Ruff Sqwad is a grime crew formed around 2001 in Bow, East London. Various members and affiliates of the crew are considered key figures in the early development of grime music. Its membership evolved out of a wider friendship group who frequented the local youth club circuit, with Slix and Shifty Rydos credited as the co-founders and Prince Rapid and Dirty Danger involved from early.

The group debuted on vinyl with the dark and aggressive 2003 single “Tings in Boots”, which is recognised as one of the genre’s earliest underground hits. They embraced the vinyl medium prolifically in the following years, sharing a number of well-respected instrumentals by Rapid and Dirty Danger. They later spliced samples from other genres including power pop and soft rock into their popular mixtape series Guns ‘n’ Roses, with editions released in 2005 and 2006 that bore cult classics such as “Anna” and “Xtra”.

Core members during this mid-2000s prime also included Tinchy Stryder, Mad Max, DJ Begg, Scholar, and brothers Fuda Guy and DJ XTC, with Tinchy continuing on as an active member of the group in the late ‘00s while navigating a successful pop-rap career in parallel. Their vinyl era came to an end with the anthemic single “R.S.M.D”, released in 2008 via the label No Hats No Hoods.

Celebrating a decade together, the crew released a lengthy EP titled 2012, which was primarily conceived by a huddle of Rapid, Danger, Slix and Tinchy, although featured other members such as Shifty and Fudz in places. They also released an instrumental compilation album, White Label Classics, the same year, marking its release with one of the first grime Boiler Room shows.

Later incarnations of the group saw them formally inviting ex-Roll Deep MC Roachee and Tinchy’s tour DJ Sir Spyro into the fold, both of whom had been close affiliates of the clique since childhood. During the grime revival of 2015-16, Ruff Sqwad sporadically re-emerged with standalone singles such as “That’s How We Are” and “Back Door” before going quiet to focus on solo careers, with Tinchy and Dirty Danger both releasing albums during their hiatus and Rapid dropping the instrumental vinyl EP Unreleased Gems.

In 2024, following an eight-year hiatus, Slix, Rapid and Dirty Danger returned as Ruff Sqwad with the Flee FM series of pirate radio-inspired EPs, with a second edition released the following year. They also organised multiple reunion shows with the wider crew following the COVID-19 pandemic, including a special appearance for TRENCH magazine at the London adidas flagship store in 2023; a private, recorded performance with live band The Compozers for GRM Daily in 2024; and a headline Guns ‘n’ Roses 20th anniversary show at Oslo Hackney in 2025. They were nominated for their first MOBO Award in 2026.