Slaine: The White Man is the Devil Volume 2: Citizen Caine

Slaine is like the rap equivalent of Leonardo Dicaprio’s Southie-raised undercover cop from Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Born in working class Dorchester, Slaine subsequently lived all over the Boston area, but is always quick to point out his time spent in the notorious Southie projects, known for their rough hewn youth and drug-filled streets. So its no surprise that Slaine has been tapped by Ben Affleck to play Bubba Rogowski in his directorial adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel Gone, Baby, Gone, about two private detectives from the Dorchester neighborhood trying to solve the case of a kidnapped 4-year-old.

Let’s get the Eminem comparisons out of the way: both emphasize their blue-collar roots and both are white. It ends there. Where Eminem’s violence and misogyny are almost cartoonish, Slaine is militant in his adherence to realism. While The White Man Is the Devil Volume 2: Citizen Caine paints a necessarily grimy picture of a cocaine-infused America, Slaine can get a tad sanctimonious on tracks like “Stop the Violence”. He’s best on tracks like “Still East Coast”, a lyricist’s “This Is Why I’m Hot”, with Slain naming off different regions and their respective drugs of choice.