Compton rapper Slim 400 describes his new endeavors, like acting, with a sort of casual comfort that would leave one thinking that less than a year ago he was fighting for his life after being shot nine times.
When asked about how he would describe the mentality that has propelled his major comeback at life and into the limelight, Slim nonchalantly told HipHopDX that it was all apart of the, “shake back.”
Now, with the arrival of his Sada Baby harboring single “Brackin Thru The Ghetto” Slim 400 prepares to give fans a closer look into the events leading up to his shooting with his new short film and Shake Back EP.
HipHopDX: Can you talk about working on the documentary while recovering from the 2019 shooting incident? How did you stay motivated during recovery, let alone work on a documentary?
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Slim 400: Like personally, it was just with the faith of God, bro, and just him just having me, you know, having my back, just like I ain’t going to let you go out, you know what I mean? Like it ain’t your time yet. I had a lot of time to think about what it was I wanted to do when I get out, you know what I mean? Thought about hell of things I was blessed about, and the minute I got out, the next day, actually the next day, bro, I got out, went to the studio, out in Burbank, California, and shit, I sat down, listened to some beats, me and my manager debate about the concept of the song, how should I come back and just let them know like, yeah, I’m out of the hospital, what’s going on with me. Shit, shake back. So from that it was, all right, we’re going to call your shit Shake Back, the whole tape and my whole rollout, everything. I got a short film called Shake Back. I got the song with me and Young Dolph called “Shake Back.”
It’s just everything was like a shake back, like, like you’re going to beat this. You know what I mean? You’re going to pull it through, and I just have to keep it lit for my fans, my family, my core fan base, because it’s a lot of people around this world that really loves Slim 400. I know I got myself into some trouble, being in the city and being in my hood, but we all learned from my mistakes. It’s sad to be on that type of level, but guy, he let me go. He woke me up. That was my wake up call. Now I’m on my second life, and I ain’t looking back at nothing. Everything is all gas, you feel me?
HipHopDX: What was the process of linking up with Sada Baby for “Brackin Thru The Ghetto” like? Why was this track the right venue for the collaboration?
Slim 400: Basically, as far as the artists, that’s Sada Baby. He out of Detroit, as you all know, so him, kind of knowing my situation and me being a Blood out of my area, you know what I mean? He on the Blood side, so off the bat real recognizes real. He’d be in like, ‘hey bro, I’m just checking on you’. You know what I mean? Real recognize real. Really dopest shit, woo woo. From that, it was just like, okay, he’s tapping in for a reason. It’s all respect, but we’re artists too. So as I’m back in a booth, you see what I’m saying, coming up with these songs, creating songs, I’m like he kind of lit right now. He been lit for a minute now. So I just him kind of being ghetto — you know what I mean, I’m being ghetto, we’re just from the street, you know, and we had our areas and this go down with everything we do. I said, okay watch, I’m going to do a song like straight for me and him. And it was just that coming through the ghetto, niggas sipping on Corona, sipping on Modelo, like oh, messing with my Mexican homies, like what? Like oh baby, ass fat like jello… Like it just came, and the hook came, and I did my verse. I bounced it out like, ‘hey, I’m going to send you something’. He shot me the email. I sent it to him. And then something like probably like a week later — because he was busy, you know what I mean, on the road doing shows, doing his interview. I think he had like a little press run around the time, so he hit me like, ‘hey, I’m about to be in the studio tonight. Watch, I’m going to hit you with it. I’m going to show you what I got’. I’m like, all right, bet. At that moment I wasn’t even looking for him. I was just going to let him do what he do. But he hit me back a couple days later like, ‘hey, I’m about to be in the studio tonight’, woop-tee-wooh. Little do I know he sent it back. I’m like, Ooh man, that’s too tight.
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We’re going up, and I feel like that’s how I came with the song, this feeling like I’m from the ghetto he’s from the ghetto, me and him is, you know, blood. We’re going up, like. All this me getting shot stuff is over with. I’m going to move past that and look forward to doing better and not get myself carded like that, and I’m still going to be in the ghetto from time to time, but in the right parts and having an extra eye with me, you see what I’m saying?
HipHopDX: Will the upcoming Shake Back EP be a prelude to the Ice Wata Army album?
Slim 400: No, this is what I would say. My new EP which is like probably 20 more days now, is called Shake Back. That’s my solo artist featuring, you know what I mean, a couple people I reached out to that gave me some features. Outside of that, after I drop that, I’m back in the booth working on Ice Wata Army, and the army consists of just different, up and coming artists that I feel I will put up the Ice Wata myself, because I see like potential in certain people when I travel around the world. So I got like probably a person or two out here in L.A. I’m messing with because them bros. I got somebody out there in Vegas I’m messing with because he’s just sick. I got a dude out there in Arizona. I’m messing with him. So that’s what consists of the army, you know what I mean? So when we present ourself and go out of town or go out of state, ‘Shit, fly out with me. Let’s go’. We all meet up together. That’s the army. That’s Ice Wata the army to me. Different people from the label that’s about to turn up and I’m about to show you all like who they are, you know what I mean?
HipHopDX: What type of vibe can we expect from the Shake Back EP? What producers and or artists were you working with while recording for the project?
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Slim 400: So I’ve got my personal, hands-on, in-house producer. He go by Psycho On The Beat. He’s from out of Richmond, California — a little young Hispanic dude, probably like 19, 20s. That’s my dude. So me and him just sit down, we kind of make the beats together. I’ll tell a sound, he come with it, and I say, yeah, keep that and go along. And that’s how we come up with the beat, me and him. So I probably got like two, three beats by Psycho On The Beat on this new tape called Shake Back. Everything else is probably from my dude named Steels. Steels is like a producer that kind of sides up on the empire with me. So my A&R that they gave him to work on my album, his name is Gentry. Gentry kind of signed Steels up under, you know, producing and just making his little tapes — you know how DJ Mustard and will do it, so they gave me him to work with. So, you know. I’m going through my little process, so it’d be Steels, majority of my production, Psycho On The Beat, probably two, three of them, and I got another dude out of Washington, I want to say like Seattle if I’m not mistaken, but he goes by Tee-Tee. So between them three, them are all where my beats kind of coming from. Other than that, the features.
Yella Beezy looked out, because that’s my bro. He’s a stand-up guy. You know Dolph, he did that. I got a G-Eazy verse. Yeah, I got a couple features that are going to make sense to where it’s going to look like, ‘ dang, Slim 400 is like really working and stepping outside his whole zone’. Because being with G-Eazy, it’s like, like he in a street but he ain’t like the ghetto ass Slim 400 type — you know what I mean? So I’m going to have to dumb it down and kind of come with some shit. So when I did it, he was like, Okay, like I like this, I’m going to jump on. And then I was surprised, but G-Eazy, he’s an A-list celebrity, and that’s my boy, just also just smoking weed and just cracking jokes and getting high type shit. More so, when he seen a song he liked, he just came with it. Yella Beezy, that’s my boy. Anything I need, he’ll like to appear. That is how me and him rock. So yeah, this tape right here, I just gave it my all for the little fact I should have been dead. So once God gave me another life, I’m going to give him my all and show the world, my fans, like yeah, I ain’t going to disappoint you all this time — and I ain’t going to put you in that situation to be sad or crying over a nigga. You feel me, none of that. It’s just going to be straight business, watching my behind out here in these streets and getting into the bread.
HipHopDX: What are your plans for yourself as an artist and for Ice Wata the label in 2020?
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Slim 400: All right, let’s start it off. Like I said, I got the documentary coming kind of a little bit after my tape drop, which is, once again, called Shake Back. It’s probably like 15-minutes. It’s just me acting out the whole scene of how it happened, what I was going through that day, where I was at that day, leading up to me getting shot. So that’s me acting. So I’m taking acting in the sense of like serious. So along with me rapping and doing this and putting other brothers on and other acquaintances on from their regions on my Ice Wata label, I’m giving their chance to rap and hold my label down while I’m kind of venturing off to the acting. And I’ve got a couple of different roles I got to go cast for and go through the whole process because just because you’re Slim 400 they ain’t going to give it to you. You got to show them why you’re the best man for that role. So I’m out here every day, practicing, acting classes. As of right now kind of me and my manager sitting down, whenever we got time sitting down, smoking, just writing another movie. So I’m all about right now movies, putting a couple people on for their cities, their states, their regions, just to give them that look and feel like, like I ain’t just trying to be the guy, you see what I’m saying? As long as I get my money, my little percentage of what I’m doing on my own, EP-wise and whatever I’m doing, I can put somebody else on it and let you all go get some money, too, and it’s still business. Percentage off that, percentage off that, and everybody’s eating.
Other than that, man, staying out of the way, man. I’ll keep taking care of my family, stacking this bread. You know, I’m getting high with this — we try to get buildings and companies, real talk. I’m looking to try to go get a laundromat. And you’re the first I’ve told. I’ve been talking to my peoples inside of my circle, but not putting this like worldwide to the public. You feel me? So imagine if I come back in the ghetto where I know they don’t really got it like that. It’s like why are you all like playing with it, which is the government. I’m going to come back and own mine so I could set my price. It’s going to be back at a dollar. You sell it their washing and drying, a dollar. A dollar, like come back on that, just because I know it’s a lot of people out there that can’t really do it. So when they find out where that laundromat at, and that’s right there, they can drive there, for a dollar, man. Mama’s things don’t stay put. I’ll keep stacking up. There’s different things that a lot of other rappers ain’t doing, bro. That’s what I’m trying to be on.
Stream “Brackin Thru The Ghetto” below and follow @slim400blk on Instagram.
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