In praise of late period Soulja Slim.
When people talk about Soulja Slim, his first album, “give it 2 em raw”, often seems to stand as his best one. Of course there’s some reasons : it’s a pretty good album, from no limit’s best-connected-to-the-new-orleans-audience artist, released at the time of the label’s commercial peak and it’s definitely part of the no limit canon. But that’s where the shoe pinches, it’s a no limit thing, filled with all those unnecessary features, leaving the main rapper as a kind of a promotional tool for the label. On the other hand, “The streets made me” & “Years later… a few months after” are, in my opinion, the best ways to get into Soulja Slim’s universe. The production on both records is handled by talented producers little known outside of N.O. supplying Slim with that characteristic post-bounce syncopated funk with all those unusual sounds used to emphasize rhythm. In these conditions, Slim really gets the chance to fully develop his own personality on both albums. He bleeds the streets of new orleans through his music. I have this feeling that , like Pac before him and Boosie after him, he’s one of the few rappers with this ability to translate his self-proclaimed realness into a sort of extremely important emotional statement that gives courage to live through the difficulties of impoverished neighborhoods, and makes you believe in it. He does all this with his N.O. accent and versatile flow where he’s playing with the rhythm, going off beat for a few seconds and back on it with ease. He’s a great rapper in every sense of the word, so if you’ve got the slightest interest in unique and personal rap music, you have to hear both these albums.
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