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Atmosphere (music group)

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Atmosphere

Atmosphere is an American hip hop group from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The members are rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ/producer Ant (Anthony Davis). Active in various forms since 1993, Atmosphere is one of the most commercially successful and long-lived independent hip hop groups.

Members

The two main members of the group are Slug (as the MC) and producer Ant. With the exception of a few tracks on the album Lucy Ford, Ant has produced every Atmosphere record. Former member and co-founder Spawn (Derek Turner, now going by the name "Rek The Heavyweight") left the group after the release of the group's first album, Overcast!. Mr. Dibbs was an off-and-on touring DJ for Atmosphere prior to their "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having" tour, when Ant began touring, though he was never a full member of the group.

History

Pre-Overcast!

In high school, Sean Daley met soon-to-be close friend Brent Sayer. The men would come to be known as Slug and Siddiq (or Stress), respectively. Together they formed the core of what would go on to become the Rhymesayers Collective. The initial lineup saw them performing as "Urban Atmosphere" (originally "Mental Subject", then "Arhythmic Culture") with Spawn rapping and Slug on the turntables. Soon, Spawn convinced Slug to start rapping as well and they began making songs using turntables and a tape recorder. Through rapper Musab (then known as Beyond), Slug met producer Ant when they went to his house to record a track. Slug saw an opportunity in working with Ant and convinced Spawn to record further with him. They soon started recording songs with Ant, learning how to structure songs properly and practicing vocal delivery.[1] Eventually Ant, Musab and rapper Mr. Gene Poole (Swift, of Phull Surkle) joined the collective, with the group coming to be known as Headshots. Over time, seven cassettes were released under this moniker and garnered some local acclaim; enough so that even as early as 1996, Slug, Stress and Musab were making national appearances such as on NPR's All Things Considered.[2] The start of Rhymesayers as a record label came when Siddiq, fed up with their treatment at a number of local studios, decided to buy his own.[3]

Overcast! (1997)

Spawn left the group right as their first album Overcast! was released, citing a "lack of desire to continue in a pursuit that seemed so insurmountable" (he had also planned to move to Houston, TX with his wife, Avril Karam).[1] The release of Overcast! allowed audiences outside of the Twin Cities to be introduced to Atmosphere, mostly with the airplay that the song "Scapegoat" received on college radio stations. Meanwhile Slug honed his live performance skills at Minneapolis hot spots such as First Avenue and 7th Street Entry. 1998 saw the recording of two albums by underground rap supergroups. The first, The Dynospectrum, involved both Slug and Ant as well as Beyond (Musab), Swift (of Phull Surkle) and I Self Divine. The second, Deep Puddle Dynamics, was an effort put forth by Oakland, CA-based underground rap label Anticon, and featured Slug, Sole, Alias and Doseone rapping over beats by Jel.

Ford and Lucy Ford (2000-2001)

Now touring nationally on a more regular basis (the twenty-one date Ford One Tour brought them to the East Coast for the first time),[4] Slug was able to quit his job at record store Electric Fetus, a job he had started when he was still pulling overnight shifts at Target in order to make enough to support his son. The year 2000 also saw the opening of the Rhymesayers owned record store The Fifth Element. In 2001, the two Ford EPs and The Lucy Ford EP were combined into the Lucy Ford LP; originally supposed to be a tour only release, it sold so well that it was later released as an official LP (making it the only Atmosphere album featuring producers other than Ant).[5] Atmosphere hit the road harder than ever in 2001 with three separate tours straddling North America and Europe (Ford Two Tour, Who Killed The Robots Tour and Fill In The Blanks Tour; the latter being Mr. Dibbs's first outing as their tour DJ).[4] With Lucy Ford, Atmosphere finally achieved national distribution through independent distributor Fat Beats.

God Loves Ugly (2002)

Atmosphere planned to release their second studio album God Loves Ugly on June 11, 2002 ( but was respectfully delayed due to recording process such as editing and fixing tracks, as well as certain personal issues Slug had with releasing the new lp that early ). The record featured more straightforward, almost battle-centric, lyrics from Slug. The record was distributed nationally again through Fat Beats and would go on to sell over 130,000 copies.[4] The album generated two singles: Modern Man's Hustle and GodLovesUgly. Atmosphere toured extensively in support of this record, going as far as Europe and Japan and even playing sixty shows in seventy-one days.[4] Their various successes finally got the attention of major labels, Interscope, Sony and Warner Brothers all came calling on Rhymesayers with deals. However, for the time, Atmosphere decided to stay independent.

Seven's Travels (2003)

Atmosphere's third full length studio album, Seven's Travels, was released on September 23 through Rhymesayers and punk label Epitaph. It contained two singles, "Trying To Find A Balance" and "National Disgrace", both of which had music videos that received airplay on MTV2 and other stations, garnering Atmosphere more attention and success than previous releases. The album had one guest appearance from label mate Brother Ali and was entirely produced by Ant. Several songs on Seven's Travels contain lyrics pertaining to relationship problems, alcohol, and depression. For instance, on the song "Denvermolorado" Slug writes 'It's the sound of emotion enough, to make me wanna hang myself from the rafter that's over my bed'. On songs like "Always Coming Back Home To You", Slug displays his ability to paint a vivid picture in one's mind through his story telling abilities, while "Lift Her Pull Her" explains the trials and tribulations within his love life, as listeners have heard on God Loves Ugly and Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs. Seven's Travels is one of Atmosphere's most critically acclaimed and successful LP's to date. It has been said that the album cover for Seven's Travels was made as an homage to The Beatles' 'White Album'.


You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having (2005)

Released on October 4, 2005 Atmosphere's fourth album You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having was a definite departure from the previous two albums. Production duties and delays were once again handled entirely by Ant, but the sound and lyrical content of the album was noticeably more raw than the more polished and commercial Godlovesugly and Seven's Travels. Reviews were generally positive with Stylust going as far as to say "The result may be, in a manner of speaking, the most consistent Atmosphere album to date."[6] The opening track "The Arrival" appeared on EA Sports' Fight Night Round 3.

Strictly Leakage (2007)

Strictly Leakage is an unofficial album released as a free download in December 2007.

When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (2008)

The latest LP release from Atmosphere (as of 2008) marks a departure from some of the notable styles of their past records. Ant used more live instrumentation[7] in his production rather than sampling off of records. He would have the various musicians that play in Atmosphere's touring band lay down a few bars from which he would take what he wanted and assemble a track. Slug meanwhile started writing more songs telling stories and anecdotes about other people (real, fictional or somewhere in between); a move he had prophesied in an earlier song ("It Goes" off of Lucy Ford EP). Consequently, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold is notable for containing only two tracks that directly describe Slug's trials and tribulations.[8]

Leak at Will (2009)

A free digital EP with 7 tracks. Released on July 4th, 2009.[9]

To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy: The Atmosphere EP's: (2010)

A combination of EP's released on Sept 7th, 2010 for the upcoming "To All My Friends" tour. The album shot up to #2 on iTunes top 10 album downloads the week of September 11, 2010.[10][11]

Touring

Slug credits most of the group's success to all the touring they do. In the early days they once drove from Minneapolis to Dallas to play a show for $250.[7]

During 2005's 8 nights in a row at the legendary 7th St. Entry, the "Big Day Out" in Australia and the '@ it again' tour, Atmosphere was accompanied by a live band for the first time, featuring Nate Collis on guitar, Brett Johnson on bass, Erick Anderson on keyboards and Patrick Armitage on drums. Patrick (Drums) was replaced in late 05' by Brian McLeod for the "Pour Me Another" tour. The live setup brought a jazzy, more improvisational feel to Atmosphere's sound. Slug has said he wanted to play with a live band to add more of a challenge to playing live.

As of the Paint Your City Gold series of "release parties" in support of When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, the live band has been re-rostered with Ant laying down the percussion as DJ, Nate Collis on guitar and back up vocals, Erick Anderson on keyboards and synths & Mankwe Ndosi as the 'human samples.'

In Spring 2009, Atmosphere embarked on the "When God Gives You Ugly" tour to celebrate the re-release of 2002's "God Loves Ugly" (which had been out of print) as well as their latest studio LP "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold". Slug & Ant were accompanied by Attracted To Gods, P.O.S, Brother Ali, as well as Eyedea & Abilities during the tour.

During Summer 2010, Atmosphere announced their plans for another tour titled the "To All My Friends" tour. It would be accompanied by special guests: Blueprint, Grieves & Budo and DJ Rare Groove. [12]

Lyrical content

A prominent theme in Slug's lyrics is his allegorical usage of women, especially in his earlier work. A notable use of women by Slug is in the song "Woman with the Tattooed Hands", which Slug has said is "a metaphor for that same old shit that everybody has already made songs about. Just trying to find your place within a belief and faith as well as people that you want to have sex with.".[13] Further uses come in the form of the song "Abusing of the Rib" from Headshots: SE7EN: it has been said that the "lover" that Slug speaks of is actually an allegory for Hip-Hop. The tour-only release Sad Clown Bad Dub II saw Slug use a great degree of both symbolism and metaphor with notable references to nature and relationships throughout each song, culminating heavily in the album's penultimate track "The River".

A character whom Slug refers to as "Lucy", who has been purported to be a symbolisation of a range of different entities, is the most notable of these allegories. In earlier Atmosphere songs, Slug used Lucy as a means of writing about his on-again off-again girlfriend Rita, though according to Rita, it developed into something "bigger and better". [14]. Lucy became so prominent that Atmosphere's 2001 album bore her name, Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs, with the record itself concentrating fairly heavily on women and relationships, in songs such as "Don't Ever Fucking Question That" and "Mama Had A Baby And His Head Popped Off". The song "Fuck You Lucy" from God Loves Ugly has been said to deal with Slug's dependency on alcohol. Slug himself has since said of Lucy that he originally believed "her" to be a representation of the dichotomy between himself and women. He acknowledges now that Lucy became a demonization ("Lucy Ford" being a play on words for Lucifer) of himself and his dependency on alcohol, drugs, sex and validation. [15].

Slug raps in a very introspective style, as seen on the song "Little Man", in which he confronts the complaints that people have about him by looking at his relationship with his father and son.[16] This introspective style has become less prevalent as of Atmosphere's 2008 album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold in which Slug navigates through other people's lives.[16] When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold has been noted to be more of a dark album than previous efforts. Slug maintains the allegorical stance from previous records in songs such as "Your Glasshouse" which deals with his emotions towards the war in Iraq using the guise of a person waking up from a hangover.

Slug also dislikes some of the songs that he wrote before and does not perform them live, such as "Vampires" from 2002 album God Loves Ugly.[17] Daley has stated: "[...] when I did get my phase of trying to figure myself out, there was a lot of tug-of-war inside of me between wanting to hate a particular woman and then feeling guilty about that. And there’s certain songs that I won’t perform anymore, because the game of tug-of-war is over and I know where I’m at.[18] Furthermore, Slug has criticised Atmosphere's debut album Overcast! saying: "It's obvious that I’m trying so fucking hard on Overcast and you can see through it and tell it's not a person it's more of an attempt at trying to fill the niche, it was like I was trying to prove to myself that I was a rapper." [16]

Collaborations

Slug has also released three albums with Murs from the West Coast hip hop group Living Legends. The idea for Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci, their first album as a duo, came about while on tour.[19] The two decided to see if they could garner some extra media attention for Ricci by dedicating their album to her, although according to Slug, Ricci has never responded to this or contacted the band.[20] This debut studio album was produced by The Grouch from Living Legends.

Their second collaboration, Felt, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet, produced by Ant, was released in 2005.

Their third Felt album was announced on the duo's MySpace page, leaking the track "Protagonists" from the album and announcing the title ("A Tribute to Rosie Perez"), the release date (11.17.09) and the producer, Aesop Rock.

Slug has also been featured on albums by Mohammad Kamruzzaman, C-Ray Z Walz, Cunninlynguists, Brother Ali, Eyedea & Abilities, Evidence, Aesop Rock, Unknown Prophets, KRS-One, Oddjobs, Vakill, DoseOne, Jel, P.O.S., X-Ecutioners, Kanser, Blueprint, Heiruspecs, Jean Grae, Parallel Thought, Static & Nat Ill, DJ Vadim, Booka B, El-P, DOOM, Roosevelt Franklin, Grayskul, Minnesota indie rock band Lifter Puller, Cool-Aide (iCON the Mic King & Chum), Anomaly, AKA Jason Heinrichs and several Living Legends albums as well as Living Legends solo projects such as The CMA.

Studio Discography

Main article: Atmosphere discography

EP's

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Can't You Imagine Atmosphere Having Fun? MVRemix Urban Interviews Slug of Atmosphere. November, 2005
  2. ^ Rhyme out of joint City Pages. July 5, 2000.
  3. ^ One Nation Invisible City Pages. August 18, 2004.
  4. ^ a b c d [1], Music Emissions Atmosphere Bio
  5. ^ [2], The Fifth Element of Hip-Hop - Synthesis
  6. ^ "Atmosphere - You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having - Review". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  7. ^ a b [3], HipHopDX Interview with Atmosphere. Retrieved November 28, 2008.
  8. ^ Khanna, Vish."Atmosphere’s Lemon Aid", Exclaim!, May 2008.
  9. ^ "Free Atmosphere Ep "Leak At Will" - Myspace-Blog | Van Atmosphere". Blogs.myspace.com. 2004-11-05. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  10. ^ “”. "Atmosphere - To All My Friends". YouTube. Retrieved 2010-10-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Rhymesayers Entertainment :: Atmosphere". Rhymesayers.com. 2010-09-07. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  12. ^ "Rhymesayers Entertainment :: Atmosphere". Rhymesayers.com. 2010-09-07. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  13. ^ Posted by MVRemix. "Slug (Atmosphere) Interview | MVRemix Urban". Mvremix.com. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  14. ^ "Slug Interview". Rapspot.dk. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  15. ^ Sarah Marie Pittman (2009-02-24). "Atmosphere's Slug Gets Real About Lucy Ford | Pollstar - The Concert Hotwire". Pollstar. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  16. ^ a b c "Interview: Slug of Atmosphere". 4twk.com. 2008-10-20. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  17. ^ Gillespie, Blake. "Minneapolis is Rhymesayers | Longtail". Impose Magazine. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  18. ^ "Atmosphere: More than a Feeling". XLR8R. 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  19. ^ "Felt". Rhymesayers Entertainment. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  20. ^ Wiley, M. (2003-10-10). "IGN Interview, Page 3". IGN. Retrieved 2007-05-30.

External links

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