Rap Kumite 10
Evidence vs. Slug. Rap Kumite 10.
Kicking things off, it’s a track-for-track battle between two indie-hop legends.
I took my 20 favorite rappers and put them in head-to-head matchups to battle for their rank in Rap Kumite. This is Rap Kumite 10.
The first MCs to step to the mic for Rap Kumite, Evidence and Slug, aren’t rappers cut from the same cloth, but these two dudes have a lot in common. They’re premier indie rappers who’ve been making music for more than two decades, and they broke through the surface of the underground to briefly snatch a slice of commercial limelight. They have the skills to craft narrative tracks that examine atypical themes in hip-hop—vulnerability in the wake of loss, the blue-collar grind, addiction—while still making tracks in the vein of what’s more “traditional” for the genre. The comps between them continue.
Evidence is one-third of Dilated Peoples; Slug is one-third of Felt.
Evidence and produce/rapper The Alchemist form the hip-hop duo Step Brothers; Slug and producer Ant are hip-hop duo Atmosphere.
Ev and Slug have collaborated on several tracks together, and they’re on the same record label (Rhymesayers. Shout out to that label for hanging around this long and still putting out dope shit).
You get where I’m going with this? Lots of similarities, but not the same.
Slug and Ant of Atmosphere.
Slug
“I know a guy with a rockstar life, but he still don’t fly, so he’s mad at the sky.”
Slug writes from places that I’ve visited in my own life. I discovered him when God Loves Ugly dropped 20 years ago. Back then, the way he saw himself and viewed his relationships with women (or perhaps one woman, depending on your “Lucy” perspective), he might as well have been rapping about the relationship I had with my own version of Lucy. At that point in my life, I’d been listening to hip-hop for around a decade, ever since the 4th grade when Nino on my Little League team played “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” in his dad’s truck after practice one night. That was the spring of 1992, hitting the prime Golden Era of Hip-Hop. How many dope hip-hop albums came out in the decade between The Chronic and God Loves Ugly? Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Still, with all the exceptional music that came out in that 10-year stretch, I hadn’t heard anything like Atmosphere before, and I hadn’t heard a rapper like Slug rap about the shit he rapped about until God Loves Ugly. Ironically, dude had me hooked the first time I heard “God’s Bathroom Floor”. Slug’s at his best when he is rapping about the day-to-day struggle, his own or anyone else’s.
He flexes skill in turning his observations into songs. This isn’t anything new in rap music; many great rappers share this skill, and many have used it to illustrate what they’ve seen happen around them or to them. Evidence does it, too. In Slug’s early years as a rapper, he was more introspective, but in the late 2000s, his perspective shifted a little more toward rapping from a third-person perspective, and his content shifted to focus on other people’s struggles. I’m thinking When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. That album is the point in his discography when his lyrics pivoted away from self-reflective lamentations to Studs Terkel-esque prose.
Slug has taken us on this ride for a minute, and he’s been incredible at it. Hard for me to not consider him a top 10 rapper in my book.
Favorite Track
I wrestled between “Trying To Find A Balance”, “Puppets”, “Little Man”, “Painting”, and “The Loser Wins”, but went with “God’s Bathroom Floor” because it was the first Atmosphere song I loved.
Slug’s lyrics are often vague, or maybe it’s better to say that they’re not often straightforward, leaving a lot open to interpretation. I know that Slug wrote “God’s Bathroom Floor” during a period of his life when he was “self-destructive”. That’s about as much as he’ll give us when pressed on its meaning. The track sounds like someone making a desperate last stand in a battle they know they won’t win.
Evidence in a session.
Evidence
“The lazy flow, spit quick, arrive slow (don’t hate’) the live show.”
Where Slug has spent his career bloodletting with introspective raps or voicing narratives that focus on blue-collar America, Evidence built his career on a more lyrically traditional hip-hop foundation, at least on the surface. Growing up in L.A. (Venice Beach, specifically) no doubt shapes Ev’s “street conscious” style. On his albums, Ev’s never fronted; he’s never gone from “Nas” to “Esco”, but he’s invoked the spirit of those Golden Era rappers who influenced him, especially early in his career with Dilated Peoples.
He’s a rappers rapper, and he flexed that on those records, but he’s explored deeply personal shit and put it on record with incredible effect. Tracks, like “I Still Love You”, a song he wrote about his relationship with his mother after she passed away, and “By My Side Too”, a track he wrote for his girlfriend (and son’s mother) as she battled breast cancer, a fight she ultimately lost, are examples of the type of candor that isn’t allowed on commercial tracks, but it’s made Ev an indie rap legend.
His recent work is a tectonic shift in content and delivery. Weather or Not and Unlearn sound like Evidence let himself go, writing from Michael Perretta’s perspective and speaking with his voice instead. It still sounds like “hip-hop”, though. Maybe it’s not the corner cypher style that Ev previously rocked; it’s more authentic. Don’t take this for weakness though; Ev’s already warned you about that, and “Mr. Slow Flow” can still spit razor blades.
Favorite Track
“Runners” is a favorite. Ev and Defari have a longstanding L.A. connection, and while things didn’t pan out for his solo career, Defari has some dope features, and this is one of them. “I Know”, “Powder Cocaine”, “LetYourselfGo”, “Chase The Clouds Away”, “Unlearning”, and “Pardon Me” could hold this spot.
Ev has bars on this track, in both verses. He’d already won me over as soon as the beat dropped, but when he spit, “I’m from a big city called you make it or you OD/Runners up don’t get the trophy/We missing Kobe,” it was a wrap. Game over.
There can only be ONE!
Styles matter in fighting, and style matters in hip-hop. My criteria for victory in Rap Kumite is simple: Whose style do I like more?
Evidence
I like the way he puts together his introspective raps, plus he reps L.A. Slight hometown bias, but thems the breaks. Ev’s music has West Coast style and backpack rap substance.
Congratulations! The prize is a special place in my heart.
RAP KUMITE CHAMPS
10. Evidence
Next up: The Wu-Tang master of the liquid sword vs. the king of avant-garde underground rhymes in Rap Kumite 9.
