Album Review: Little Pain X Slug Christ - Jesus Wept

Self described “sad rapper” Little Pain released his excellent sophomore album, L.I.T.T.L.E. at the tail end of 2014, and some of us (me) may still be reeling from that—so I was taken by surprise with his recently released collaborative EP with Slug Christ, aptly titled Jesus Wept.

While L.I.T.T.L.E was a large step forward—sonically and lyrically—for Pain, Jesus Wept is not so much a step back, per se, but it has more in common with Pain’s debut release from 2013, When Thugz Cry.

The EP begins with a spooky, frenetic sounding intro track, again, aptly titled as the “Jesus Wept Intro.” It calls to mind the first track on When Thugz Cry, “Suicide Watch,” with both how breathlessly Pain raps his way through, as well as the overall unnerving and unsettling feeling the music sets.

“Counting dead presidents while I’m fucking a dead body,” Pain says, straight faced, on the intro track, and then later—“I slit my wrists then beat my dick, now my shit is all red.” It’s a lot to take in, and coming in at less than two minutes, it’s thematically akin, in a sense, to the RZA-helmed “horrorcore” group the Gravediggaz.

“We already live in Hell, so don’t be afraid to pass away,” Pain says, before the intro track slides into the equally unnerving “Anywhere,” the first track of the remaining five on the EP that features Slug Christ.

Slug Christ, the former art school student from Atlanta turned rapper has some kind of affiliation with “weird” rap buzz label Awful Records. Slug has made a name for himself recently with his proper solo debut, The Crucifixion of Rapper Extraordinaire, Slug Christ, and I will admit that his delivery is an acquired taste to say the least. It took a couple spins through Jesus Wept until could fully begin to appreciate Slug’s bratty, snotty foil to Pain’s clever, anxious rhymes.

Jesus Wept gets off to a terrifying start, but it quickly switches gears with the near lullaby “Drug Dealaz,” where Pain recalls the panic of running out of weed, not being able to get a hold of your weed guy, and then not being able to get ahold of your weed guy’s friend. It’s a little cloying in a dark sort of way, I guess, but the juxtaposition of the quaint, childlike beat against the topic makes it one of the more memorable songs on the release.

Drugs, or the lack there of in your system, play a role in the excellent somber come-down and break up ballad, “Miss U.” Boasting a catchy refrain and satirical top 40-style production from Nedarb Nagrom, a likeminded rapper and producer from Milwaukee of all places—“Miss U” comes as a bit of a surprise on Jesus Wept, and a welcome surprise, as the EP careens into its final two songs, an ominous double shot of the vindictive “You Don’t Know That I Know” and the Slug solo track, “Yaaaaaaaaaa Part 1.”

At first glance, Jesus Wept seems a little unfocused, and that it’s not going to work as a cohesive whole. But some how, it does; perhaps it is because that the songs themselves are best paired in groups of two—or at least, compliment each other well when looked at in this way.

Taken as a whole, or at least in groups of two, Jesus Wept is not as immediate of a listen as last year’s L.I.T.T.L.E was for me, but it’s still worth a listen—it’s clever and thought provoking, like all good rap music (no matter how weird) should be.

Jesus Wept is out now as a digital download from Pain's Bandcamp page.