Fake For Real - Tag - SlugThe English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music2024-03-11T20:40:46+01:00Sylvain Bertoturn:md5:a035ff44a020bb716e18191580d6e9ecDotclearATMOSPHERE - Overcast!urn:md5:7dd0fa692beb2b069446cbb515428bc12015-12-12T18:36:00+01:002016-04-04T12:18:07+02:00codotusylvAlbumsSlug<p>Let's be honest. Even if it is the very basis of the Twin Cities rap scene, and a founding record for independent hip-hop - arguably on par with <em>Funcrusher Plus</em> - the first album from Atmosphere was far from perfect. Its CD version had fillers. Some of its tracks were a bit torpid and laborious. Apart from a few bolder ones, Ant's beats were most of the time absolutely trite. As for Spawn's raps and raspy voice, their main interest was to offer a fitting contrast to those of the other MC.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/1997/atmosphere-overcast.jpg" alt="ATMOSPHERE - Overcast!" title="ATMOSPHERE - Overcast!" /></p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.rhymesayers.com" hreflang="en">Rhymesayers</a> :: 1997 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009OLTJ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00009OLTJ&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20&linkId=ZLU7DYLTN2DISK3O" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>This other MC, actually, was the main thing that mattered on this album. This record was, entirely, a Slug thing. It was his work, his child, his breed. All the rest was ornaments only. Intensity, eloquence, smart lyrics, complex personality: as soon as with <em>Overcast!</em>, Sean Daley was the charismatic and fundamental rapper he would remain, despite a frustrating discography. He was one of these few artists confirming as soon as the first listening experience, that they were capital.</p>
<p>Originally, though, Atmosphere's agenda was rather conservative. Located in the Midwest, quite far from the main hip-hop scenes and trends, the band seemed to have one aim: preserving hip-hop, ensuring it stays fresh, and maintaining its link to MC battles. It was the perfect contrary to the triumphing bling-bling rap of the late 90's. However, because it was opposite to the materialistic stance of the mainstream rappers, Atmosphere would innovate. It would, first and foremost, introduce hip-hop to introspection and self-criticism, in an innovative way.</p>
<p>It was obvious as soon as "Scapegoat", the band's manifesto. There, on a striking piano loop, Slug would go through a never-ending list of pretexts, people use to escape their responsibilities: <em>"it's the East Coast, no it's the West Coast, it's public schools, it's asbestos, it's mentholated, it's techno, it's sleep, life, and death, it's speed, coke, and meth, it's hay fever, pain relievers, oral sex, and smokers breath, it stretches for as far as the eye can see, it's reality, fuck it, it's everything but me"</em>. Assuredly, the rapper meant that he would never go this apologetic way.</p>
<p>Slug, also, would start his self-examination as soon as with the violins of the epic "1597": <em>"hence forth, step within my psychoanalysis, calluses upon my mind make me strain for my lines"</em>. He would pursue it with "Brief Description", claiming he would like to learn before his death who he really was. And he would persevere with the existentialist “Clay”. The quest would go on with "Caved In", a tribute by Spawn to his father, and a song Slug could easily have authored himself, considering his admiration for his own genitor, an African-American musician.</p>
<p><em>Overcast!</em>, though, was not entirely made of this. Elsewhere, the MC would be the emo-rapper many people still think he exclusively is – the archetype and godfather of all White and fragile indie hip-hop MCs to come. Daley, who would also like the irreverent side of rap music, would soon have to fight against his own caricature. In the future, he would need to deny his repute as an introvert and sensitive man.</p>
<p>As soon as in 1997, his lyrics and beats were more diverse than that, like with "Complication", a track about a woman unable to find a stable partner, or with the innovative bird song samples of "Cuando Limpia El Humo". The first album from Atmosphere also had the great "Sound is Vibration", a song at least as good as "Scapegoat", and expectedly, the most musical one on <em>Overcast!</em>, thanks to its harp and the two rappers playing with each other. Last but not least, the album would end with "Primer", a track as virulent as "Scapegoat", though very different.</p>
<p>Obviously, this extraordinarily violent and powerful enactment of a marital fight – somehow the premises of Eminem's "Kim", in a less nihilistic way – was not to be taken at face value. It was, primarily, a tale about poverty, a depiction of the underclass. It was the portrayal of a downgraded man, frustrated with his inability to deliver to his spouse the comfort and protection she may expect from him, and who retaliated through misogyny and domestic violence: <em>"first of all bitch, I never promised I'd be rich, so fuck you and your wishes, ya need to do the dishes"</em>.</p>
<p>This track was apparently contradictory to the style he is frequently associated with, but Slug had not become suddenly dumb and brutal. No. He just demonstrated, with "Primer", that he could do something else than sharing his personal torments, that he could excel in realist rap as well. He showed with style that he was the smart, complex and dual artist, so many would fail to emulate.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2015/ATMOSPHERE-Overcast#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2317SLUG - Biographyurn:md5:2fd296d2d80a9457f1d215521240c5c62005-12-14T22:59:00+00:002023-04-27T06:37:58+00:00codotusylvBiosMinneapolis–Saint PaulSlug <p>Slug is a prominent rapper in the indie hip-hop network, that started to develop by the end of the 90’s. A model for the fast-growing Midwest underground scene, he defined his own way between backpacker conservatism and the avant-gardism of others. At times introvert and candid, at times harsh and cynical, and a collaborator of many others, he's become a central figure, in the wide world of indie rap.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Portraits/slug.jpg" alt="Slug" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="Slug" /></p>
<p>Slug’s background is as complex as his status in hip-hop. The elder of three sons, Sean Daley was born in 1972, just two weeks after his parents’ wedding, while they were only 19 and 17. Her mother, Valerie, was from the countryside and of Scandinavian descent, while his father, Craig, the son of a black jazz trumpeter and an Irish woman, was a bassist in a Minneapolis funk band called Salt, Pepper & Spice.</p>
<p>Sean grew up with his mother, who married with another man, in a multiracial area in the South of Minneapolis. The kid turned into a hip-hop fan, and his father, expecting him to be less shy, encouraged him to participate to a breakdance contest. By then, hip-hop was only a New-York thing, and the boy followed all trends coming from the Big Apple. He became proud of his black origins, spending time among African Americans and living for a while with his father.</p>
<p>There, at Washburn High School and through a common friend named Derek Turner, Sean met with a hip-hop fan by two years his elder, Siddiq Ali. The three of them decided to form a band and to use aliases starting with "s". Siddiq became Stress, Derek was Spawn and Sean chose Slug. The double-meaning - a small and fragile animal and the bullet of a gun - fitted him perfectly. This new name, also, was said to be an acronym for "Sean Likes Ugly Girls".</p>
<p>But in 1993, Slug was still looking for his way. For a while, he hid behind the turntable, with Spawn as an MC and Stress as a manager, in a band called Urban Atmosphere. The small group that would eventually turn into the Rhymesayers collective started to grow slowly with the arrival of Anthony Davies, Beyond (the future MC Musab), Gene Poole and The Abstract Pack. Slug’s band, now named Atmosphere, changed as well: Spawn left (he would come back as Rek The Heavyweight), the DJ became an MC, and Anthony soon replaced him as ANT. Later, they would be joined on stage by MC Eyedea and DJ Abilities.</p>
<p>Progressively, their many freestyles and performances allowed Atmosphere to find a place in the Twin Cities. And eventually, the local hip-hop scene changed through them.</p>
<p>Just as hip-hop in general, Minneapolis rap was considered a gangsters and violence thing. Controversies happened, like in 1989, with an article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press titled "Bad Rap". But in 1996, Slug, Stress and Beyond made a call, on the national radio, for a more positive hip-hop, freed from major labels, and they asked rappers to defy them. This put Minneapolis on the hip-hop map. Slug’s intimate kind of rap, indeed, was a striking contrast to the usual braggadocios in hip-hop, and a main selling point for <em>Overcast!</em>. Released in 1997, the first Atmosphere album is nowadays considered as a founding classic of indie hip-hop.</p>
<p>By the end of the 90’s, Slug was a major player in underground hip-hop. A complex and contradictory guy, he got associated with opposite rap trends. While some related him to Common or Mos Def’s conscious rap, some others compared him to Eminem, another white underground rapper from the Midwest, by then not connected yet to Dr. Dre.</p>
<p>These two would be compared a few years later, when a hidden track on <em>Overcast!</em>, where Slug simulates an extremely violent and misogynistic dispute with his wife, would be seen as a blueprint to Eminem's own "Kim". Later on, though, afflicted by kids singing the lyrics and taking them for granted, Slug would refuse to play this song on stage.</p>
<p>Contrary to Eminem, Slug continued his career in the underground. One of the key events in his life would be his meeting with Sole from the Live Poets, and with Dose One. By then, these three white guys with an introspective approach to hip-hop discovered what they had in common. They met in a studio on the 26th of June, in 1998, and with the producer Alias, they recorded the core of <em>The Taste of the Rain... Why Kneel?</em> as Deep Puddle Dynamics. This record would be released on Anticon, a new label founded by Sole. Dose, Alias and others would join this new adventure, but Slug would prefer stick to his own way and crew.</p>
<p>In the underground, Slug developed a large following with hip-hop addicts, but also rock fans and, interestingly, many girls. He went on never-ending tours and he frequently featured with other rappers. For example, he collaborated with his friends from Minneapolis and St Paul, and he participated to <em>Float</em>, the third album of another underground hip-hop rising star, Aesop Rock. He also worked to make the Rhymesayers catalogue available at a worldwide scale.</p>
<p>In 2001, after three EP’s and some tour CD and minor projects such as <em>Sad Clown Bad Dub</em>, he released <em>Lucy Ford</em>, the second Atmosphere album, a record focused on his broken relationship with his girlfriend. The next album, <em>God Loves Ugly</em>, tried to close this chapter ("F*@k You Lucy"). It was followed by <em>Seven's Travels</em> in 2003, and <em>You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having</em> earlier this year.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2005/SLUG-Biography#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/701