Throughout the late ’90s and into 2000, Sean Daley, the 35-year-old rapper known as Slug, helped define backpack rap as half of the group Atmosphere.
His autobiographical, heart-on-sleeve storytelling, which ran over producer Anthony “Ant” Davis’ clear-cut, sample-based hip-hop loops, became a hallmark of a genre that defied mainstream hip-hop’s hoes ‘n’ hustlers mentality.