The music industry has reached a point to where social media can be considered the new A&R. Like memes or videos trending on a regular basis, some things are here today and gone tomorrow. Just as quickly as someone making millions of YouTube views, the fall can be incredibly swift. While some can evolve past their novelty, many find themselves in relative obscurity. For every Soulja Boy, there are tons of Trinidad James. As the DX staff wanders the infinite landscape of the Internet, we’ve felt the need to explore various viral videos and figure out if the artists have a viable future or are stretching their 15 minutes of fame. Without further delay, Features Editor Andre Grant and Senior Features Writer Ural Garrett presents “15 Minutes.”
Is Slim Jesus’ “Drill Time” The Effect Of Too Much Chief Keef?
Andre: It was bound to happen, right? So it should come as no surprise that kids from the suburbs listen to drill, and we shouldn’t even bat an eye when that manifests itself as a baby-faced white kid surrounded by his darker skinned homies holding glocks and threatening to lay out his enemies. But we do. The thing is going viral, as artists like Meek Mill and aficionado’s like Andrew Barber are asking questions. Is it just good music? Is he an industry plant, as Barber asked? Who knows. What we do know is that “Drill Time” is making the Internet rounds. It’s trending on Twitter and probably on Facebook and Vine. It’s also, probably, pissing off people that hold Hip Hop up to a high standard. Plus, like my grandmother said, everything likes to roll in threes and we already got Macklemore’s “Downtown” featuring Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz and Kool Moe Dee and Grant’s “Wicked” featuring Kool G Rap so why not? And if you haven’t seen that video then, yeah. It’s wicked, or something. Either way, Slim Jesus is the kid of the moment, even if he does look like the younger brother from Malcolm in the Middle, but what to make of this thing?
Well, drill as a genre hasn’t done too well since everyone got super hyped about it a few years ago. Sure, it made Chief Keef and a few others slightly rich, and it spawned Bobby Shmurda (a-yo, we haven’t forgotten you, man) but it hasn’t morphed into the country wide phenomenon we thought it would. The problem is, of course, that it’s too menacing to get on the radio. For all of its viral appeal and even after a G.O.O.D music remix “I Don’t Like” didn’t get higher than 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other artists in the genre like G Herbo f.k.a Lil Herb, Fredo Santana, Lil Bibby, Lil Reese and the producer Young Chop have only found middling success.
Here’s the thing, this kind of categorical change is what could make the drill scene go national. Think about that for just a moment. There’s a lot that could be said about cultural appropriation and the like, here. And it would be a justified if not a surface level reading of how this is playing out. For my money, though, this is the Internet’s melting pot of cultures, thoughts, and sounds reaching its logical conclusion. Here, we have someone who’s very different from a Lil Dicky, Eminem, Yelawolf and others. Slim Jesus is a kid who probably doesn’t even like any of the artists I just mentioned except for Em. This is a kid who sees nothing wrong with wearing the perspectives of a different culture, with all of its history and its politics and its transgressions, like a Native American head-dress at Coachella. There’s something very 2015 about that. He’s young to be sure, and much can and will change. But this mimicry is interesting because it carries none of the stigma that it might have otherwise, whether from a Hip Hop or a cultural perspective, and I doubt it ever will. So, we might have to all hold on to our hats, as the next generation — the blend generation — upends what we thought we knew about culture.
Ural: Saturday night during Labor Day weekend, I was enjoying some take-out while watching the phenomenal Tina Mabry directed Mississippi Damned when a friend of mine sub-tweeted a YouTube video with under six thousand views. That, ladies and gentlemen was Slim Jesus’ “Drill Time.” Ironically, before the video gets going, there’s a message warning that the guns used in the video are props. Therefore, any degenerate acts shouldn’t be taken seriously. It was as the blond haired, blue eyed white kid from Hamilton, Ohio anticipated a potential police investigation. I’ve driven through the area a few times in my day and totally thought it was a pretty safe area. Apparently, the reality might be quite the opposite. According to Neighborhoodscout, Hamilton is three percent safer than every U.S. city. More statistics reveals that around 69 percent of residents in the area are white while African Americans make up a little over a quarter. And, the unemployment rate isn’t much to shake at either reportedly. Has it come to the point where poor white Americans are finding a kindred spirit from Chicago Drill’s dark context? Who’s to say? Looks like it wasn’t a passing fad after all.
From the looks of things, young ones around the world with rap inspiration are using Chief Keef’s rise to success via the internet as a blueprint which itself is a descendant of Soulja Boy’s early YouTube usage. As of yet, no one really understands Slim Jesus’ background nor those black boys who prance around him with their fake Call Of Duty styled weaponry at the moment. For what’s known now, a suburban-looking white kid has taken on the persona of a Chicago Drill artist and has the support of his homies. That’s a gimmick in itself. By the time this reaches our DX readers, “Drill Time” has cracked over half a million views. There’s one side of Hip Hop that wishes this to be some kind of parody to eventually be used in a think-piece about cultural appropriation. On the other hand, this could be the result of America’s melting pot and how struggles sometimes align themselves.
That’s the great thing about viral hits, there’s rarely any information besides what’s seen on the surface. It’s about viewing the piece for what it is and watching everyone’s reaction. That’s where the enjoyment comes from. It’s the same reason why many caught the wave of South Korean Trap rapper Keith Ape. It didn’t matter if he was a high school dropout, had successful parents and took liberties with Atlanta’s popular rap scene. The world witnessed a South Korean artists, trying his best at an OG Maco impersonation. That’s where the fascination comes from. I guess the problem is when people can’t differentiate the real from the fake. Besides the question of what that means to authenticity, is that the artist or the listener’s problem? Even comments on the YouTube video alone, there are folks already praising his delivery or flat out dismissing him as someone mocking the culture. Regardless of how confusing and weird “Drill Time” is, consider it another strange conception of the connected generation.
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
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Wack as fuck knowing damn well he ain’t bout that life stop the madness
So you give him attention because he’s a suburban kid rapping about murder….them boys live that shit..are you familiar with mass murder….and where’s the so called Christians when someone from suburbia uses Jesus name in vain….the double standards is mind blowing
Nope. We gave him attention because of the massive online reaction to the song. Because the video went viral and is interesting, we covered it in our new series about artists that go viral. That’s why it’s called 15 Minutes. Thank you for the comment, killakm. Cultural appropriation is real.
Give it a few months, HipHopDX will have an article titled: “Top 10 Artists we’re watching for in 2016” #1 Slim Jesus
You people are jokes
2016 is too soon. If Slim Jesus actually evolves past an overnight viral sensation and can create a compelling catalog as well… maybe 2017. Thank you for checking the piece, thekid.
This guy is a joke that was a waste of time, I just watched a white boy with no rap skills whatsoever that reminds me of the king the goat himself eminem except the Down syndrome mentally regarded version of him! How do douchebags like him even get any likes? Wow is all I gotta say….
because he’s white? or because he lacks skills and brain celles?
This shit is ridiculous!!
Is that the banjo kid from the movie Deliverance? Striking resemblance.
As long as he doesn’t have people in the trap squealing like a pig, it’s all good.
Idk if slim jesus is real or not, like this culture is real my little brothers definitely in the street murdering other children, and they got a white friend riding with them. If slim had more talent this would be hard.
That’s some bull shit
Kinda funny how people only get upset at this style of music when an “innocent” white kid makes it.
You got me to bite. What is Cultural Appropriation? Sounds like you are saying white boys in America shouldn’t rap or have black friends and guns. If you think White boys aren’t known for having guns you should watch The Civil War documentary on wkar tonight. White boys have been leading armies since the beginning of time. The only thing new in this video is you are supposedly seeing fake weapons.lol White people are the foundation of the success of rap music. Who you think been buying all the records back when someone would actually buy the cassette instead of copying a CD to their computer. White people have been a part of Hip Hop since the beginning. Blondie, Rick Rubin, etc. I can’t stand the argument that believes only poor black people have the pass to rap and it somehow makes their words more meaningful and credible. If you don’t believe rich people will defend their property with violence, you’ve missed a few history classes. Why hate what you trying to be…a rich person. I’ve seen white boys with GD’ s and Vice Lords. Do you think them boys is playing games? Then you are not from Chicago or Michigan. You must also think White Gangsters in prison are fake.smh Gangster is White Mans Culture.lol Just because cheap technology exists for the younger generation to record themselves doesn’t mean the elders who they emulate haven’t been around for years. This video is nothing new. What will be new is if they can pull off shows without the place getting shot up. Stick your chest out, there is always someone to push it in.
Cultural appropriation is a product of gentrification…example case and point Jazz, Rock N Roll…..but niggas need to take ownership and accountability too tho
This is a joke right? Please tell me it’s a joke.
Keep on talkin shit about Slim Jesus….
“You’ll be walking down the street and you’ll see a bunch of black dudes walking, not just any old black dudes, we’re talking ‘thugs’. And in the group, they got one, or two, sometimes as many as three white guys with them, you ever seen that shit? Well let me tell you something about those white guys. Those white guys are the most dangerous motherfuckers in them groups. it’s true, man. there’s no telling what kind of crazy shit they’ve done to get them black dudes respect, but I’ll tell you they’ve done some wild shit.”
-Dave Chappell
He look like the sloth from ice age haha
dude looks like a demon, real talk.
DX has fallen off so badly….
I think I just read an article with less then ten typos, is this hiphopdx.com?….. But for real, the color of this dudes skin is irrelevant, if I heard this on the radio I’d call it garbage. But I feel the same way about every chief keef song ever made.
This is by far the corniest looking wannabe I’ve ever seen. Just his face pisses me off. Once again proves that hip-hop has going into zoo territory and nothing makes sense any more. Suburban kids do hustle, I’m from the burbs but have city friends, I know of a few Suburban kids that hustle drugs, items, whatever, and make quite some good money but off course they do it on the low. Their not interested in being in the ghetto and showing off firearms, not at all. Wow, the best fascination one should have with the drill scene is going on DJ Akademiks “war in Chi-Raq” channel. Look at Lil Durk and others, their trying to get the fuck out of there, they get that’s its detrimental to their career, and with their newfound wealth. This kid is the epitome of a Fuck Boy and cannot wait to hear Lord Jamar’s and Charlamagne’s thoughts on him on VladTV LMAO
I completely agree, couldn’t have said it better myself.
Eh hiphopdx why the hell are guys even giving this dude recognition???? This is a damn joke that is absolutely disgraceful to hip hop and even real gangstas who rap like that. Please stop giving these Wack ass non skilled dudes hype. Your partaking and making him blow up wtd
I am done with this website. it used to have quality hip hop content now it seems they’re just trying to post stuff that sparks a mainstream reaction. sell outs.
why don’t you give the 15 minutes to people that deserve it and aren’t viral yet?
I’m disappointed in this site!!!! Is there payola going on here or are they serious??
Hiphopdx is corny. They got these whack ass dudes writing these whack ass articles just hoping someone will give a fuck. When I started fuckin wit dx it was player, now it’s like a lil pussy ass high schoolers Facebook page. This dude will probably end up winning a dx end of the year award for best unsigned hype lol corny as fuck. I could run this website better on my lunch break lol
that song is actually pretty tight. its like straight gangsta rap
I’m more disappointed in the so-called negroes shuckin’ and jivin’ in the back……….co-signing this janky ass shit!
Holy fuck this article is REACHING!! Gotdamn, you really think this punk ass kid really thought that deeply about this shit? He saw some vids on youtube and wanted to play too. That’s it!
He just wants to do as the niggas do and have what the niggas have just like every other white person that appropriated or stole from blacks.
It’s also pretty obvious how he got his name. Some kids ran up on him calling him Slim Shady at school. His punk ass self was probably like “yo fuck dat I ain’t Slim Shady…..I’m like….Fucking….Slim…….JESUS.” Pauses….then thinks to himself…”Yo dat shit, nigga, dat beez my name now nigga…..”
This shit is garbage, I can tell the writers are white dudes that are secretly hoping he’s the next white person to steal, run, and get away with black people’s shit.
Well said!!!
Shut your silly ass up, clown ass comment…
Stole from blacks? If this garbage ass music is what your talking bout you can keep that shit… This dude aint no different than chief keef, soulja boy and all them other clowns that are out rapping these days. Personally the song sounds like dog shit and the white kid looks soft but hey if the sheeple eat it up that’s on them but no need to hate especially playing that race card
You have to play the race card you dumb fuck. White people have been playing it for hundreds of years and it’s still going on. From Napoleon shooting off the lips and noses off of every statue he could find in Egypt and stealing the knowledge of Egypt and taking credit for it. He didn’t invent chess for example. He stole chess from Egypt. Europeans and not lets forget Arabs also for stealing blacks and keeping them as slaves, to white cops taking black lives like it’s nothing in this day and age. It’s all about race and survival. Have you ever thought about WHY whites have historically tried to dominate and steal and thief from the black man? Cause they knew for ages that blacks are genetically dominant and inhabit the richest part of the world. Whites have been jealous and hateful of blacks for this for thousands of years. It’s not new. It took hundreds and hundreds of years of planning to steal from and dominate Blacks. That’s why Europeans agenda is all about reversing nature. They have been fucking pissed at nature since they learned they were genetically inferior and have been doing EVERYTHING possible to ensure their survival.
Why do you think it’s always been such a huge threat when black people in America get together to really build wealth and a future for themselves. Look up Black Wall Street and do the knowledge what happened there. Whites are hateful and jealous of what blacks can really accomplish and their WHOLE agenda is about keeping blacks from their real power, which has the potential to dominate the whole globe. They KNOW THIS AND HAVE BEEN WORKING VERY HARD FOR THE PAST FEW HUNDRED YEARS TO MAKE SURE BLACKS ARE NOT IN THE POSITION TO USE THEIR REAL POWER. It’s fucked up when other races just want to live their lives, but have to deal with a fucking devil of a race that’s constantly scheming, lying, thieving, conniving and killing cause they are SCARED to fucking death of being wiped out.
Fuck your response, this aint not college lecture… smart dumb nigga is what we call your type. All that shit about whites hating blacks maybe true but your reaching with some of that shit and at the end of the day its 2015, every man for himself whether it be black white brown yellow or purple ITS CALLED MAN THE FUCK UP and If your letting a white person control your “success” that’s on you playboy. TONS of successful black people in the world that made it happen and Its the weak people like you that love to use that race card even on a “rap” website. GTFOH
wiggedy wack!!! shits gaaaabage and no, not becuz hes white…but becuz he has no talent…
Lol so he’s from the burbs cuz he’s white?
THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD CAME TO ME IN A DREAM AND TOLD ME THAT SLIM JESUS IS THE MESSIAH AND TO BOW DOWN AND LICK HIS JORDANS BEFORE ITS TOO LATE. GREATER THAN TUPAC, RAKIM, AND MC HAMMER COMBINED, BLACK JESUS IS THE GREATEST THING TO HAPPEN TO THIS NATION SINCE THE MACARENA. THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD SAID THAT HE WOULD EVEN RATHER LISTEN TO SLIM JESUS THAN FUCK HIS CAMEL CLYDE IN THE ASS OR LICK OSAMA BIN LADEN’S BUNGHOLE AND THAT SAYS A LOT. ALLAH FUCKBAR!!! ALLAH FUCKTARD!!!
if I hear insulting my creator and my prophet you will be crushed killed destroyed you dick sucking parasites ite
a ignorant person like you who insults my creator and my prophet you will be punished in the grave and you will humiliated disgraced and tortured in the hell fire ite peace you retarded uneducated narrow minded ignorant
Oh man, this kid is totes in trouble when mom and dad find this on the internet. He’s going to lose his allowance for weeks. They might even force him to sit out of the next lacrosse match.
sounds like he can rap as good as everyone else doing it right now.. maybe that should be the topic.. how easy it is for anybody to rap like this..
THIS^
Smh..I don’t get some of you guys on here. You give 90 percent of the trash music that’s coming out of the south a pass, you give drake a pass for being a former child star turned rapper and having a ghost writer, you give lol wayne a pass for literally wearing women’s leggings and kissing men on stage but as soon as a white kid copys what he sees in hip hop in 2015 it’s all of a sudden the culture..Smh..this is what happens when you give everyone a pass in hip hop. You get lanes like this..lol
This little worm wouldn’t last a day in harris county. Stupid ass teenager, momma should of took plan b
STFU you idiot Harris county has a lot of nice spots few parts on the north side and south, south west are hood. Your bitch ass probably lives in the woodlands or katy acting like this dip shit…fuckin homo you probably have this song blaring out of your 2 12’s that your mom bought you bitch ass
I’m talking about the jail you dumb piece of shit. Maybe if you went to school instead of being a keyboard warrior on hhdx at your moms duplex you could have learned to read you simple fuck. Htown pussy you will never go anywhere in life cause you are a loser just like this stupid wigger. Slim Jesus dick ridin ho I’ll shit on you
It’s pretty funny that both of the DX staff try to portray Drill music as music of “the struggle”. It’s not about any “struggle”. It’s about the glorification of drugs, misogyny, and violence.
I really can’t believe you gave this GARBAGE the time of day, an editorial, any sort of coverage at all! That’s just encouraging this terrible bull shit to continue and more awfulness lime this to be made! There are better artists all across the country that deserve to be wrecognized, and some sort of support, yet you choose to write an editorial on this shit! I’ve come to this site for YEARS, and I’m sorry to say, that I will no longer support HipHopDX. It’s a god damn joke, and horribly disappointing! Shame on you, shame on Andre Grant, and shame on Ural Garrett for this drivel!
my crew SHITS on this bullshit..and wheres our fucking 15 minutes ? ive been rapping for 12 years..where my 15 minutes? do you guys ever support anyone with talent? do you ever consider doing something for the hip-hop community and the readers of your website by showing them REAL hiphop? you guys should change your shit to POP DX.
ht tp:/ /ww w. youtube.co m/wat ch?v= X0 62FfuX kg0
your crew is aight man i peeped your track… there are plenty of better hip hop acts in the underground and from the 90’s. why you hating on Slim Jesus btw? the kid dropped a hilarious video that is viral gold, and if you can’t see it then that’s your bad.
You want 15? Earn it.
Damn HipHopDX doesn’t understand how many people really are not coming to this site anymore because of bullshit like this. Yall slacking. The journalism is a joke. The artists you promote are a joke. This is a fuckin parody and is making a mockery of hip-hop and this site and all the assholes who cosign bullshit. Sum up all the comments and you’ll see everyone saying Fuck DX.
Slim Jesus is the future!
Looks like that retard banjo boy from Deliverance movie.
If he from Da chi I going to drop him off on a Moe set and let them black p stones get at him since he claimed 2 be bout dat life only thing he shot was squirrels for supper
This is a pretty damn good article explaining how the hip hop culture has become so diverse
or how it is becoming so diverse*
Just because something is from the hood or influenced by the hood doesn’t mean it’s Hip-Hop. How is ‘drill’ music Hip-Hop? Anyway, the sad part of all this is how rap music is such a joke now that any prick from any town anywhere can mimic it, and be every bit as good (or bad) as the rappers we’re giving millions of dollars to. I think Hip-Hop needs to distance itself from this ‘drill’ shit. It has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The most hardcore Hip-Hop of all time still has some kind of substance or topic, or underlying meaning. Even the hardest records from The Geto Boys or ODB, or Prodigy (trying to think of the most hardcore Hip-Hop ever made) had SOMETHING to offer other than complete glorification of murder. When you see kids listening to this drill shit, it’s like a kid watching a snuff film. The music is dangerously simple, so it’s like a mantra, just straight up brainwashing kids to do foul shit. It’s like a chant “Murder-niggaz-sling-crack-fuck-a-bitch-load-the-gat-kill-a-nigga-shoot-em-dead-fuck-bitches-stack-my-bread”. And it’s like a trance that it puts them in. Like a mothafuckin’ seance possessing them or some shit. There’s something wicked about it. It used to be like “We’re gonna make some REAL shit, and if the realness of it has a negative effect on some people along the way then fuck it”. Now there’s no purpose to it OTHER than to just be a bad influence. Nobody will take responsibility for it either. The labels say they sell whatever people like, the artists say it’s just what the environment calls for, the radio says it harmless as long as they block out the cuss words. But when you look at the listeners of it it’s always young ignorant ass kids going nowhere, so it must be having some effect on them.
co sign ^^^^
Good shit
the fuck did i just watch
I remember when hip-hop culture (music, clothing etc) was actually cool and shit. Now it’s just… gay as hell. Actually embarrassing what it’s become. RIP hip-hop.
Fucking aye. I’m heading back to the 90’s…
If you want to know real knowledge about why our society is the way it is, and want real truthful answers check out. Merkabah on youtube. He breaks everything down in a way that makes absolute sense!
youtube.com/user/woogam215
RIP Hip Hop this is bullshit
two black guys talking about a white guy.. ill pass