Atmosphere are a hip-hop group from
Minneapolis centering around rapper Slug (aka Sean Daley). The son
of a black father and a white mother who divorced when he was a
teenager, Slug became entranced with hip-hop, graffiti, and
breakdancing, and formed the Rhymesayers collective with two
high-school friends -- Siddiq Ali (Stress) and Derek Turner
(Spawn). After some early gigs as Urban Atmosphere, where Slug DJed
behind Spawn's rhyming, the pair hooked up with producer Ant
(Anthony Davis), as well as likeminded locals such as MC Musab, Mr.
Gene Poole, and the Abstract Pack, forming an underground hip-hop
clique dedicated to freestyling, clever and complex lyrics, and
anti-gangsta positivity. In 1998, Atmosphere released their debut
album, Overcast!, which quickly became regarded as an underground
hip-hop classic thanks to Slug's deeply personal, poetic musings,
as well as Ant's bare-bones -- but inventive -- production.
The next Atmosphere album was titled Sad Clown Bad Dub II, a 2000
set originally sold while the group was on tour. (Now out of print,
it's a highly sought-after collector's item.) A year later, the
group released Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP's, a collection of
three EPs built around the theme of Slug's complicated relationship
with his ex-girlfriend, the lost love of his life. The group has
toured consistently, both at home and overseas; while Ant usually
doesn't accompany the group on the road, Mr. Dibbs of the group
1200 Hobos often joins in behind the turntables and Slug is usually
assisted on the mike by young rappers like the teenaged Eyedea. In
June 2002, the group -- down to the duo of Slug and Ant --
unleashed God Loves Ugly, an 18-track effort that returned to
previous themes ("F*@k You Lucy"), but also contained the group's
most pop-friendly single to date, "Modern Man's Hustle."
By this time indie rap superstars, Atmosphere returned with their
fourth album, Seven's Travels, in 2003, followed two years later by
You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having. The group continued to
put music out during the next couple of years, including the free
download Strictly Leakage in late 2007, a near-party album that
they followed up with When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That
Shit Gold in April 2008, a record that featured plenty of live
instrumentation and guest background vocal spots from
Tom
Waits and
TV
on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. ~ Dan LeRoy, Rovi