2Slimey isn’t here to be a meme artist: ‘I want a fucking Grammy’

Earlier this year, I stumbled across a guide to mixing underground rap on YouTube. The entire video was dedicated to recreating the sort of clipped distortion that most people would consider bad practice. But this is no accident. Music sounding like an Italian brainrot meme is now a highly sought-after aesthetic, with speaker-shattering distortion becoming pretty much the only defining trait of the UK and US’ emerging Ug (read: underground) rap scenes today. And taking this musical maximalism further than anyone is one artist in particular: Oakland-born, LA-based rapper 2Slimey.

You’ve likely heard his name already – Lil Uzi Vert called him his favourite underground artist at the moment, Frost Children’s Lulu urged us to burn his music with fire, and Pitchfork ran an entire staff roundtable about his sound. Suffice to say, 2Slimey’s music is controversial: he boosts his bass beyond distortion, his sugar-coated melody lines clatter like coins in an arcade, and, aside from the odd expletive, his lyrics are unintelligible. It’s like Young Thug meets Candy Crush Saga or, more bluntly, the heat death of the universe, but 2Slimey isn’t here to be pigeonholed as a meme artist.

Contrary to the chaotic impression I’d got from his music, 2Slimey is surprisingly lucid in conversation. He’s not a minute late to our 9am interview slot (apparently, he’s “always up early”), and tells me that he writes his lyrics while listening to Italian jazz and hiking through the mountains around LA. His controversial sound, meanwhile, has been the product of a series of careful innovations. “I used to rap on that lyrical boom bap, Joey Badass, Pro Era-type shit,” the 20-year-old rapper explains, laughing. But it was the murky sounds of late SoundCloud star XXXTentacion and Playboi Carti’s 2018 rage rap manifesto Die Lit that inspired 2Slimey to begin his own experiments with the dark arts of distortion. “It was more of a gradual transition, but Die Lit was one of the points that really shifted my sound.” 

While Carti might have been the departure point for a lot of underground artists today, rage started to undergo a metamorphosis in the hands of 2Slimey and fellow US rappers Che, Osamason and Slayr. Songs like 2Slimey’s explosively hyperactive “Legion” or Che’s outright demonic-sounding “Promoting Violence” sit far closer to noise music and now make Carti seem tame by comparison. “I feel like rage is too bland of a description for my sound, to be honest,” 2Slimey reflects, grasping for an adjective more emotional than ‘rage’. “I consider my music more ‘controlled chaos’, if that makes sense.” 

2Slimey is aware of the heated discourse his music has stirred up in recent months, but he’s trying to not let it distract from his vision. “I be peeping the love, but I tend to stay away from the internet and especially Twitter nowadays,” he tells me. “There’s a whole lot of hate, and the more you read, the more you fall into the fucking void. I know there are haters out there that consider me a quote-unquote ‘meme artist’, which I’m obviously not.”

Below, breakout Ug rap star 2Slimey unpacks the unlikely origins of his controversial sound, from childhood struggles with anxiety to mountain hikes listening to jazz music. 

Where did the name 2Slimey come from?

2Slimey: My first rap name was GGS and that literally had no meaning. So, I had to rebrand. I had a big group of friends and, you know how it goes, not everyone’s a friend. I had to cut some people. I had to get too slimey, if that makes sense. 

What attracted you to these more maximalist and distorted sounds? 

2Slimey: For me, it’s the raw energy. It’s just like the hardcore punk, fast-paced shit. It’s like an adrenaline rush. Some shit that makes me feel free. 

How do you go about finding beats?

2Slimey: I have a few trusted producers. One’s from Belgium, vlor, and the two are from overseas. I forget where they’re from. I have people in the circle who I fuck with specifically. Vlor’s the main one, and he reached out to me. I feel like he knew what I was going for and just took it to the next level. We fuse together really well. 

Much of this new Ug rap wave has taken form on the internet. Did you grow up spending a lot of time online?

2Slimey: Yeah, I was chronically online growing up, especially during that 2016 era, [Playboi] Carti, [Lil] Peep, X[XXTentacion] era.  

What do you think is special about this new wave of artists? 

2Slimey: Back then, people were hating on what Uzi and Carti were doing; they considered it ‘mumble rap’. Now, we’re like ten times that. If you showed someone in 2016 this type of music, they’d lose their mind, because they were already losing their mind over that, you know what I mean? What’s going on now is a big movement. People gonna look back and remember this era for sure. 

How would you explain your music to someone of an older generation?

2Slimey: I’d say it’s like concert music. It’s meant for the show. It’s meant for performance. It’s a mix of EDM, punk and rap. 

Your last two albums are named High Anxiety and More Anxiety. What do these names mean to you?

2Slimey: I still deal with anxiety sometimes. Growing up, I had anxiety. Funnily enough, even during school, I never liked presenting to classes, but now I’m out here doing shows in front of thousands of people. But, with High Anxiety, or when you put 2Slimey on, you never know what to expect. It’s like you’re on the edge, anxiety. That’s the concept of the name. 

But it also ties back to my personal issues. On More Anxiety, it ends with ‘Legion’, which is like my realisation of the anxiety I’ve been dealing with, and I’m on the comedown. That’s why there’s the orchestra at the end, it’s a lot more quote, unquote dumbed down, more digestible. If you compare More Anxiety to High Anxiety, it’s definitely more digestible than the original project.

If you got anxiety, throw on High Anxiety, you’re gonna release all them emotions out.

Do you think music has helped with your anxiety? 

2Slimey: Damn, it’s 50-50. I feel like sometimes I’ll be catching myself getting anxious, but then I turn it into adrenaline, like at a show. Nowadays, I use my anxiety for positive things. 

I don’t think a doctor would recommend your music to a patient with anxiety. Does your music help you calm down? 

2Slimey: Hell yeah. If you got anxiety, throw on High Anxiety, you’re gonna release all them emotions out. By the time you’re done with the full project, you’ll be feeling good. The juices are flowing.

Was being a rapper always your goal? 

2Slimey: Music was always my first passion. I took a break for two years and it felt like an empty void. My mom played the saxophone and I used to play the piano, the trumpet and the guitar. It’s been a while, though.

Where do you take inspiration from?

2Slimey: Lately, I’ve been going to the mountains in LA just to look at the views. I’ve been playing a lot of jazz, Italian jazz. I’ll be vibing and have a clear mind. It helps new thoughts spark up. Just some really calm shit.

Do you think there’s any connection between your music and jazz?

2Slimey: Mainly, the creativity. They might be the complete opposite, but you find peace in both. Yeah, my music is chaos, but you listen to it to escape from the world. There’s so much shit going on nowadays and, when you throw on 2Slimey, you forget about everything. You feel free. 

What’s your end goal in music? 

2Slimey: My end goal is to go really mainstream. Like selling out arenas, awesome shit like that. I want a fucking Grammy. Dead ass.