Mood Ruff's founding members, Odario and Spitz, met at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg.
"We were playing at this club called the 360 in Toronto and there were all of nine people there, five of which were from Winnipeg,"[1] says Odario about one of their very first live shows.
[3] Their first hit was a single called 'No Hooks' which received heavy rotation on Canada's Much Music video station and gained them national awareness.
I Do My Own Stunts continued the streak of critically acclaimed albums, and it also contained their first commercially successful single, "Rocketship".
Spitz, also known as Eli Epp (DJ Dow Jones), one of the two founding members of the group, was a child of a military family.
[2] Born in a small village in Guyana, Odario or Garfield Williams is the second half of the founding duo.
Their music is noticeably influenced by the "golden age" of hip-hop artists like A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One, and Public Enemy, who they once opened for.
The group has said that while on the road they listen to other hip hop artists such as De La Soul and Common.
The song received several awards and nominations, including being named CBC Radio 3’s top Canadian track of 2005.