Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ruthless Rap Assassins

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Weak notability established but the article needs a lot of work seicer | talk | contribs 21:36, 8 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ruthless Rap Assassins

Unsourced article about a band, prod was contested. Around 8,000 ghits but I did not see any which would amount to non-trivial coverage in reliable independent sources. Guy (Help!) 20:28, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Bands and musicians-related deletion discussions. —Cliff smith ^talk 22:05, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of United Kingdom-related deletion discussions. —Iain99^{Balderdash and piffle} 22:12, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Slightly weak keep Showing my age a bit, but I seem to remember this group having minor cult success and getting a moderate amount of coverage in the music press in the ~~late~~ early 90s, even before Kermit joined Black Grape and became semi-famous. Still the article is unsourced and not in great shape, and I'm afraid I'm not going to do a four hour drive to see if my old NMEs are still in my dad's attic in the course of this AfD, so I'm afraid I can't be more specific. Iain99^{Balderdash and piffle} 20:47, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Weak keep "It yielded two minor hit singles in "Just Mellow" and "And It Wasn't A Dream" (a duet with Tracey Carmen), which both hit #75 in the UK." That translates into two chart singles, which if they can be verified, should be good enough to meet at least one criterion of WP:MUSIC. The article is indeed a wreck, however. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • ^{(Broken clamshells • Otter chirps • HELP)} 21:46, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- I can confirm that the Guinness Book of British Hits Singles and Albums (18th edition), the UK chart "bible", does indeed confirm that both songs got to number 75 in the UK singles chart -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 07:26, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

With the current state of the UK singles chart that equates to about 100 sales :-) Guy (Help!) 08:05, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

True, but remember that we're talking early 90s. It would have been, oooh, at least 150 sales in those days. ;-P I have no idea how many sales are actually needed Still, notability isn't measured solely by commercial success, and if the reviews quoted are to be believed (and they're consistent with my own recollection), they do seem to have achieved significant critical success. Iain99^{Balderdash and piffle} 09:00, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Weak Keep aside from the chart 'success' mentioned above, their album has a fairly lengthy review at Allmusic (no biog there, mind). Further sources would of course strengthen the argument for keeping, but I also do not have the time to sift through a pile of NMEs.... sparkl_!sm ^hey! 22:19, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. Pretty clearly notable via releases, chart hits and subsequent membership of notable bands. They also recorded a session for John Peel's Radio 1 show ([1]). They had quite a lot of coverage back when they were going - given the dates in question it's not surprising Google doesn't come up with much. There's a 1990 article from City Life reproduced at the Manchester Music Archive [2] and [3]. The group was covered in the book And God Created Manchester by Sarah Champion, although I don't have it so can't tell how much coverage is in there. They are also covered in the book, The Allmusic Guide to Hip-Hop ([4]). --Michig (talk) 12:12, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. I DRV'd it last week. Meets criterion #2 (had 2 #75 hit singles), #6 (Paul "Kermit" Leveridge and Jed Lynch joined Black Grape and Lynch drummed with loads of people), #7? (I can't really think of anything more Manc, but that's just me). And a big cult following. I think that justifies it. (Before the DRV it had little claim to notability, but I saw their entry in the Guinness Hit Singles, revived it and cleaned it up.) Spec ial K 16:23, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.