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Atmosphere

Band formed in 1998 in Minneapolis, MN

Atmosphere's Genre:

Underground Rap, Rap

Biography

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 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 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. The “double-EP” To All My Friends: Blood Makes the Blade Holy appeared in 2010, with the full-length album The Family Sign following in 2011. ~ Dan LeRoy

AOL Radio Stations Atmosphere is Featured on (7)

Forecastle 2012

In a sea of change, the Forecastle Festival is a port-of-call where the world gathers to experience the best in Music, Art, and Activism. A celebration of sights, sounds, and sustainability, Forecastle connects travelers North, South, East, and West. Forecastle 2012 on Slacker Radio plays music from the artists playing this year’s 10th Anniversary Festival including today’s biggest stars and the hottest up-and-coming Indie and Electronic acts taking the stage in Louisville, KY from July 13-15, 2012.

CounterPoint 2012

CounterPoint Music Festival is a 3-day Electronic music festival September 27-29, 2012 held just outside of Atlanta, GA. The festival boasts some of the biggest names in EDM including Pretty Lights, Skrillex, Bassnectur, M83, Avicii, Big Boi and many more. CounterPoint incorporates the urban vibe of Atlanta onsite with street art exhibits, extreme sports demos, local food and drink and much more.

Backpack Rap

The term "backpack rap" provokes many different reactions. Some hip hop fans think of it as pretentious, while others find it truly authentic. Slacker's Backpack Rap features tracks from classic artists like the Native Tongues collective through contemporary poets like those on the Def Jux roster. Lyricists and the craft; less boasting, more reality--that's Backpack Rap on Slacker.

Arnette Audio

Welcome to Arnette Audio, brought to you by Arnette Eyewear, a station for artists that were bold enough to do things differently and ended up changing the game—from Bad Brains to Del The Funky Homosapien to Slayer. That’s why we still turn their songs up to ten. That’s what it means to Live Arnette.

Underground Hip Hop

Underground Hip Hop is something that rap fans could easily define in the 90's. However, as rap music has grown, it has branched off into many sub-genres. So, to keep it simple, this station features artists you won't find too often in the mainstream. It features true lyricism, bangin' beats, dj's cutting up vinyl, and music that embraces the original gritty sound made popular in the mid 90's. The station spans the 80's, 90's and today. Yes, underground hip hop is alive and well today. You'll find it right here.

The Current

The Current brings you the best authentic new music alongside the music that inspired it, from unique to universal, indie to influential, new to nostalgic. Broadcasting from the musical hotbed that is Minnesota, listen to The Current and you’ll see why we say, “Great Music Lives Here.” Find playlist, interviews and more at thecurrent.org.

Atmosphere

This station plays the best music from and music from related artists like Aesop Rock, Immortal Technique, Brother Ali, Jedi Mind Tricks, Murs, Hieroglyphics, Dilated Peoples, Jurassic 5, Mos Def, MF Doom and more.

All Stations

Atmosphere's Selected Discography (25)

The Family Sign

2011 Rhymesayers Entertainment, LLC 201114 Songs

The Family Sign

2011 Rhymesayers Entertainment, LLC201114 Songs

Artists Related to Atmosphere (50)

	Aesop Rock	Building on the rapping style of eccentrics Kool Keith and Del the Funky Homosapien, Def Jux headliner Aesop Rock became one of the hottest MCs in the post-millennial underground.
	Immortal Technique	Born Felipe Coronel in a military hospital in Lima, Peru, in 1978, Immortal Technique moved to Harlem with his parents when he was two years old.
	Brother Ali	Rapper Brother Ali spent much of his life living in various cities in the Upper Midwest, starting in Madison, Wisconsin, then moving to Michigan as a young child -- where he was first introduced to breakdancing and graffiti and rapping -- and finally settling in northern Minneapolis with his family when he was 15.
	Jedi Mind Tricks	The underground hip-hop duo Jedi Mind Tricks started out in the streets of Philadelphia in early 1996.
	Murs	A longtime friend of Definitive Jux leader El-P, rapper Murs first appeared as a solo artist in 2003, after nearly a decade of working with various groups in the underground.
	Hieroglyphics	The Oakland-based Hieroglyphics are an underground rap collective who, at their best, combine an offbeat sensibility with a strong grounding in battle rhyming, freestyling, and other hip-hop traditions.
	Dilated Peoples	With just a few (mostly underground) releases, Dilated Peoples energized the rap underground in similar fashion to fellow West Coast crew Jurassic 5.
	Jurassic 5	Though there's actually six of them, Jurassic 5 got everything else right on their self-titled debut EP.
	Mos Def	Initially regarded as one of the most promising rappers to emerge in the late '90s, Mos Def turned to acting in subsequent years as music became a secondary concern for him.
	MF Doom	Patterning his persona and logo after the Marvel Comics super villain Dr. Doom, the man behind MF (Metal Face) Doom's iron mask is actually Daniel Dumile, aka Zevlove X, a member of former Big Apple hip-hoppers K.
	Talib Kweli	If skills sold, Talib Kweli would have been one of the most commercially successful rappers of his time.
	Wu-Tang Clan	Emerging in 1993, when Dr. Dre's G-funk had overtaken the hip-hop world, the Staten Island, New York-based Wu-Tang Clan proved to be the most revolutionary rap group of the mid-'90s -- and only partially because of their music.
	Del the Funky Homosapien	Cousin of renowned gangster rapper Ice Cube, Del tha Funky Homosapien (real name Teren Delvon Jones) was born in Oakland, California on August 12, 1972, and got his start with Ice Cube's backing band, Da Lench Mob.
	Slug
	The Roots	Though popular success has largely eluded the Roots, the Philadelphia group showed the way for live rap, building on Stetsasonic's "hip-hop band" philosophy of the mid-'80s by focusing on live instrumentation at their concerts and in the studio.
	Eyedea & Abilities	Before Eyedea & Abilities were an MC/DJ pair, they were Mike Larsen and Gregory "Max" Keltgen, two friends from Minneapolis.
	Deltron 3030	The underground hip-hop supergroup Deltron 3030 features Deltron Zero (Del Tha Funkee Homosapien), the Cantankerous Captain Aptos (producer/remixer Dan "The Automator" Nakamura) and Skiznod The Boy Wonder (turntablist Kid Koala).
	A Tribe Called Quest	Without question the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s, A Tribe Called Quest jump-started and perfected the hip-hop alternative to hardcore and gangsta rap.
	Common	Common (originally Common Sense) was a highly influential figure in rap's underground during the '90s, keeping the sophisticated lyrical technique and flowing syncopations of jazz-rap alive in an era when commercial gangsta rap was threatening to obliterate everything in its path.
	Cunninlynguists	The progressive Southern duo Cunninlynguists' combination of witty lyrics and edgy production has made them a favorite of underground hip-hop fans.
	The Living Legends	The Living Legends, a loose collective of MCs and DJs from the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Japan, and Europe, are unique for both their down-to-earth songs and approach to the music business.
	Dead Prez	The Florida-based political rap duo Dead Prez consists of Stic.man and M-1, a pair of rappers inspired by revolutionaries from Malcolm X to Public Enemy.
	Gang Starr	The most influential MC-and-DJ tandem of the 1990s, Gang Starr set new standards for East Coast rap with a pair of early-'90s touchstones, Step in the Arena (1991) and Daily Operation (1992), whose appeal has only grown over the decades.
	Sage Francis	Born Paul Francis in 1977 in Miami, FL, Sage Francis spent most of his youth in Providence, RI. Interested in the poetic side of rap, Francis has been rhyming since age eight, later winning the Superbowl Battle in Boston in 1999 and the Scribble Jam in Cincinnati in 2000 and 2001 (the last under the name of his "metal" alter ego, Xaul Zan).
	Black Star	Marcus Garvey, founder of the united Negro Improvement Association manifested his ideas by creating the Black Star shipping line, designed to repatriate blacks to Africa.
	The Pharcyde	An influential alternative rap quartet from South Central Los Angeles, the Pharcyde was formed by MCs/producers Tre "Slimkid" Hardson, Derrick "Fatlip" Stewart, Imani Wilcox, and Romye "Booty Brown" Robinson.
	Blackalicious	Like a few other West Coast rap acts, including the Pharcyde and Jurassic 5, Blackalicious has generally favored what hip-hoppers call the "positive tip"; in other words, its lyrics have often been spiritual and uplifting rather than violent or misogynous.
	Souls of Mischief	The East Oakland backpacker crew are members of the loose underground hip-hop consortium known as Hieroglyphics.
	People Under the Stairs	The underground hip-hop outfit People Under the Stairs was formed by Mike Turner (Double K) and Chris Portugal (Thes One), who met on the fringe of L.
	Felt	Felt initially started as a joke between friends Murs (from Living Legends) and Slug (from Atmosphere) after a discussion came up during a 2001 joint tour about who would have the best chance of sleeping with Christina Ricci.
	Tech N9ne	Like many underground rappers in the Midwest, Tech N9ne specialized in bizarre hardcore rap and stood as one of the few recognized rappers based in Kansas City when he debuted in the late '90s.
	Ghostface Killah	As one of the original members of the seminal '90s rap crew the Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah (aka Tony Starks) made an impact before he released his debut album, Ironman, late in 1996.
	GZA	The Genius, aka the GZA, was the most cerebral MC in the Wu-Tang Clan, as well as perhaps the most acclaimed.
	Swollen Members	The meeting of two West Coast rappers fuelled this talented Canadian band. In 1996, Mad Child was a solo artist performing in San Francisco when he returned to his hometown of Vancouver.
	Pharoahe Monch	While a member of the New York City duo Organized Konfusion, Pharoahe Monch developed a reputation as one of underground hip-hop's preeminent lyricists, crafting intricate and intelligent raps with partner Prince Poetry.
	Danger Doom	Another fantastic collaboration in the partner-heavy rap underground, Danger Doom brought together producer Danger Mouse (Gorillaz, plus his own heavily publicized production career) with rapper MF Doom (owner of a half-dozen aliases, all with full-length releases).
	Method Man	Method Man was the first -- and biggest -- solo star to emerge from the groundbreaking Wu-Tang Clan.
	OutKast	OutKast's blend of gritty Southern soul, fluid raps, and the low-slung funk of their Organized Noize production crew epitomized the Atlanta wing of hip-hop's rising force, the Dirty South, during the mid to late '90s.
	RZA	The Wu-Tang Clan's chief producer, the RZA (aka the Abbott, Prince Rakeem, the Rzarector, Bobby Steels, and Bobby Digital) was born Robert Diggs.
	De La Soul	At the time of its 1989 release, De La Soul's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, was hailed as the future of hip-hop.
	Slum Village	Rising from the rugged streets and rich musical tapestry of Detroit, Slum Village were poised to carry on the old-school, funk, and soul-filled hip-hop torch of genre pioneers A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and the Pharcyde.
	Guru	Rapper/composer Guru (real name Keith Elam) first rose to prominence as the "lyrical half" of the hip-hop duo Gang Starr, one of the first outfits that attempted to fuse jazz with rap.
	Nas	Beginning with his classic debut, Illmatic (1994), Nas stood tall for years as one of New York City's leading rap voices, outspokenly expressing a righteous, self-empowered swagger that endeared him to critics and hip-hop purists.
	Cypress Hill	Cypress Hill were notable for being the first Latino hip-hop superstars, but they became notorious for their endorsement of marijuana, which actually isn't a trivial thing.
	KRS-One	KRS-One (born Kris Parker) was the leader of Boogie Down Productions, one of the most influential hardcore hip-hop outfits of the '80s.
	Kid Cudi	Kid Cudi is a Brooklyn-based rapper from Cleveland whose debut single, "Day 'n' Nite," became an online favorite in 2008.
	Aceyalone	A founding member of Freestyle Fellowship, Aceyalone played an important role in the evolution of left-field hip-hop on the West Coast during an era when hardcore gangsta rap reigned.
	Q-Tip	The longtime MC with pioneering alternative hip-hop trio A Tribe Called Quest, rapper Q-Tip was born Jonathan Davis in New York City on November 20, 1970.
	Lupe Fiasco	Chicago-based MC Lupe Fiasco (born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco) began rapping in junior high school and joined a group called da Pak several years later.
	Raekwon	Raekwon may not have achieved the solo stardom of his fellow Wu-Tang Clan mates Method Man or Ol' Dirty Bastard, but along with Genius/GZA and frequent partner Ghostface Killah, he's done some of the most inventive, critically acclaimed work outside the confines of the group.