20 People to Watch - Awful Records: The musical misfits

Self-taught artists bring punk aesthetic to Atlanta’s hip-hop landscape

Atlanta is no stranger to eclectic hip-hop collectives. From the Dungeon Family and Attic Crew’s mid-’90s/early 2000s reign to Two-9’s more recent independent-turned-major label success story, the city has a history as a melting pot of individual musicians joining forces to create larger sonic and cultural movements. At 15 members, indie label Awful Records is primed to etch its name into the lore of Atlanta’s storied rap exploits.

Comprised of self-taught MCs, producers, engineers, graphic designers, and videographers, every element of Awful, from the audio to the visual, is created in-house. “Even if it’s spur of the moment, everybody is on the same kind of wavelength,” says Father, Awful’s founder and most popular artist, whose collaboration “Look at Wrist” along with iLoveMakonnen and Key!, has brought the crew’s name into the consciousness of the rap-buying public. “Everybody’s on the same shit — that’s probably why we all met.”

Self-described “musical misfits” the rest of the Awful roster is comprised of rappers Richposlim, Playboi Carti, and Archibald SLIM (whose two-bedroom apartment in East Atlanta known as “the Barrio” functions as the collective’s recording studio), Freezamode (Pyramid Quince and LuiDiamonds), the New York transplant Stalin Majesty, production wunderkind KeithCharles Spacebar, hard-partying white kid Slug Christ, trippy R&B singer GAHM, graphic designer/producer Dexter Dukarus, the free-spirited Ethereal, aka Obie, and smooth-crooning Micah Freeman. Awful also features prominent female voices that past collectives have lacked. There’s the goth ‘n’ b dark princess of song Abra, and femcee Lord Narf, whose sound harkens back to Digable Planets’ Ladybug Mecca garnished with a bit of lyrical filth.

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“All of us are inappropriate as fuck,” Lord Narf says.

That cavalier approach, and the crew’s lo-fi sound meets DIY attitude, is more in line with punk’s early days. From their on-the-fly videos (they’ve released close to 40 in less than a year) for “Look at Wrist” and “Vodka on the Weekend” to their seamless flow of new material (by their count it’s at least 250-300 songs in 2014 alone) in the form of EPs, mixtapes, and albums, everything is self-released, self-produced, and self-taught, which the crew attributes to the free tutoring program known as YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, Awful’s videos have more than 1.5 million views and counting on their channel. With a multitude of growing skill sets, creative personalities, and an uncanny work ethic, Father says there’s no such thing as a bad idea when Awful comes together for a brainstorming session.

“Nothing gets wasted,” Father says. “If somebody comes up with an idea and it’s like, ‘Nah that’s stupid,’ somebody else is going to be like, ‘That’s exactly what I like to do.’ ... It churns better, the gears work a lot better.”

Hailed by FACT magazine as the “rap clique that won 2014,” Awful seems primed for further success in the new year with a bevy of shows on the horizon, from ATL to Austin’s SXSW.

“I know it’s human to compare things, but comparisons are bullshit,” Richposlim says. “We’re not akin to anyone ... We come together to form this whole, and it’s fire, because nobody is doing what we’re doing across the board, so fuck the boxes they’re trying to put us in.”