As a music journalist, you can’t really come to know artists until you’ve spent some time in their natural habitat. With that said, when Awful Records’ management team invites you to spend a few hours with the Atlanta-based collective, you’re not quite sure what to expect. Armed with a bottle of Hennessey, a camera, and recorder, I met the crew on a fall Friday at The Barrio, the apartment of rapper Archibald Slim that also functions as one of Awful Records recording studios.
From there, the plan was simple: everyone was going to hop into two cars and meet the rest of the gang over at GAHM’s parents' house in Jonesboro for a barbecue and some recording. Over the course of the next six hours, the plan would change, but the one constant was the Awful artists—they started and ended the day together.
For part one of the Awful Records story, get to know the crew through these photos taken throughout my time with them. Part two of the story is on the way.
Hit up SoundCloud to hear the music of Awful Records.
1.6:00 p.m.
I arrive at the Archibald Slim’s apartment aka The Barrio. In the courtyard I find (clockwise from left) Micah Freeman, KeithCharlesSpacebar, Father, Stalin Majesty and Ethereal talking about having a barbecue out GAHM’s parents house south of the city. “It's a natural environment and these are people I don't mind being around—we just click with each other,” Stalin Majesty says.
2.6:30 p.m.
Ethereal and Father discuss the night's plans while taking swigs of Hennessey. “Even if it's spur of the moment, everybody is on the same kind of wavelength,” Father says.
3.7:00 p.m.
We hop in Micah Freeman’s car. Father uses my cell phone to pay his Metro PCS bill.
4.7:30 p.m.
Slug Christ (right) greets us when we arrive at GAHM’s parents house in Jonesboro. We learn that no one ever picked up food for the barbecue so stacks of Little Ceasars pizzas are ordered.
5.8:00 p.m.
Lord Narf and Ethereal take turns testing headphones that were given to Father. “We definitely feed off of each other a lot,” Lord Narf says. “We can’t escape it, 'cause we’re around each other literally every day.”
6.8:10 p.m.
Richposlim (in Ethereal's wheelchair), KeithCharlesSpacebar, and GAHM play video games while waiting for the pizza to arrive.
7.8:30 p.m.
The entire crew—sans Abra (who was at work)—and a few friends all link up in the basement of GAHM’s parents house. “From the beginning, all I’ve really wanted was to surround myself with others like myself, who shared the same goals, thought with a similar mindset,” Pyramid Quince says.
8.8:37 p.m.
In the other room, Dexter’s taking advantage of the blunts and the open ping-pong table.
9.9:00 p.m.
KeithCharleSpacebar settles in to the production station in GAHM’s basement. It’ll be three hours before he leaves this spot.
10.9:15 p.m.
Micah Freeman plays a guitar riff that will end up on the first beat KeithCharles Spacebar makes.
11.9:43 p.m.
Richposlim refers to himself as Awful Records' Dame Dash. “Everybody here’s a little weird, they have their quirks, but we take everyone as what they are,” he says. “I don’t want to hang out with three people who like all the same things as me, because I won’t learn anything new.”
12.11:13 p.m.
KeithCharlesSpacebar and LuiDiamonds collab on a beat, one of two they’ll work on over the course of the night. “We’re super regular, we don’t do any extraordinary shit,” LuiDiamonds says. “We get drunk, we do what normal people do. We fucking play ping-pong and shit, we talk shit about each other, we’re actually friends, that’s what it is. It’s deeper than the music.”
13.11:30 p.m.
GAHM sits on a futon, strumming his electric guitar. “These are friends that I’ve always wanted to have,” GAHM says. “[They’re] friends that I really vibe with creatively, even though we may be on some totally different shit.”
14.12:05 p.m.
Archibald Slim (left), Father, and GAHM throw in their two cents on the beat just made. “I don’t really be on the Internet looking for new people to listen to,” Archibald Slim says. “Not that I have a grudge against people, I just didn’t have the Internet for a minute. I got a lot of CD’s in the house and I be listening to them.”
15.1:15 a.m.
Slug Christ and KeithCharlesSpacebar discuss the collective’s forthcoming trip to New York City for CMJ. The rest of the crew is passed out in the background. “It’s so fucking organic,” KCSB says. “All of us have starved together, eaten together, and lived together for years. This is my real life, man.”