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Music

Hear Bromance Records and Drug Money USA's Venomous New Mixtape with Atlanta Rap Crew Young Slime Life

Listen to the cathartic 20-track 'Young Slime Season,' featuring beats from Brodinski, Ryan Hemsworth, Myth Syzer, and more.
Lil Patt, Slimelife Shawty & Twice, photo by DJ Drug Money This post ran originally on THUMP Canada.

With Bromance Records celebrating their fifth anniversary this year, the Brodinski-helmed French label has teamed up with Drug Money USA and Atlanta rap crew Young Slime Life for a new mixtape, Young Slime Season.

The 20-track effort features both young and veteran rappers from the city's Cleveland Avenue—best known as the neighborhood where Young Thug started his career—and hard-nosed production courtesy of Bromance affiliates including Ryan Hemsworth, Myth Syzer, Ikaz Boi, Myd, and others.

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While the gritty, no-holds-barred mixtape serves as an introduction to some of Atlanta's most talented new MCs, it's also dedicated to the memory of Lil Rudy (aka Babysnake), a YSL member who recently passed away. He's featured on several tracks here, including standouts "Air That Shit Out" and "No Mask."

Listen below (with artwork by Guillaume Berg) and read DJ Drug Money's words about how the project came together.


"Young Slime Season is a look into the unrest, the urgency of survival, and the bonds of friendship that are forged when young people from the proverbial jungle grow up with nothing to rely on but themselves and each other. It's a look into the YSL (Young Slime Life) movement, the blood-pumping heart of Atlanta's Cleveland Ave, 'the jungle for real' as Twice once called it.

You will hear the sounds of brothers bonded together by ooze and united in strength under the rallying cry of YSL. YSL is a band of brothers hailing from the same stomping grounds where Young Thug found his sea legs as a young soldier in the same infantry. Today, the raucous sounds of the same crew's youngest snakes slithering over each other to make their voices heard can be heard for the first time on Young Slime Season. The kids are restless. This is their declaration of war to a system that never gave a fuck about their survival. These kids are out for blood only because it might be their only way out. As Zack Slime Fr says, 'Fuck the system and everything about it.'

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While I was gathering these young gunners and a few of the older original Slimes to bless the project, Louis Brodinski both curated and personally contributed to a soundtrack unlike any other. From there, we joined forces to make an opus out of the Slime. YSS is an uncut and vital document of the Atlanta streets as the world has seen before. Some of the rappers featured here are young legends in their own right, outlaws so consumed with with the mayhem in the streets that rapping wasn't always the priority. But because of the all out war that these young men have fought to be where they are today, their raps are captivating in both approach and content, offering a fully developed glimpse into their outlook and life experiences. With the young Slimes' cathartic, ferocious raps bleeding through the relentlessly dynamic production of Brodinski and his BMC crew, the unorthodoxy is nothing less than dizzying. Just as foreign and otherworldly as the raw vitality found in the young Slime contingent's ferocious approach to rapping, the producers on YSS have crafted their own bold sonic statement that has bridged the boundaries between these very disparate groups of artists.

YSS is dedicated to the memory of Lil Rudy, a.k.a. Babysnake, whose life was senselessly taken away from us just one day ago. Rudy was an old soul with a cool exterior that belied his youth. He meant everything to the people around him. A candlelight vigil was held in his honor last night, the night before the release of Young Slime Season, and by all accounts, his life was celebrated by YSL and the greater South Atlanta community that night. I saw throngs of Babysnake's comrades in Slime shouting along to every word of his verse from 'No Mask.' A salvo of white balloons soared into the clouds as cries of 'Rudy' rang out through the streets, with everyone in sight reciting his lyrics or just raising their voices to the skies. I am so thankful that his music and spirit will forever be documented on Young Slime Season, but it will be those who were closest to him and his brothers in Slime that will carry on his essence and legacy. We won't ever see Babysnake down at the park again, but his spirit will live on always. I know that his peers on this album will feel this pain for a long time coming, but I thank God that we had enough time to document his experience on these select songs. This mixtape is also in contemplation of Twice's incarceration. Free Twice. The fast way. Til its backwards. You digg?

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The serpentine trees and technicolor foliage will always hang low over the bending roads and residential boulevards surrounding Cleveland Ave. There is a magic to the place. There is limitless creative potential. But the air is still thick with loss. No strangers to spitting venom in the face of adversity, though, the crew will forge ahead on the shoulders of their fallen brothers. Slimes, even those whose spirits can only be felt, hold each other up even in death. Now that Young Slime Season is upon us, it won't ever go away. Go ahead and soak up the ooze. The city is dripping in it. This is Young Slime Life.

Long Live Babysnake."

Young Slime Season Tracklist:

1. B La B Feat. Zack Slime Fr & Twice - Young [Prod. By Ikaz Boi]
2. Twice Feat. Lil Patt, Slimelife Shawty & No Mask Nuk - Snake Life [Prod. By Myd]
3. Zack Slime Fr Feat. Slimelife Shawty & Lil Clockk - My Niggas [Prod. By Ryan Hemsworth]
4. Maja Got It Feat. The Homie Cashyy, Slimeball Kelly & YL G-Baby - Turn Up [Prod. By Myd]
5. Slimeball Kelly Feat. Slimelife Shawty, Lil Reek, YSL Hitta, The Homie Cashyy & Zack Slime Fr - Money [Prod. By Amine Edge & Dance]
6. Zack Slime Fr & Slimelife Shawty - My Love [Prod. By Ikaz Boi]
7. Twice Feat. Lil Patt & Zack Slime Fr - In The Zone [Prod. By Myth Syzer]
8. Slimelife Shawty feat. Babysnake, Slimeball Kelly & Zack Slime Fr - Free The Roc [Prod. By Mister Tweeks]
9. Twice feat. Zack Slime Fr & Lil Patt - Purple Rain [Prod. By Ryan Hemsworth]
10. Twice Feat. Lil Patt - No Bullshit [Prod. By Myd]
11. Lil Clockk Feat. Maja Got It, Babysnake & Slimelife Shawty - Air That Shit Out [Prod. By Ryan Hemsworth]
12. Lil Patt Feat. Zack Slime Fr - Duct Tape [Prod. By Myth Syzer]
13. Slimelife Shawty Feat. Zack Slime Fr, Babysnake & Slimeball Kelly - No Mask [Prod. By Myth Syzer]
14. Slimelife Shawty & Zack Slime Fr - Dat Bag [Prod. By Myth Syzer]
15. Zack Slime Fr Feat. Slimeball Kelly, Slimelife Shawty, Maja Got It, No Mask Nuk & Twice - Change The Game [Prod. By Mister Tweeks]
16. YL Zoe Feat. YSL Bukk Bukk, Zack Slime Fr & Twice - Wait On It [Prod. By Myth Syzer]
17. Slimelife Shawty Feat. Zack Slime Fr, No Mask Nuk, Slimeball Kelly & Maja Got It - Slimes In The Place [Prod. By Brodinski]
18. B Slime Feat. YSL Bukk Bukk, Maja Got It & YL Zoe - Drop Off The Top [Prod. By Bobby Swan]
19. Lil Tay Feat. The Homie Cashyy & Babysnake - 30 [Prod. By Myth Syzer]
20. Twice Feat. B La B, Zack Slime Fr & Slimelife Shawty - Want It [Prod. By Myth Syzer]

Max Mertens is on Twitter.