ABOUT SLAY SQUAD
Located along historic Route 66, Rialto, California, blessed the world with socially conscious poet David Ray, Boyz n the Hood filmmaker John Singleton, and pioneering female rap group J.J. Fad, who earned a gold plaque on Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records. SLAY SQUAD are spiritual successors to the vibrant, grimy, and culturally rich San Bernardino County, situated 56 miles east of Los Angeles, the area where the Hell’s Angels began after World War II, and cops first began wearing body cameras.
SLAY SQUAD combines the vibrant energy, socially conscious urgency, and confident swagger found in the sound of a Roland TR-808, dubstep, techno, and old-school rap, together with the unrelenting crunch of post-modern deathcore and throwback skate punk. The result is a fresh take on heavy music. It comes from a shared commitment toward making ambitious ideas into tangible realities. Vocalist Keilo Kei shares
“I think the greatest art is a reflection of real life. Life is the best teacher. Mixing philosophies, experiences, musical genres, even strains in marijuana cultivation, we can’t separate it from what came before, but we can’t deny that it’s changed by its coming together. Call it rapcore, trap death, ghetto metal… SLAY SQUAD defies easy categorization, and that fact is by design.
Their self-described “ghetto metal” and Young God worldview built a buzz from the underground upward, with no handouts. Like the beginnings of Odd Future, Wu-Tang Clan, and Dischord Records, SLAY SQUAD holds true to the values of DIY, exercising strict creative control.
Gordo is a talented photographer and tech-savvy. Tim keeps his finger on the pulse of emerging styles in heavy music. Brahim is intimately, meticulously involved in the visual side of SLAY SQUAD, together with his partners in the Gousse Nest visual production team. SLAY SQUAD’s members hustle, organize, and regularly strategize, debating creative decisions with spirited discussion to realize the best collective path forward. They resist complacency, never too comfortable for too long.
Vocalist and SLAY SQUAD’s visual mastermind, Brahim Gousse adds
“People connected with us early on because they see that we are true, we’re combining genres, and they want to see what happens. Now we have fans who truly get what we’re about. We’ve been in the lab, throwing darts at the dartboard. Now it’s time to give people the damn art.”
The ferociously prolific group are continuing to work on new tracks with a number of releases planned to drop throughout the next 12 months.