One recent evening in the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta, Funk Volume’s Jarren Benton was in rare form. “Normally, Jarren Benton videos are f-cking retarded,” says the rapper with a shrug. “There’s always a bunch of crazy sh*t but what I wanna do is more visuals that look like art versus the crazy story like, how many people can I kill in a video?”
He’s right. For at least four years, the Atlanta MC has raised eyebrows—his double-time shock lyrics and the videos he pairs them with, creep up on rivaling the horrorcore that rap vet Tech N9ne thrives on. Things are different this go-round, though. With the release of Benton’s new Slow Motion Volume 1 EP, he’s trying something new, in memory of a friend.
Just over a year ago, Jarren Benton was on set to record the video for “PBR & Reefer” from his My Grandma’s Basement LP. The shoot proved challenging as the night went on. The rapper’s day-to-day manager, a hulking 6’5” gentle giant, affectionately referred to as Slow Mo, paced back and forth outside of the East Atlanta home rented for the taping. “People that promised to come by a certain time, they ain’t here. Sh*t so stressful, man,” he said, sighing.
True to the theme of the song, Pabst Blue Ribbon cans littered the home’s interior, clouds of weed smoke hung low from the foyer to the back patio. Still, even with all of the setbacks on that evening, the crew got it done. Slow donned a curly wig and ridiculous glasses for some of the scenes and was finally smiling by the night’s end. Five days later, Slow Motion was gone—passed away in his sleep to the complete and utter shock of everyone in the Atlanta music industry. He was 36 years old.
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Photo: Instagram
