If you read the carefully measured adjectives of the Internet, Awful Records have already negotiated a long-lasting Palestinian and Israeli peace accord, cured gout, and turned water into lean. An impressive feat for any label, let alone a fledgling Atlanta indie. While Father’s wrist is bucking to be bronzed in the Coca-Cola museum, Archibald Slim has somewhat snuck under the collective radar.
This video for “Don’t Call the Cops” only has about 6,000 streams on YouTube, but plays out like a Southern kinsman to Vince Staples. The latter doesn’t run from nothing but the police. Archibald Slim is trying to get you not to tell them in the first place. It’s a worthy addition to the lengthy canon of “Stop Snitching” songs and immediately relatable to anyone whose life has been ruined by lame neighbors. It’s honestly a shame we can’t retroactively put this on the Neighbors soundtrack. It would’ve been the best thing about the movie other than the DeNiro party scene.
The beat from Dexter Dukarus almost sounds like a more fleshed out Madlib or Ummah beat, sliced with muffled jazz horns, synths that almost sound like an accordian, soul music submerged until it became another species altogether. Slim introduces you to the barrio, swimming in drugs, surrounded by police, a party away from having to pack it all in. The flow is slow but precise, monotone but threatening. “Don’t Call the Cops” initially sounds like a request, but you suspect by the end of the song that it might be an order.
