Daniel Krow, blogger for The Party’s Crashing Us added an entry on the rapper Slug. It’s very good and respectful while still addressing the white, indie rapper’s “problematic” relationship with rap. I particularly like the part where he says Slug wants to be a singer-songwriter. It was a good choice because I don’t want the “dictionary” to reflect my views and biases but sort of be messy and contradictory. If I wrote all of it or forced the rappers that got entries, the whole thing would be predictable.
The first time I really listened to Slug, I felt unclean. An unspoken rule when rapping about partying and casual sex is that you keep it light and bawdy, celebrating all the transitory pleasures of getting drunk off your ass and hooking up with a stranger while cutting away right before things get weird and complicated. Slug doesn’t follow this rule. His rhymes are full of blackouts, hangovers, and hateful glances from girls he barely knows. The world of Slug’s rhymes is messy and ugly and often without redemption, mostly because Slug’s attempts at uplift sound like a junkie swearing he’s going to quit drugs, get a job, get married, etc, even though the idea of those things were what made him start using in the first place…
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