In this series, we’ll be making the case for specific rappers to be included in “greatest all-time” discussions. The more obvious choices (such as André 3000, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, 2Pac) will be ignored in favor artists who tend to get overlooked these days, for one reason or another. Previously, our writers have made cases for Pusha T, , , , , and . Today, we’re bringing back the series to pay homage to Slug.
is a rare commodity in hip-hop. Even in our current era when there is generally more everything. Even with the oversaturation hip-hop artists, we’re somehow pretty slim on duos — especially when it comes to duo such as Slug and Ant, where truly, each one plays a distinct role. Slug raps. Ant produces. And that’s it. It’s not to say that this is what makes them avant garde, it’s simply a discernable feature.
For the purpose this argument we will focus solely on Slug. Slug, born Sean Michael Daley in Minneapolis, Minnesota has done more for hip-hop than your average pop-leaning rap fan might have you believe. Slug managed to put Minneapolis on the Rap Map way before it was a thing you could do “at your fingertips”– before the Internet at large could break down geographical borders and spread music instantly. His was the type grassroots push that goes unseen in modern times.
Slug debuted alongside his then-group-collaborator Spawn with the album Overcast! in 1997. While it’s an album he’s gone on to criticize in later years, it’s important nonetheless. By Slug’s own estimation he was trying too hard– but really, what’s wrong with that? For all intents and purposes, Slug is mostly trying to be lyrical, trying to paint a picture, create a scene in the mind’s eye. In the process he was getting more cerebral than many his mainstream contemporaries.
That is one the ways that Slug exhibits his GOAT status. It’s the details he puts into his rhymes and his mastery the English language– he creates allegories and metaphors on a wider scale than the context two bars (think: “Lucy Ford”), which fer a constant throughline in much his music. There are certain metaphors or elements that recur in Atmosphere’s music, and each time, Slug fers the listener another piece the puzzle.
On a song like “Sound Is Vibration” from the debut, the poetic and introspective touch that many his songs are known for is on full display. The song begins with fairytale-esque chimes while Slug’s lyrics add to the feeling: “I’m sparked, waiting for the dark to hit / Cause once the moon gets above my apartment / I catch fits for starting shit”— his own intonation rising with each bar as the beat picks up fervor.
On his underground hit f the same album, “Scapegoat,” Slug details the ails society in a templated manner with a minimal piano-key-driven beat backing his effort. The concept doesn’t make the song any less impactful, yet Slug has been particularly critical his songwriting: “While it did get us booked on mix shows across the country, I felt it was almost a ‘cheating’ style writing. I use the word ‘It’s’ over 50 times. That’s the hook. It’s cheating.” Though slightly masochistic in nature, his constant self-critique and analysis has ultimately allowed for his artistic growth and improvement in the creation songs that fer more depth and variation than “Scapegoat.”
Slug takes the road less travelled when it comes to creating rap music. He’s been able to connect with his fanbase so deeply because he truly reveals himself and his person in a way that a lot rappers simply don’t. He’s also distanced himself from some the rather superficial yet all-too-common tropes, including those centered around materialism. These factors have not only set him apart and created a cult-like following for the underground artist, but they’ve been instrumental in building his independent label, Rhymesayers– and again, let’s be clear that Rhymesayers was founded as an independent label way before (the year was 1995) it became the trend du-jour. It’s also a feat that comes without the major label distribution too, a sort loop-hole we seem to find many “indie” labels doing these days.
As far as the depth instilled in Slug’s pen, one the prevalent metaphors in Slug’s music was this idea Lucy Ford, or Lucifer— sometimes thought to be referring to hip-hop itself, other times his vices such as alcohol, or else, the mother Slug’s child. This theme was woven through out the duo’s discography, from EPs to Atmosphere’s second studio album, God Loves Ugly, with the song “F’@k You Lucy”:
Most this garbage I write that these people seem to like
Is about you and how I let you infect my life
And if they got to know you, I doubt that they would see it
They’d wonder what I showed you, how you could leave it
A friend in Chicago said that I should stay persistent
If I stay around I’m bound to break resistance
Fuck you, Lucy, for defining my existence
Fuck you and your differences
Ever since I was a young lad with a part-time dad
It was hard to find happiness inside what I had
I studied my mother, I digested her pain
And vowed no women on my path would have to walk the same
Whereas someone like might be a wizard with internal rhyming and lyrical acrobatics, one Slug’s best writing qualities is the artful and purposeful nature behind his lyrics. Slug doesn’t just string two bars together and move on to the next two, with ideas unrelated (and this comes back to his own self-affirmed idea that, at the time, he was not just rapping “to string words together.”). Each bar helps to bring a larger picture and a personal affectation into view. His penchant for constant self-reflection (as well as self-deprecation) inevitably leads to growth, too, with the development his family life coming to affect how he viewed his lyrics in retrospect. Slug was about that Dad Rap life before did it. If we’re tracing the lineage, it may go back to just around/after When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (2008). The album that followed would be Family Sign (2011), the album that began to clearly mark a new era in Atmosphere’s music.
Before Slug became the Family Man he is today, he was battling demons like the rest us– and they’re the usual suspects too– alcohol, depression, cigarettes, weed, himself, women. All these vices fueled his early music and created some the darkest, yet most relatable, music he’s released. On a song like “Bird Sings Why Caged I Know” the rapper adopts themes from Maya Angelou (who else??), over a haunting and impactful soul-riddled beat from Ant. It’s here we can really see Slug’s unique writing style — it’s conceptual and rife with interpretation.
It’s the bird, it must have been the bird
Disgusting critter, it must
We should have known better than to trust
This disease-infested ball lust and carnage
Piece garbage with wings and she has the guts to sing
Get the bird, catch her, shoot her, I don’t care
Get the bird, bring her down to the ground from out the air
Got to tear her apart, let me at her first
Sink her to the level the rest us that inhabit the earth
We can’t end a piece like this without highlighting the fan-favourite and perhaps Atmosphere “piece de resistance”, the album namesake “God Loves Ugly.” On the title track the album, the rapper singles out his failings as a man and as an artist, and he fers them to the listener shame-free.
I wear my scars like the rings on a pimp
I live life like the captain a sinking ship
The one thing that I can guarantee
I’m like a stepping razor, I suggest you stay fair with me
Been paying dues for a decade plus
Before that I was just another face on the bus
Tappin’ my foot, to the beat on the radio
Dreaming ’bout the mic and the money and the ladies
Oh mom, I promise I’m gonna be large
Some day I’ma stop trying to borrow your car
Gonna go far, with charisma and skill
Until they put my face on a million dollar bill
Atmosphere, it’s just a ten letter word
Discretion is the name my cement-feathered bird
And if you didn’t hear, then fuck what others heard
Bars like “Discretion is the name my cement-feathered bird” are among Slug’s defining lyrical features, in the sense that they sound cool as fuck on surface level, but they also require some unpacking. It’s the perfect example how Slug’s lyrics are ten the intersection between art and personal life and the crises therein. It’s lty for the average rapper, yet for Slug, it might be a throw-away bar. It’s exactly this type writing, though, that has proven Slug’s GOAT status as an MC constantly throughout his career, and why his flowers are due.