Slug (rapper)

Slug

Slug in 2012
Background information
Birth name Sean Michael Daley
Born (1972-09-07) September 7, 1972
Origin Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Genres Hip hop
Occupation(s) Rapper
Years active 1989–present
Labels Rhymesayers Entertainment (Present)
Warner Music Group (2007-)
Epitaph
Fat Beats
Women Records
Associated acts Atmosphere, Felt, The Dynospectrum, Deep Puddle Dynamics, Aesop Rock, Eyedea, Brother Ali
Website Webpage
Facebook page

Sean Michael Daley (born September 7, 1972), better known by his stage name Slug, is an American rapper from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Slug is best known as one half of the hip hop group Atmosphere, which he founded with Derek Turner (Spawn). Turner has since left and Anthony Davis (Ant) produces Atmosphere with Slug. In 1995, Slug, in collaboration with Anthony Davis, Musab Saad, and Brent Sayers founded the Minneapolis based independent hip hop record label Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Biography

Slug was born Sean Michael Daley in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on September 7, 1972. The son of Valerie and Craig Daley, he is of Irish, Norwegian, African-American and Native American descent.[1] He is currently married to Jessica Daley and has three children. [2] Slug's nickname comes from his father's; his dad was known to his friends as "Sluggo" and thus they began to call Sean "little Sluggo," which he shortened to "Slug".[3] Before fully establishing himself as an official artist, Daley spent much time making music with fellow Minnesota rapper Nic Lehnertz. The two worked on projects together, and Daley recognizes Lehnertz as a contributing factor to his success. Lehnertz quit rapping after high school, while Daley went on to pursue a professional career. In Atmosphere's early years, Slug DJ'd behind the scenes and let Spawn handle lyrics. The group eventually formed a strong relationship with Ant (Anthony Davis) and began collaborating on music. Along with solo MC Sab the Artist (then Beyond), and groups Black hole, Phull Surkle, and the Abstract Pack they formed the mid-1990s crew Headshots, with Slug appearing on the underground tape series HeadShots (1-7).

Another notable project of Slug's is Felt, a collaboration with his friend, another underground rapper, MURS. Other projects he has been a part of include The Dynospectrum, in which he was known as "Sep Se7en", and Deep Puddle Dynamics. He is a member of a loose collective known as The Orphanage, along with Aesop Rock, Sage Francis, Eyedea and Greenhouse.

In 2005, Slug and MURS started up Women Records, a record label through which they would release the albums of rock bands that they were friends with. The label was set up as an imprint through Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Lyrical themes

A prominent theme in lyrics is his allegorical usage of women, especially in his earlier work. A notable use of women by Slug is in the song "Woman with the Tattooed Hands", which Slug has said is "a metaphor for that same stuff that everybody has already made songs about".[4] Further uses come in the form of the song "Abusing of the Rib" from Headshots: SE7EN: it has been said that the "lover" that Slug speaks of is actually an allegory for hip-hop.

A character Slug refers to as "Lucy", who has been purported to symbolize a range of different entities, is the most notable of these allegories. In earlier Atmosphere songs, it is believed that Slug used Lucy as a means of writing about ex-girlfriends. Lucy became so prominent that Atmosphere's 2001 album bore her name, Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs, with the record itself concentrating fairly heavily on women and relationships, in songs such as "Don't Ever Fucking Question That" and "Mama Had A Baby And His Head Popped Off". Slug himself has since said of Lucy that he originally believed "her" to be a representation of the dichotomy between himself and women. He acknowledges now that Lucy became a demonization ("Lucy Ford" being a play on words for Lucifer) of himself and his dependency on alcohol, drugs, sex and validation.[5]

Slug raps in an introspective style, as seen on the song "Little Man", in which he confronts the complaints that people have about him by looking at his relationship with his father and son.[6] This introspective style has become less prevalent as of Atmosphere's 2008 album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold in which Slug navigates through other people's lives.[6] Slug has stated that in and around the year of 2005, he began to move in a new direction lyrically as he became more aware of the effect his lyrics would have on kids, especially his own son who was becoming a teenager at the time.[7]

Slug also dislikes some of the songs that he wrote before and does not perform them live, such as "Vampires" from 2002 album God Loves Ugly.[8] Daley has stated: "[...] when I did get my phase of trying to figure myself out, there was a lot of tug-of-war inside of me between wanting to hate a particular woman and then feeling guilty about that. And there’s certain songs that I won’t perform anymore, because the game of tug-of-war is over and I know where I’m at.[9] Furthermore, Slug has criticised Atmosphere's debut album Overcast! saying: "It's obvious that I’m trying so fucking hard on Overcast and you can see through it and tell it's not a person it's more of an attempt at trying to fill the niche, it was like I was trying to prove to myself that I was a rapper."[6]

Discography

Atmosphere

Studio Albums

EPs

Felt

Deep Puddle Dynamics

Dynospectrum

Musical collaborations

Song Album Artist Year Label
"B.L.A.K. Culture" and "Unaligned Sperms" Comparison Beyond 1996 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Pea King" Hank Mobley's Sound of Love Casino Royale 1996 Anal Log Music
"I'll Be OK" Float Aesop Rock 1999 Mush Records
"Never" World Premier Unknown Prophets 2000 Unknown Prophets
"Slug & Sage Freestyle parts I & II" Still Sick... Urine Trouble Sage Francis 2000 Strange Famous Records
"Atmosphere Exclusive" For Persons With DJ Abilities DJ Abilities 2000 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Frisbee" P.A.I.N.T. Abstract Rude 2001 Battle Axe Records
"Forget Me" The Many Faces of Oliver Hart Eyedea 2001 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Night Prowler" and "Nothing Less" Almost Famous Living Legends 2001 Legendary Music
"Uncle Sam" Second Nature All Natural 2001 All Natural Inc.
"Days Grow Old", "Orphanage Freestyle Parts 1 & 2" Sick Of Waiting Tables Sage Francis 2001 Strange Famous Records
"Put Your Quarter Up" Ritual of the Molemen Molemen 2001 Molemen Records
"Global" The Opening The Planets 2002 Red Sea Entertainment
"In Regrets" Small Steps Heiruspecs 2002 Interlock
"Gotta Love 'Em" Search And Rescue DJ Murge 2002 Battle Axe Records
"Lambslaughter" Madman (single) Prime 2002 Molemen Records
"Embarrassed" Sick Of Waging War Sage Francis 2002 Strange Famous Records
"Unsatisfied and Fuck Heros" Luckiam.PSC Eligh 2002 Living Legends
"Edie Brikell" USSR: The Art of Listening DJ Vadim 2002 Ninja Tune
"Blah Blah Blah" and "Missing Teeth" Shadows on the Sun Brother Ali 2003 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Fallen" The Darkest Cloud Vakill 2003 Molemen Records
"Sex And More" Phobia Of Doors 12 Fred Ones 2004 Traffic Entertainment Group
"The Great Debate" Fahrenheit 69 Blowfly 2004 Alternative Tentacles
"Doomage" Sickly Business Sage Francis 2004 Strange Famous Records
"Hold Mine" Vitamins & Minerals (EP) Blueprint 2004 Weightless Recordings
"(Even) More Human Than Human" Revolutions X-Ecutioners 2004 Sony Records
"You're A Bitch Too" You're A Bitch Too (single) D-Tension 2005 Brick Records
"Track 05" Block in the Box (promo CD) Blockhead 2005
"My Alien Girlfriend" Killing Fields Molemen 2006 Molemen Records
"Bleeding Hearts Club (MPLS Chapter)" and "Bush League Psyche-Out Stuff" Audition P.O.S 2006 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Moving At The Speed Of Life" Legendary Music Vol. 1 Living Legends 2006 Legendary Music
"The League of Extraordinary Nobodies" I'll Sleep When You're Dead El-P 2007 Definitive Jux
"Line Of Scrimmage" The Weatherman LP Evidence 2007 ABB Records
"The Office" Bloody Radio Grayskul 2007 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Dance With Me" Sweep the Leg Hangar 18 2007
"Don't Leave (When the Winter Comes)" Strange Journey Volume One CunninLynguists 2009 QN5 Music
"We Made It" Survival Skills Krs-One and Buckshot 2009
"Supervillainz" Born Like This DOOM 2009 Lex
"!BOOM!" SAY G&E The Grouch & Eligh 2009 Legendary Music
"In Your Soul" Who the F@%k Are You? C-Rayz Walz 2009 Definitive Jux Records
"Work" Picking Flowers Next to Road Kill Kristoff Krane 2010
"Buzzkill" Girls Like Me Intuition 2010 Hellfyre Club
"Hip-Hop" Everything's A Gamble Vol. 2 King Magnetic 2010 King Mag Music/Fat Beats
"Late For The Sky" Cats & Dogs Evidence 2011 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Swimming" Kaiser Von Powderhorn 3 PROF 2013 Stophouse Music Group
"Astronauts" Winter and the Wolves Grieves 2014 Rhymesayers Entertainment
"Fun-eral" Have a Nice Life Murs 2015 Strange Music [10]
"Tree of Life" n/a Logic 2015 Soundcloud [11]

References

  1. ↑ "Rhyme out of joint". City Pages. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  2. ↑ "Atmosphere Interview".
  3. ↑ "Atmosphere Interview - One on One". Concertlivewire.com. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  4. ↑ MVRemix. "Slug (Atmosphere) Interview | MVRemix Urban". Mvremix.com. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  5. ↑ Sarah Marie Pittman (2009-02-24). "Atmosphere’s Slug Gets Real About Lucy Ford | Pollstar - The Concert Hotwire". Pollstar. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  6. 1 2 3 "Interview: Slug of Atmosphere". 4twk.com. 2008-10-20. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  7. ↑ http://frequency.blogs.bendbulletin.com/2010/09/20/turning-the-page-slug-on-atmospheres-new-babies-new-music/
  8. ↑ Gillespie, Blake. "Minneapolis is Rhymesayers | Longtail". Impose Magazine. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  9. ↑ "Atmosphere: More than a Feeling". XLR8R. 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  10. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lozR9Qx9rDA
  11. ↑ http://theboombox.com/logic-slug-killer-mike-tree-of-life/

External links

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