Rapper Slug is one of the founding members of the emotionally charged underground hip hop group Atmosphere. DJ/Producer Anthony Davis, Ant, guitarist Nate Collis and keyboard player Eric Anderson form the rest of what is now known as Atmosphere. After taking a year long hiatus from touring the group decided to put out some more music for the fans. On September 7, Slug’s birthday, they released the double EP To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy.
“We knew our next record was going to come out in the spring, like our next real record,” says Slug. “We wanted to do something that wasn’t going to be considered a real record, just music. But I think that happens to us on a regular basis. We start to get neurotic about not having new material out there for people to (pause) hate.”
The music on To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy was inspired by a photo book coming out this fall called Seven Years on The Road with Atmosphere by photographer Dan Monick. Dan asked the group to put together a set of songs for a 10-inch record to go with the book and the six songs for the EP turned into an entire album that spawned the current tour.
“We were just due for another tour, I mean we took a year off to go make babies and to make music,” says Slug. “Since I started touring this is the first time I ever really had a full year to stay off the road and I wanted to take another year off, but it was too late, the tour was already booked. I just wanted to stay home and keep makin’ more music.”
On tour with Atmosphere are Grieves and Budo from Seattle, Blueprint from Columbus, and DJ Raregroves from Cincinnati who are all a part of the Rhymesayers crew. Slug along with his partner Siddiq, Brent Sayers, make up the bedrock of the do-it-yourself hip hop empire that is Rhymesayers Entertainment. Through a series of baby steps, common sense, and an incredible work ethic the independent label has become a driving force in the underground hip hop world.
“There’s such a family way that we did things (in Rhymesayers) where we stayed true to each other and stayed true to this unified goal,” says Slug. “In the long run, I think there’s something to be said for that for people who have similar goals. I feel like we did things the way that history never even had an example of. We didn’t do things the business way. I want to learn how to take the things we did with Rhymesayers and apply them to everything else in my life, even like fixing the exterior of my house. I wanna do it the Rhymesayers way. Common sense, baby steps, get it done, so I can step back and be like ‘ah, look what I did’.”
Slug has an incredible air of humility about him that only someone with his grassroots background could possess. He grew up in south Minneapolis and is firmly planted there now and forever. Slug is “every man” and the essence of good, hard working people is exactly what he pours into every song he makes. When you listen to songs like ‘The Best Day’ and ‘Freefallin’ on the To All My Friends album you can easily picture Sean Daley (Slug) as the guy next door or your quirky co-worker.
Having grown up in a working class American family in the same neighborhood that he lives in now, Slug describes himself as “common.” Both his parents worked in a factory and got divorced when he was 11 years old. His childhood was magical and tragic all at the same time.
“Being from south Minneapolis in a neighborhood that grabbed on to hip hop music in the early 80’s, I think all of the kids in my neighborhood were affected,” says Slug. “It was a neighborhood thing. We all had to submit to it, it was like a gang…hip hop was like our gang. I just happen to be one of the ones that still, at 38-years-old, listens to it much less makes hip hop music.”
Music is a big part of the Daley household because everybody in the house appreciates it. Even the new baby knows that he loves music.
“Aside from family and friends I’m not sure what’s meaningful to me anymore besides music,” says Slug. “I don’t have any hobbies anymore. I don’t even care about collecting records anymore even though I’ve got a huge record collection. I’ve been collecting music and spending all of my time and energy on music since I was 11. But now that it’s become like a career there’s so much more thought put into it than just being an advocate or a fan of music that it kind of consumes everything.”
Atmosphere has a cult following of fans who have become like family over the last ten years. The tour stops for the “To All My Friends” tour were focused on some mid-western towns and some smaller west coast towns. Serving as a dedication to cities that have always been there for Atmosphere even when nobody in the major markets cared about them. This tour was really focused on the cities where they built their original friendships.
“I see a lot of familiar faces at the shows, but I’ve seen them get older now,” says Slug. “I’ve seen some of these faces for eight years and then there’s always some new faces too.”
Many people have pulled strength from Slug’s raw and penetrating lyrics to get them through troublesome times in life. There is a humanness that is effortlessly portrayed in the stories he tells with a backbone of palpable earthy beats fine-tuned by Ant, Nate and Eric. This combination produces some of the most innovative underground hip hop that is currently out there.
“I think that some kids might grab on to songs just like all of us as kids did,” says Slug. “We grabbed on to certain songs and they helped us get through some of the tough times when I was a kid. I think now that I’m on this side of the dichotomy, I kind of look at it like, it’s not really me that helped you…you helped you. You just put a few things in your pocket to take with you. A song, a book, a scene from a movie, but at the end of the day it was you that did it.”
Slug has infused the lyrics of Atmosphere songs with many different messages and themes over the years. Right now his focus is mainly a familial one with an emphasis on new life. He has a very interesting theory on how we can save the planet.
“I don’t know if I have one message because it changes. It changes every week, month, I don’t know,” says Slug. “Like right now my message is that people should go make kids especially if they consider themselves to be smarter than the average bear. There’s all this worry about ruining the planet and destroying it or whatever. We’re not really worried about ruining the planet, the planet is gonna be there. We’re just killing the ability for our species to exist on this planet, I mean lets be real. I think the best thing that we can do to ensure the existence of our species is to balance out all the idiots who are having children by making sure some of the smart people have kids too. So I’m gonna get married and have like eight more children, if I can afford it.”
His son Jacob has played an important roll in his song writing throughout his career. Helping Slug to steer clear of subjects that are often approached in mainstream rap like “bitches” and “sellin’ drugs.” Jacob is now 16-years-old and his life has been a strong influence in the more emotional lyrics that Slug writes.
“Jacob is a fan of music and he’s gonna discern what he thinks is good or not,” says Slug. “I’m tryin’ to quietly actively play a role in that without pushing anything on him, but I have to live by example. So that’s why I rap about the shit I rap about, because I have kids.”
Being in his late thirties and a father of two, Slug is no stranger to the strains of living a full life. You may think that limp in his step is just his swagger, but he really does have some lower back pain to contend with. Just like all of us when we start to rack up the years.
“When I’m on stage, I guess it’s adrenaline,” says Slug. “But any headache, hip pain, lower back ache, ankle pain…it all goes away. It’s like the healer of all ailments and it’s just a lot of fun. I like to see people smile and put their hands in the air.”
Slug finds a fountain of youth in his onstage performance. A feeling that he can’t get anywhere else. There is a definite progression in his lyrics that seems to be directly linked to his maturity.
“I think my music has become more direct and straight forward,” says Slug. “I’m really trying to communicate points. I’m not as ambiguous as I used to be and a lot of that is based off of the fact that I’m getting older and hopefully wiser and trying to live by example.”
The album To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy is peppered with conflict and cynical views on friendship. The song ‘The Major Leagues’ depicts a dream lost and traded for a life of drug addiction from the perspective of a helpless friend. While ‘The Loser Wins’ speaks freely about gettin’ burned by a friend and cutting ties, no second chances. It makes you curious about what kind of company Slug keeps.
“Most of the songs I do are generally inspired by a handful of experiences that I’ll take and meld into one story in order to create one point,” says Slug. “The negative tracks are from the 10-inch called ‘Blood Makes The Blade Holy’, we tried to be clever with that. My friend circle is like four people. It’s very tight knit, very close.”
Slug will continue to mold his experiences into new lyrics and produce music with the Atmosphere crew for as long as he possibly can. While he doesn’t know what the future holds for hip hop or Atmosphere he certainly plans to stick around.
“I’ve never really had an idea of what the music should look like in the future for us,” says Slug. “It’s kind of been a learn as you go experience. I think with the music that we write, record, and make, a big part of it is that we all are looking for growth out of each other. And a lot of times that growth might not even be synonymous with the growth of the culture or where raps is going or where music is going. It’s more so just growth that we’re trying to identify and acknowledge in each other just within the friendship. I think that’s kind of been our thing for a while and I would say…so far so good.”
Show at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, CA September 29:
