Throughout his new album, volume 1: flick your tongue against your teeth and describe the present, Mane wrestles with overwhelming feelings of helplessness, and his attitude toward himself is relentlessly unforgiving.

While his earliest verses are characterized by an undeniable sadness (“I’ma slit my wrists, no tourniquet, I’m murderous / My crib got more burners than furnishing / got a lot of haters, not concerned with it”), on recent releases, his penchant for self-deprecation has curdled into self-loathing. Yet as of late, he seems more omnipresent than ever. The Richmond, Va., producer/rapper-most of his production is credited to Shawn Kemp, which isn’t his real name, but another alias-remains elusive.

It’s secondary to me, it’s not important,” he once said. “I don’t feel the need to have a physical presence. But while ringleader SpaceGhostPurrp signed to a label and started popping up in the music press, Lil Ugly Mane rarely granted interviews or performed shows. Lil Ugly Mane started generating attention six years ago via his work with Raider Klan, the youthful Miami rap collective that helped make ’90s Memphis hip-hop stylings fashionable again.

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