Slaine Reveals Recent Sobriety & Moving From A Warehouse To A-List Movies

HipHopDx recently caught up with Slaine for an in-depth interview. In this interview Slaine discusses his navigation between both the New York and Boston Rap scenes, his thoughts on Boston’s toughest neighborhoods, his newfound sobriety, and more. This interview was separated into four different main topics. Those topics are as followed:

• Why Slaine Says, “Boston Is Just Home To Me.”
• How Slaine Got Sober After Recording “King Of Everything Else”
• Slaine Details Being Handpicked For Acting Roles By Ben Affleck
• Slaine Addresses The Big Suburban Contingent In Hip Hop Today

From HipHopDx:

Most people identify the city of Boston according to its stereotypical makeup: the center of intelligentsia and academia on the East Coast, the city’s championship-caliber pro sports teams and local diehard fans, tourism of monuments from America’s formative years, year-long bad weather, the natives’ distinctive vowel-driven accents, and its Irish stronghold and tradition. You can also include Hollywood’s eastward migration for high budget films over the past decade. The underbelly of the city can be cited for its past history of racially segregated neighborhoods, drug trade, street gangs and violence in many of its areas.

In terms of Pop and Rock music, the city also known as “The Hub” has had its history of successful bands including Passion Pit, The Pixies, New Kids On The Block, New Edition, Missing Persons, Boston, Billy Squier, The Cars, and Aerosmith. But for Rap music, Boston-bred emcee Slaine’s credit had been paralleled for a long time to the city being underrated when Rap fans revere various regions and artists within Hip Hop’s landscape. Slaine has only added to the strong legacy of Boston music artists like Guru (of Gangstarr), Edo G., The Almighty RSO, Esoteric, Mr. Lif and Akrobatik to name a few. Yet he has continued to fight for recognition and identity on Rap’s main stage versus their New York counterparts in the Northeast region.

Since performing at open mics at age 18 in New York City, when he first stepped in the arena amongst some of the greatest emcees the genre had to offer, Slaine has done very well to bring his native city its just due. His roughneck, gritty lyrical persona has been a fixture in the Rap supergroup La Coka Nostra, and his supporting roles in two Boston-based, Ben Affleck-directed hit movies. He is now on his sixth album The King of Everything Else, set for release on August 19. We spoke with Slaine about his navigation between both the New York and Boston Rap scenes last decade, his thoughts on the gentrification in Boston’s toughest neighborhoods, his newfound sobriety and ridding himself the “drugs and alcohol” lifestyle that had both enhanced and plagued his creative process. Slaine also detailed how he got recognized by Ben Affleck to land roles in the movies Gone Baby Gone and The Town, and his opinion of the recently increased discourse on white artists in Hip Hop.

 

Slaine's upcoming album, "The King of Everything Else" will be available for purchase August 19th via Suburban Noize Records. You can check out the full interview by clicking the link below.

Slaine Interview @ HipHopDX