Atmosphere

Whoever says white boys can’t rap? Well, yes, Vanilla Ice was traumatizing, but trust us on this—Atmosphere is nowhere near that. Hailing from the Twin Cities a.k.a Minneapolis, Slug (Sean Dealey) and Ant (Anthony Davis) have teamed up for 11 years as Atmosphere.

For that amount of time, this duo has been collecting praises from everywhere. It’s not surprising since Slug honestly rhymes his heart (and life) out in all of the albums over Ant’s infectious beats. Being part of Rhymesayer also helps in boosting the duo’s name.

According to Atmosphere’s press release, Rolling Stone once gushed about Slug, “This Minneapolis indie rap hero has potential to spare, delivering taut, complex rhyme narratives with everyman earnestness,” while Village Voice once wrote of Ant, “His dusty grooves are hooky and R&B- informed, and even when they back up Slug’s most maniacally depressed rhymes, they never feel heavy-handed.”

Still not enough? Between both of them, they have released six albums, 11 Sad Clown tour albums, and still have time for various side projects, like Felt, Slug’s project with MURS. All in total with more than a million units sold. Shall we mention the sold out shows worldwide?

Atmosphere’s latest outing When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh!t Gold, is said to be their best album so far. Thanks to Ant and their revolutionary recording process, Slug, who all this while synonymous with introspective rap, has finally opened up his subject matter beyond his life. In the album he narrates society tales- mainly revolving around the theme of parenthood. When asked about this different approach, he said making this album with Ant and filling it with completely fictional content sure helped to get all of the real life characters from his former verbal journals off his back.

And what better way to celebrate this change than sharing it with your fans. The album actually comes with a 40-page hard cover children’s story book by Slug, in addition to the lyrics. Aww…

Atmosphere wants your Midas touch. Go to www.paintthatshitgold.com and paint the internet gold. Or if you just want to get to know Slug and Ant better, just jog to www.myspace.com/atmosphere

The ‘lighter’ side of hip hop:

Beastie Boys

We don’t really need to introduce this NYC trio now, do we?

Young Black Teenagers

Are you even surprised that there really is nobody black in the group? Only four white boys and one Hispanic who happens to love and identify with the black culture. They had the backing of Public Enemy and their production team, the Bomb Squad. YBT was also the first act signed to Hank Shocklee‘s Sound of Urban Listeners label, founded in 1990.

Text Ili Farhana

Image Atmosphere