TAYLOR ENGLE: So, how is the tour going so far?
SLUG: It’s good, it’s organic. All of the shows have been a lot of fun. Service with a smile, you know? We’re just tryna kick it.

I feel that! When you first announced you were going on tour, you hadn’t dropped your new album Whenever yet, and then a week later it was out. What was the reason behind that decision?
We didn’t want anyone to know we had an album yet. We had to announce the tour early so they could start putting tickets on sale, so we just pretended it was based off the last album, Mi Vida Local. But we ended up finishing Whenever so fast, it didn’t make sense to create another three-month promotional cycle around it when I’m literally still doing interviews about Mi Vida Local. Shit, we’re like a gift and a curse to Rhymesayers because we just do whatever, whenever, and we don’t stop. The label is like, fuck, stop giving us music. But I try to let them pace shit how they need to pace it.

When God Loves Ugly was released in 2002, you mentioned in an interview that you were “over-the-hill” at 30-years-old. How do you think this stereotypical age bias in the industry has shifted since?
I think it’s sort of an artist-by-artist situation. For instance, we’ve never put a ton of resources behind our marketing and promoting but our success and relevancy is based on the connection we have with our fan base. Our growth happens through word of mouth. Someone who appreciates us puts their friend onto us, and then their friend gets into it, and the connection to that friend will always be a part of their connection to the music. There’s so much of that going on that, even if we were to disappear from the map, our connectivity would live on. That bond will remain. Like Pink Floyd, I’ve never been a huge fan of their music, but I’ve always respected them because I saw my friends who liked them were just so adamant about trying to convert their friends to like them, too. When you go to a Pink Floyd show, you see the audience treat each other like they’re all one big family. It’s almost like the OG Beyhive was Pink Floyd fans, know what I’m saying? Kids at school who liked Pink Floyd found each other. We have something like that.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. How do you think that relates to mainstream hip-hop?
We’re overlooked by a lot of contemporaries in the world of rap, and we’ve never really been embraced by mainstream. We’re part of the culture, but we’re also alternative to the culture. It was always trendy to hate on us rather than like us, but we capped on that. As long as you’re saying our name, you’re aware. To this day, I meet people and they’re like, “Man, I never gave you a chance. Now that I’ve heard you guys I’m like, why was I sleeping?” I feel like we’ve crossed the line into being a legacy act. I’m not here to trick anyone or beg you to stream my shit like Justin Bieber just did. I don’t care. And I’m not saying that to be edgy; I care about my audience. I just won’t lose sleep over who ain’t fucking with us.

The features on Whenever are a perfect mix of old and new. How did you select who would feature on the album?
Me and Nicky Jean have been trying to figure out how to do a song together forever, and it just hadn’t happened. Actually, she was on a Brother Ali record and it hurt my feelings! I’ve known her since she was like 15 — she used to come to Fifth Element in Minne while I was still working there. I was a grown ass motherfucker trying to sell records, and I was used to dealing with kids asking questions about music and shit, so her coming in and asking questions was normal. Years later, I bumped into her in Philly. She was working at the Electric Factory, making moves with The Roots and I was like, “Holy shit, that was you!” We stayed in touch, always threatening to make a song together, and finally I had the song. Me and Ant have always been a little scared of putting a singer on our tracks because we didn’t want to sound like we’re trying to cross over. That’s how it was in the 2000s — now, there’s no such thing. Art is art. So I finally had a song that I felt could use a singer, instead of the lame ass hook I had. I sent her the track, and she sent me something back within an hour.

For “Dearly Beloved,” I knew I wanted Musab and Muja Messiah on a song where I dropped a bunch of Prince references. And then we got Murs on the track with Gifted Gab and Haphduzn. I had first seen Gab on the TL, and I immediately reached out like, “Yo, you’re fucking dope.” When I first made “Whenever,” it was me and Haphduzn on the track and I reached out to a few people, including Gab. She immediately returned the verse and it was fire, so I put her on. She was the one who suggested we bring in Murs. Murs is my best friend, but I hate working with him. He’s such a pain in the ass.

What does this album mean to you?
Man, I don’t know what this album is. It’s going to take some time to reveal itself to me — most albums do. It requires more than just writing them to understand them. We were actually commissioned to make this record. There was a director and producer from a TV show that came to us saying they wanted us to make a soundtrack for the show. So I wrote the songs with this in mind. Atmosphere, in the past, has typically made music that takes itself a little too seriously. I saw this as an opportunity to make songs that didn’t. I want to say this album sounds French! “Postal Lady,” “Love Each Other,” “Dearly Beloved” — these songs all sound French to me. I don’t know why that is. But anyway, we made them and then the deal fell through. So I said fuck it, let’s put it together and see how this sounds as an album.

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