If you simply just listen to this rapper and take no time

to ingest the content of his lyrics, you’d think it was Andre 3000. Sugar

Tongue Slim or STS as of late, is aware of the constant comparison and feels as

though it’s a great one to have, yet it also bears certain pressure. The

Atlanta born and bred rapper who now resides in Philly may sound like Andre,

yet lyrical content is different. Sugar Tongue Slim delivers rhymes with a

strong passion and extreme drive that oozes onto his rhymes.

Currently

a part of the Money Making Jam Boys where he gets to flow with Black Thought on

the regular, Sugar is doing pretty well for himself. Some may be familiar with

his two mixtapes Demand More and Demand More 2 where he covers which generally

positive commentary. With all that being said if you really want a taste of

what Slim is about I suggest listening to “The South” with Bun B and decide how

you feel after that.

Music/Videos:STS P###. By Don Cannon [Heater Of The Day] – “F*ck A Hook”STS Ft. Black Thought, Truck North, Dice Raw (Money Making Jam Boys) [Heater Of The Day] – “Ill Street Blues”

STS – Sole Music (feat. Ming)STS | MySpace Music Videos

AllHipHop.com: Why’d you choose the name Sugar Tongue

Slim?

Sugar Tongue Slim: It kind of just got attached to me by

other people. A lot of folks liked the poem so much that I had titled Sugar Tongue Slim. It was also the name

of the old head that I based it on, so it’s kind of like a dedication to him.

 

AllHipHop.com: Why the move to Philly?

Sugar Tongue Slim: I went up there to stay for a week. I

had never been up North or anything like that. I went up there and never wanted

to leave. I bought a car and everything. Growing up I was more into up North

rap than down South stuff so being more immersed in it was cool.

 

AllHipHop.com: Would you say your sound is more catered

to the up North sound?

Sugar Tongue Slim: I like down South rap, I have a lot of

respect for it. I’m more into lyricism. Coming up when Camp Lo dropped, that

was a big thing to me. I was really feeling groups like that. I was a huge fan

of Big L and Jay-Z. I love Outkast and everything like that, but it’s more

booty-shaking music down South than it is Outkast type music. I want the

throne. I want to be the best.

 

AllHipHop.com: Glad you mentioned Outkast, how do you

feel being compared to Andre 3000?

Sugar Tongue Slim: I guess it’s a gift and a curse.

That’s one of my favorites, but to do what Andre does is like a feat. I hope

that every verse I do is as good as Andre’s. When I actually sit down to write,

there is this one Andre verse that stuck with me through my whole life. It’s on

the Cool Breeze song Watch for the Hook.

 

“Never has ev-ery member in one crew been so diverse

Tryin to outdo the last verse that I birthed, that is my curse.”

 

That right there sums it all up. When people compare me

to Andre it’s like I appreciate it, I’ll rock with it. For the record, when I

was younger Big Boi was my favorite.

 

AllHipHop.com: How’d you become a part of the Def Jam

poetry circuit?

Sugar Tongue Slim: It was through Black Ice. He was

signed to Def Jam as a poet. He was the big ni**a over there as far as poetry

was concerned. His cousin heard me do poetry and he had me come to the studio

one day and spit a poem real quick. Black Ice hit me up the next morning and

was like I want you to shoot with Def Poetry. It was like 3 or 4 days we were

gonna shoot it. He took me up there to meet with Stan Lathan and Russell

Simmons and he had me spit with Stan Lathan. He said you’re going to be on the

show. After that it was just on. Poetry, that’s my thing. I can still do

poetry. I love poetry. I’m no against being a poet, I can still get funky. It

was fun. We did a little college touring and stuff and at that time I was that

age so it was cool.

AllHipHop.com: What turned you away from being a poet?

Sugar Tongue Slim: The money. Poets don’t make no money.

You don’t make no money unless you’re Nikki Giovanni. As I did the Def Poetry

thing I came back to Philly. It was like alright I’m back in Philly. It was

just that, I did Def Poetry. It didn’t change my life. Poetry isn’t going to

just change your life around. Not everyone is interested in hearing that poetry

stuff every day. You have to adapt with what’s going on. Everyone would tell me

I need to rap, you can rap and all that. My poetry had rhythm to it and what

not, I might as well had been a rapper.

 

AllHipHop.com: I saw that you helped co-write the song “Oh”

for Ciara. Did you do a lot of songwriting while you were doing Def Poetry?

Sugar Tongue Slim: After Def Poetry I was working with

Jazzy Jeff. He put me on to that Ciara joint. I did that one, I did one with

Nas, my partner and I did a joint for Eve. We wrote some other ones that didn’t

make it. We did a lot of ghostwriting to try and come up with whatever. At the

time I didn’t really know the whole song structure thing. I had to adapt to it.

I ended up getting into song writing. It was cool though. I can’t sing for

anything, but I can write the words. That’ll make the world sing.

 

AllHipHop.com: How’s it feel to get a co-sign from

KRS-One?

Sugar Tongue Slim: That was kind of crazy. I was really

not expecting that at all. When it happened I was like wow. For a Southern

artist like me that’s a good look. I didn’t even know he was there that night.

When I was going upstairs I saw him and shook his hands to let him know I knew

who he was. He shook my hand and was like no, I know who you are. It was cool.

 

AllHipHop.com: Speak about your mixtape Demand More 2.

Sugar Tongue Slim: Demand

More 2 is to get everybody’s attention. We got some good producers on there

like Don Cannon, Sean C & LV and Focus. The Money Making Jam Boys, Cassidy

and Sterling Simms is on it along with others. It was just a real good look.

The whole tape honestly. Word of mouth has really made that thing move. People

really enjoy the music; putting out Demand

More 2 was quite fun. Stuff like that I just get to rap. It’s not really

based on going in and trying to make a hit single or anything like that. It’s

just about going in and getting funky. That’s what I like to do, I like to rap.

Making Demand More 2 was good. My

mans Briand and Kev make things happen, they make things move. We just get it

in.

 

AllHipHop.com: Do you regret accepting the “buy out” from

Def Jam?

Sugar Tongue Slim: No. At the time that I was signed to

them it wasn’t something I cared about as much. It sounds crazy but I didn’t

care about it as much back then. It was just something I did. We go to the

studio and it didn’t really click to me that I could really do this thing. Back

then it went from me not having a deal to having a deal. I went to a meeting

and performed a couple songs and they were with it. Then it was gone. They gave

us some nice money to walk away from it. It was like I didn’t really care. I

was doing a few other things in my life at that time. The money was right. I

wasn’t as driven back then as I am now. It was all about the pimp sh*t. A whole

lot of pimp sh*t. Now I really love Hip-Hop. I really love rapping. Back then I

liked it, I enjoyed it, it was Hip-Hop. We grew up in it. Now it’s to the point

where I really, really love this thing.

AllHipHop.com: Did you have to accept the buy out?

Sugar Tongue Slim: It didn’t really matter to me. What

had happened was I had just come back from Miami and had gotten into a car

accident. I had a lump sum from the accident, the Ciara song had just dropped

so I got some money from that. It seemed so easy to get the deal, I figured I

could just do it again. I was like alright f*ck it, we’ll just go somewhere

else. Def Jam was the only place we went to. We went to Def Jam and met LA. LA

was like “alright, we’re signing you.” I really don’t regret it. It was a good

experience. I met Jay through it. That was cool.

 

AllHipHop.com: Since you toured with the Roots, did that

create close ties with the band?

Sugar Tongue Slim: I’m actually on the new

album. We got the group Money Making Jam Boys which is really fun to be a

part of. The group has Black Thought, P.O.R.N., Truck North and Dice Raw. A lot

of people think of Black Thought in a way that is just a lot of conscience rap but

sometimes he likes to just rap. Just go with the flow and go with it. It’s cool

to see that and work with people on that level. I’m actually on my way to a

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