Sy ShacklefordArtists: Slaine -vs- Termanology
Album Title: Anti-Hero
Label: ST Records/Brick Records
Release Date: October 6th, 2017
Producers: Statik Selektah, DJ Premier, Evidence, Psycho Les,
DC the MIDI Alien, et. al.
Very few know this, but these two hardcore emcees from Boston’s underground hip-hop scene didn’t like each other for the longest time. It would be years before their paths crossed, but the dislike stemmed from comparative talk: “Slaine is better on the mic”; “Termanology would murder Slaine”; thus and so. One thing the two had in common which ultimately brought them face-to-face? Statik Selektah. The DJ/beatsmith is also Boston-based and had released separate collaborative records between the two and finally connected them together. In 2017, this union came to fruition with a who’s-who assortment of east coast beatmakers in the form of “Anti-Hero”. With the album cover inspired by “Face/Off” (1997), it shows the dichotomy of the two Massachusetts-bred emcees: Term being a younger student of the rap game who’s honed a raw style into his own; Slaine being the older emcee whose checkered past of substance abuse gave rise to his vicious rap persona. Even the album title holds its own dichotomy: On one hand, an “Anti-Hero” is one who’s essentially a jerk with a heart of gold. On the other, it may refer to Slaine’s road to sobriety which he’s been up-front about for quite a while now.
For the music, the album kicks off with the piano driven boom-bap of The Arciptype’s “Still Here”. Twenty seconds later, the rapper born George Carroll declares “Slaine is dead” before engaging in a lyrical assault. Termanology comes in next with own his brand of lyrical onslaught, and both emcees making it clear that despite being (mind you, this is a line from Nas) “fucked over, left for dead, dissed, and forgotten.” Dilated Peoples emcee/producer Evidence laces “Life of a Drug Addict”, which has Term and Slaine rhyming respectively as an admonishing authority figure and the titular addict. With Slaine’s history, he gives a detailed first-person perspective to addiction. Statik Selektah’s “Some Other Shit” features a verse from Madchild and DJ Revolution on the one and two’s providing the record scratching. The single “Anti-Hero” reunites Slaine with fellow Coka Nostra member Everlast and features a fierce verse by Bun B., all over DJ Premier’s aggressive production:
Slaine and Term take it from Boston to Brooklyn on “Apocalypse” as they enlist BK rappers Nems and Non-Phixion’s Ill Bill. Boston-based producer Billy Loman’s production here evokes “Nightmare on Elm Street vibes. “Bringing Much Terror” (Prod. by Psycho Les from the Beatnuts) feels like a lyrical crescendo that grows in ferocity with each verse: First Term, then Slaine, and finally Chris Rivers. The next two tracks are Statik Seletktah productions: “Blink of an Eye” sounds total Massachusetts with Slaine even stretching his natural accent in the first verse. Ras Kass is the sole outlier on the song in terms of region, but holds his own in his verse as expected. It’s Termanology who has the most technically proficient verse here, with these bars: “Hey I’m taking shots with the models and the dots / Off the vodka and the scotch I’m impossible to stop / Hit the gobblers with the Molly and they rob you on the spot / Wave the shotty where you pissing on the potty let it pop.” The second track is the album’s second single, “Land of the Lost”, and it’s one of the few tracks that features just Slaine and Termanology. Up until now, the two have been mostly evenly matched, but Slaine had the better and cautionary verse:
Termanology himself produces “Snakes” (with some help from both Artisin and The Arcitype) with a featured verse from Sick Jacken & Jared Evan on the hook. “The Demon’s Peace” (Prod. by The Arcitype) has both emcees wax about their respective vices and connect them to their ethnic heritages in the hook: “Caught up in the vice grip, fire in ya iris / (Yayo from the Puerto Rocks) whiskey of the Irish.” Furthering the Boston bond between the emcees is fellow native DC the MIDI Alien who laced a well-layered sample-based beat on “It Doesn’t Matter” where Slaine and Term rap verses filled with regrets. On “Blood In My Eyes”, Termanology raps with the fierceness he displayed on his “Hood Politics” mixtapes while Slaine’s verse puts a shine on his paranoia. It’s Ea$y Money whose verse stands out on this track with a punctuated flow and rhyme schemes. “Comeback Story” is all about perseverance and the Conway the Machine-assisted “Came a Long Way” contains autobiographical raps from all three men. Despite its release nearly eight years ago, “Anti-Hero” proves that Slaine and Termanology share a chemistry going beyond their shared home state. Their mutual hardcore leanings still hold the future open for more musical possibilities.