, we sold out quickly, I was putting all the focus on the product and Ruger was putting all the focus on getting us shows to sell it at, it was a beautiful run.”
That was 2008. Nearly twenty years ago. The album went on to reach top ten lists around the state and nation and honestly seems to have given them the momentum that they remarkably still have to this day. But that’s not to say they both never thought about stepping away.
Ruger states, “20+ years of nonstop madness and the conversations we have still inspire and motivate me to keep going. I can name multiple times I wanted to quit doing music, shows or both and Ty personally talked me out of it, there is no finish line.”
Ty then shares the same sentiment, “I stepped away almost completely from the live performance aspect of music, a few years back and replaced it with filmmaking, I really lost the love for it, then just a few months ago, it dawned on me that I really hadn’t been out to one of Ruger’s events lately, just to support and show him I was still in his corner, and the man still is directing and organizing monthly shows. I was about to go to L.A. and I texted him like, hey man you feel like having a co-host tonight?? and he was like, bring your ass on man, let’s do it!! That night brought me back into the understanding that we really still had something special, and so did Greensboro.
After I got back from L.A. we were able to have a conversation in the green room at Hangar 1819 in Greensboro, after sound check at the sKitz Kraven show and we both admitted that we were kind of not into it like we once were, we hit the stage to a few hundred screaming fans and it gave us that adrenaline and validation again that this working relationship of ours needs to continue, so that’s when we decided it was time to release these new Brown Bag songs.”
On October 23, 2026, they released the song ‘I Do The Same Thing Pt. 2’ with label mate, Marshall Alexander and close friend, Joe Bizz and I can tell you it certainly brings back all the feelings of the original releases from 2008. I really wish I was there myself in the beginning, but being able to listen to the original a few weeks ago for the first time and then listening to this new single, I can’t really put a date on any of it, this is timeless music.
With this new release, from the deep pulse of DubKillers composition in the production to the catchy hook and familiar sounds of Ruger & Bru, to the massive weight both Joe Bizz and Marshall Alexander hold for the track, there is no weak links here, and yearns for the repeat button. I am now a fan of both of those feature artists and hope to hear more from them all together.
My favorite bars from each in order of appearance;
Ty Bru: “Get all your people in a line, right. It still won’t add up to one year in my life. Come find me when life hits you with the hindsight”
Joe Bizz: “Small dude, but I move like a whale, all these fools telling shark tales. But I got em on the hook cause im sharp as hell. Call me a crook, cause I’ll take your sales, if you don’t do it yourself.”
Ed E. Ruger: “I do work, I do dirt, I get it shaking little homie, I move earth. Always the first to the scratch word to Kool Herc.”
Marshall Alexander: “Stacking my dough, pursue riches. Handle my foes and block bitches, call up your hoes to do my dishes. Then I meet up with Joe to do business.” (Sidenote, the cadance on that is unfuckwithable.)
What’s next you might ask? Bru helps us with that, “We don’t have a set date for anything, we are fathers and event directors first, we have dozens of songs in various stages of production, we are just making sure this is organic and flows with the balance of our lives. We want to have fun and enjoy each other’s company. Maturity is something we are fortunate enough to have grown into both together and as individuals, but we still want that Brown Bag sound to be something fierce, oftentimes violent and abrasive, so we really got to work hard to make sure we don’t let our fans down with what they expect and still stay true to ourselves both past, present and future.”
If you are in the Triad area of North Carolina, there are two upcoming events that you can support.
Thursday, November 19, 2026 from 6-10pm, Ty continues his film festival directing, with a standalone event, the SWORD ENCORE SERIES, at the historic Sunset Theatre, 234 Sunset Avenue, Asheboro, NC, which will headline the Sean Noroña feature film OUTERBOUND, with special screening of Ed E. Ruger’s ‘Back Off’ music video, Adventures In Theatre’s ‘A Sleepy Holler Halloween Special’ and an episode of Tremayne Goff’s ‘You Don’t Know Jack’ along with a few other titles, TBA, this is a free event.
On Saturday December 5, 2026 from 7-11pm Ed E. Ruger presents the next installment of THE SESSION at The Back Table, 816 South Elm Street, Suite 1-A, Greensboro, NC. THE SESSION is a concert series, which this one will have the long awaited return of another Greensboro Hip Hop titan, Barber-Q along with performances from T.I.M.E., Stitchy C, KoolAid SoSouth, Mr. Adams, Fam-U, M2M94, Snap Prone, Many Voices, CEO Nezzy, Cashmere, Richh Royalty & Yung Yankee. Presale tickets are $10 and at the door they are $15.
© 2026, Logan. All rights reserved.
