Kingpen Slim: Street certified, Tweet certified

As Kingpen Slim says on "Gone," a track from his latest project, The Beam Up 2, “fuck a sophomore curse.” The rapper says he was under a lot of pressure to come with a strong follow-up to his well-received 2009 mixtape, The Beam Up.  

“The first Beam Up was a lot easier, if that makes any sense,” he says. “When you have success, it builds anticipation. The Beam Up is considered a classic in the area, so I had to top that. I had a bar for myself to reach. The Beam Up took 2-3 months to put together, Beam Up 2 took, like, a year.”

I talked to Slim yesterday, shortly after The Beam Up 2 was posted on DJ Booth, and the album has just started trending on Twitter. He explained some of his favorite tracks on the project that quickly enthralled the DMV Twitterverse. 

"1 King": "I’m basically talking about how it’s real competitive in the area, everybody is jockeying for position, and I’m staking my claim, sticking my flag in the ground. I don’t mind being alone, because the king stands alone. A lot of people are cliqued up and getting together, and that’s kind of weak. So this is subliminal take on that, but it's direct at the same time."

"Cologne": It’s autobiographical because I use cologne and it’s an afrodisiac. Men don’t understand the power of cologne. Maybe I have a false sense of my superhero powers when I put it on, but I feel more attractive. And I collect different scents."

On the track, Slim mentions a “cologne closet,” but he says in reality it’s more of a cabinet. "I have a cabinet, a shelf, one of those build-a-shelf joints, but closet sounded more bossy than cabinet.

“My Life Is A Movie," co-starring Jim Jones: "To get that stamp of approval from someone like [Dipset member and Diplomat Records CEO] Jim [Jones], who’s been in the game and he wants to work with me? It was cool. And we’ve got a couple more joints coming.