GENRE | RAP/HIP-HOP
VERDICT | AUTHENTICIOUS
LABEL | SUBURBAN NOIZE
RELEASE | 4.16.13
In The Town, one of the most memorable moments of Boston rapper/actor Slaine’s burgeoning celluloid career comes when he’s told by a cop to repeat a bank robber’s quote. But Slaine refuses, telling him:
“I’m trying to make this shit sound fucking authenticious. You got it all fucked up.”
It’s that kind of street smart wordplay that’s made Slaine one of rap’s most intriguing, entertaining, and, well, authenticious acts. Whether rhyming solo, with Special Teamz, or with Ill Bill and Danny Boy in La Coka Nostra, he’s lived up to LCN’s slogan, “A Brand You Can Trust.”
Here, he keeps up the brand, bringing in a stable of Boston fire-spitters for a trip through the city’s violent underworld of drugs, despair, urban blight and depression. It’s dark, but there are also plenty of upbeat moments, such as “The Fuckery Hotel,” and “Nothin’ But Business,” a gangsta party anthem, which has a Playboy bunny-filled video filmed at former Patriot Tully Banta Cain‘s house.
Slaine slays as usual (his verse on “Something to Believe In” is an instant classic), and just like Larry Bird, makes his teammates step up their game.
