About a decade ago, the Richmond, Virginia rapper Lil Ugly Mane arguably helped pioneer the whole SoundCloud-rap wave with his album Mista Thug Isolation. But Lil Ugly Mane didn’t stick with that sound long enough to capitalize on it. Recently, the artist seems to have gone off on his own personal spiritual quest. After a long absence, Lil Ugly Mane started releasing one-off lo-fi indie rock singles last year, leading up to the self-released album Volcanic Bird Enemy And The Voiced Concern. Now, Lil Ugly Mane has a new single that’s very much in that mode.
The new song “Low Tide At The Dryin’ Out Facility” is a countrified lo-fi acoustic ditty about self-destruction and chemical dependency. The cover art appears to be a scan of the paperwork for checking into a recovery facility, and it’s dated last month. It sounds like the work of someone who’s really gone through it, and it also sounds a bit self-deprecating and maybe even funny — a difficult line to walk. The chorus goes: “Baby, baby, do you love me?/ Even though I’m in recovery?” The result sounds a bit like Beck’s “Truckdrivin’ Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat),” if the song had actually been written by the neighbors. Check it out below.
“Low Tide At The Dryin’ Out Facility” is out now and available at Bandcamp. Lil Ugly Mane can still rap, as he recently showed on Your Old Droog’s “Meteor Man,” but that doesn’t really seem to be where his head is at right now.
