Forget boxes. Slay Squad have never seemed particularly interested in them. The Rialto, California six-piece — Stick (bass), Brahim Gousse (vocals), Timmy (drums), DJ Queso (DJ), Gordo (guitar) and Keilo Kei (vocals) — call what they do “ghetto metal.” The name is theirs. The rules are, too.
Photo credit: Roberto Graziano Moro
Formed in 2013, they started rehearsing as kids and somehow turned that teenage experiment into a full-blown cult. Their sound is heavy, dirty and gloriously unpolished: metal, hip-hop and industrial noise held together by two wildly different vocalists and an attitude that refuses to behave.
Stick and Gousse are the band’s creative engine. They make music, but they also shoot, direct and edit much of the visual universe around it. Stick brings the bass, the opinions and the kind of presence that makes you want to know what he’s going to say next. Gousse brings the rasp, the hip-hop DNA and enough charisma to command a room without asking permission.
Photo credit: Roberto Graziano Moro
Then there’s Gordo — guitarist, tattoo connoisseur and unofficial art director — Timmy behind the drums, and DJ Queso, because apparently having two vocalists wasn’t enough chaos so he poses as a preacher, tour manager and a designated driver between shows. Keilo Kei completes the equation: a bona fide metalhead with a voice that sounds like an industrial accident in the best possible way.
Photo credit: Roberto Graziano Moro
The cult status isn’t entirely accidental. Limp Bizkit took them on tour across the US and South America, where Slay Squad tore through stages in Brazil and Peru. Then A$AP Rocky came calling. He found them when they had only a few thousand followers and, predictably, did what he does best: ignored the trend and helped create one. Their collaboration, “STFU!”, landed on his album DON’T BE DUMB. Some people hate it. Some people love it. Slay Squad probably doesn’t care.
Photo credit: Roberto Graziano Moro
And then came Europe.
Their Slovenian stop may have been one of the smaller dates on the itinerary, but the band has already found itself sharing festival territory with the likes of Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit at Hellfest, Rock im Park and Rock am Ring. Watching Slay Squad live, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine them on a small stage anyway.
Photo credit: Roberto Graziano Moro
They have the energy of a band that still believes every show could be the last one — and the swagger of one that knows it won’t be.
You don’t really discover Slay Squad. You get pulled into the 111.
Photo credit: Roberto Graziano Moro
Born an original. Don’t die a copy.
Squaaaaaad ’111’.