Atmosphere's Slug Isn't Sure What The Dream Is Anymore... But He's Still Chasing It

I became a little bit of fan-boy when Sean Daley AKA Slug answered my call... By a ‘little bit’ I mean I could have been one of those crazed fans who have actually figured out what flight their favourite artist is on so they can be in arrival with a home-made sign. With 11 studio albums, Atmosphere have most certainly earned their title in the history books. Hell, the duo made the whole state of Minneapolis essential to a retrospective view on American Hip Hop. Composed of producer Ant and Daley behind the mic, we’ve seen countless songs of heartache, love, lust, cryptic symbolism and an introspective exploration of happiness... or possibly sadness. I wanted to find out about the man behind the mask... if it was a mask at all.

“As a kid, I was a huge fan of the music, the culture, the movement, you know?” Daley said.

“And at the time we all rapped, it’s just what you did. Over time though, people grew up and stopped. I never did, I couldn’t because I loved it! I never took it seriously because it was a little hobby, not a career. When people started noticing me and telling me they actually liked what I was saying, that really opened the door for me to start thinking about how I could pursue it.”

One can only imagine what sort of poetic upbringing “little Slugo” (after his father, also named Slugo) had. Was the rapper's life a wrong side of the tracks scenario? Was home life warm and supportive, or, was adolescence as confusing and difficult as we all find it to be? When you recognise you want to be a class clown for example, do you understand why you want to be? Is it because you want to fit in or because you want to stand out?

“To be honest, all that’s going to have to work itself out in therapy someday... I don’t even know! Part of me wanted attention, part of me wanted girls to like me, part of me just wanted to be accepted. I was the skinny little kid (hence ‘little Slugo’). I loved how people looked at me and I’m not sure if that was filling a void… I guess it stems from pain somewhere or a ‘lack’ of something… But I’m aware of that, I know the nature behind comedy and I wanted to make people laugh. I wanted to be good at making people laugh. Man more than anything I didn’t want to have to fight! If you made people laugh, you didn’t get beat up and while that wasn’t a systemic strategy, it’s just how it worked out.

If you’ve ever listened to Atmosphere, I’m sure you too have questioned the hand behind the ink. The mysterious personality and self-deprecating honesty (that Daley portrays in such effortless poetics) must stem from some dark-seeded creative space. His authenticity humanises what could potentially be fabricated reality, exaggerated circumstance or romanticised emotion. In a politically charged (and particularly violent) time in our genre, Daley focussed less on putting others down (battle rap) and more on putting himself down.

“I came up on the scene with battle rap. Of course you put others down but you also have to be funny. In the mid 90’s I learnt that if I put myself down and it was meaner than anything they could say, I already had the advantage. It was a way to disarm my opponents. I wasn’t the first one to do that.... (Another ‘shady’ white rapper came to mind when Slug told me this)... but it also transferred into my song writing. Most of the elements in music that we hold on to, tell us stories or are representative of our personalities. I didn’t want to just rhyme “astral projections” with “gastral infections...” I had to find a way to develop and for me, that was self-deprecating. I don’t do that so much anymore but I still now commit to making sure my spirit and who I am is at the core of the song that I’m writing.”

So often rappers speak about utilising their art-form as an outlet, but I wonder if they run a risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, it’s ok to say for example “...Drink it all the way, numb it down to none/ stay awake tonight and wait for the sun/ you say you hate your life you ain’t the only one...” but it’s completely another thing to actually believe it...

"I don’t want to do anything that’s disingenuous or forced. Even some of my friends don’t like my music anymore and that’s fine. We all grow and change. But when I die, I want to be an example of an artist who allowed himself room to grow and challenge himself in a way that also challenges his core audience - to grow with me."

 In these columns, I’m constantly talking about artists utilising their platform. I believe using fame, following and audience (and more over voice), to normalise preconceived ideas and opinion is crucial in community growth. Individuality is what makes us unique, sure, but sharing the same values in positive development opens an avenue for the next generation (or people less fortunate), to have equal opportunity in having their opinions heard.

“Look, some of our favourite MC’s are still rapping the same shit they’ve been doing for 25 years and that’s cool. Like, some of my favourite MC’s that rapped about selling drugs in the early ‘90s, are still rapping about selling drugs! That’s 30 years of selling drugs dude! If I’m still selling drugs in my 40s someone needs to slap the fuckin’ shit out of me! But in the same breath; even in music that’s violent, negative in content, angry or generally aggressive, when you examine it and look inside of it, you can see the catharsis inside of what they’re writing about. When grown-ups talk about how “rap is just beats and rhymes glorifying drugs and violence…” You’re fucking missing it! That’s not glorifying it, it’s talking about it in a way that’s trying to normalise it so you can understand it’s a normal part of life for a lot of fucking people. By looking through this lens we can see how actually violent life can be. Rap is about trying to figure it all out…”

Slug is no stranger to loss, heart ache and negative parts of life. There’s obviously no magic wand answer to this but I feel like hearing one of the most prolific MC’s opinion on how to write through it can shed some light on these experiences we all go through.

“Just write down the shit you’re feeling! Figure out a way to reconcile it cos here’s the thing; you can always go back and look at it. Whenever you need to re-examine it, it’s there. But even more so other people can see it and THAT, is how we push positivity. Somebody can get something positive out of what you were feeling. Man I don’t know what I’m doing, there’s no plan… I’m just chasing my dream and that dream keeps evolving. You have to keep pushing that dream to make something bigger. I don’t know what the dream is anymore, but I think it’s to go down in the history book not just as a rapper, but as an artist that puts more positivity in the world than negativity, to give people hope. Saying it out loud sounds corny, but I am fucking corny, you know?”

It’s so easy to get lost in someone else’s opinion when they’re creatively passionate. It’s incredible to think only a few paragraphs ago I was talking to Little Slugo about how we made people laugh to avoid being ‘beat up...’

Ok, so if I could get any Australian artist to jam with you, who would you want to play with?

“I’m more apt to finding some cool shit… you know what would be super fuckin' weird? There’s a song called Reckless by Australian Crawl - if I could rap over that? That would be some interesting shit. I don’t want to be obvious… When I heard that track it made me feel like, listening to Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight… Sorry Australian Crawl for comparing you to some corny-ass shit! But that track is what the ‘80s means to me!

After 17 years of Slug narrating my personal escapism, I’ve discovered that artists are just people trying to figure it all out... it’s inspiring to think that hip hop can grow in such an altruistic manner. To be able to laugh at itself, constructively criticise itself yet also know when it’s gone too far… What have you written lately?

Atmosphere is playing with Brother Ali, N’fa Jones and Mr Ruckman this Friday, 3 March at 170 Russell.