Atmosphere has been around since ‘89, but has recently come to my attention. A hip hop duo from Minneapolis, Minnesota, rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and producer Ant (Anthony Davis) make the perfect team. The style Ant pushes is one of a bluesy jazz sound mixed with the signature bumping that hip hop is all about. Combined with slugs depressed and broken character that shows through his lyrics perfectly paints a picture of bleak Midwest poverty and struggles.
The group has released eight studio albums, as well as 10 EPs and countless singles. One of my favorite aspects of their music is that every album has a significant sound and feeling associated with them. Each album clearly displays a different point in their lives, and all of the hardships that accompany them. For people with intense mental turmoil, music is a freeing muse. Slugs lyrics show a very significant mix of different mental ailments that have been shaped by a life of adversity. Although the themes are often sad, scary and just downright depressing, they also convey a message of hope. One song that I think encompasses this better than any other is “Sunshine” from the album Sad Clown Bad Summer Number 9.
The song is about a hangover, and it aptly describes the beauty of the world despite its shortcomings. The song is about walking outside and feeling the beauty of the world. This is a very good representation of living with depression. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve woken up feeling dead inside after a night of binge drinking. At that point, the only real way to deal with the overarching anguish really is to see the good in life. The lyrics of this song paint visual images with lines like “even the birds are bumpin’," and whenever I play it everyone points out that line. Even the beat of the song is simple and repetitive to match the message that life can be simple and happy if you sit back and appreciate it for what it is rather than the chains that we bind ourselves to in our daily lives.
Atmosphere’s songs are all about realism. There is no sense of painting a picture of a pristine and beautiful world, but an emphasis on the ugly and maliciousness of our society and the world we’ve created with it. Constant references of substance and physical abuse, crime and an existential crisis absolutely conveys the troubled mind of an artist.
The style that they bring to the table is so unique, and while I would say they are one of my favorite hip hop artists, I don’t think that genre alone can describe what they do. There’s an element of grunge, blues, jazz, rap and of course hip hop in every track. Even the album artwork shows incredible detail and expression.
In the past six months, Atmosphere has released a decent number of singles, and if you’re unfamiliar with them you definitely have to check them out. The majority of them are free on the record label “Rhymesayers” SoundCloud, so go give it a listen.
Just click any of the images below to hear a song
