Atmosphere
Eleven years after becoming the first hip-hop act to put the Twin
Cities on the map, Atmosphere has grown into one of the most
accomplished MC/producer duos around. Between Slug and Ant, they've
released six albums, 11 Sad Clown tour albums and various side-projects
like Felt -- amounting in well over a million units sold.
(Atmosphere is a hip-hop group from Minneapolis that centers 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 Rhyme Sayers
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 like-minded 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 its 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 mic 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. ~ Dan LeRoy, All Music Guide.)