Is there anyone who’s honestly not sick and tired of hearing 50 Cent yap about getting a buzz “in da club,” Ludacris rhyming about the red light district, and Kanye West messing with gold diggers? Even the most party crazy, club hoppers and grill wearing thugs have to admit how stale and boring commercial MTV hip-hop has become in recent years. It may be true that MC’s like Mos Def, Nas, and Talib Kweli are making a name for themselves while still spitting intelligent lyrics. However, you can only see so much bling bling and hear Lil’ Jon yell, “YEAAAAAHHHH!” so many times until you begin to think enough is enough.
You’ll always have your Canibuses, Jedi Mind Tricks, and Immortal Techniques to keep those underground enthusiasts happy, but when will real, honest hip-hop finally infiltrate the mainstream?
Say hello to Atmosphere. Vocalist MC Slug and his accompanying revolving door of DJ’s produce some of the most authentic, honest hip-hop I’ve heard in quite some time. Hailing from the great, northern state of Minnesota, this rapper isn’t afraid to admit that he’s afraid. Insecurities, bad habits, past mistakes–it doesn’t matter. Atmosphere lays it all down on the line.
All too often it seems as if rap artists are too conceited and caught up in the “gangsta,” hard-ass attitude that they end up masking their true identity and consequently watering down their lyrics. This usually results in a redundant, uninteresting fiasco of flows. Instead of coming across as a baller or pimp, he comes across as more of a real human being with flaws.
If the deaths of Tupac and Biggie weren’t enough, the recent shooting of Eminem’s friend Proof should be a wake up call to stop the unnecessary violence. Not to take anything away from the genius that was Tupac, but he’s been gone for quite some time now, and we should all move on.
Being from Minnesota, in the middle of the country, Atmosphere is able to avoid the whole east coast versus west coast rivalry. He comes right out and says, “These days everyone’s talking about Tupac so I’m gonna stand over here and do the new walk.”
A perfect example of his explosion onto the scene was Las Vegas’s Vegoose Music Festival last October. Since his time slot was competing with two very well-established rock bands, the organizers did the logical thing. They stuck him in a small tent towards the back of the festival grounds. After all he was going up against the alternative superstar Beck as well as the ungodly bass skills of Primus.
Almost everyone would certainly be at one of those two stages, leaving only a few of the die hard hip-hop fans left to check out Atmosphere, right? Wrong.
Although at first thousands of screaming fans were watching Beck perform the classic “Loser” and Primus do their thing on the main stages, they eventually started drifting towards the irresistible beats and lyrical genius of Atmosphere. Eventually the tent was filled far past capacity, overflowing with people bobbing their heads up and down like yo-yo’s.
White, black, young, old, guys, girls–it didn’t matter. Everyone was digging it! The best thing about the whole experience was that he never appeared shaky or nervous, not once. In fact the more people that came in, the better his performance got. It’s almost as if he feeds off the energy of every single person in the crowd.
Instead of political agendas, religious statements, and feuds with other rappers, Atmosphere focuses on what he knows best–straight forward lyrical purity. He tells stories in his songs ranging from detailed accounts of corruption in the music industry to letters to his son, in which he reminds him to stay strong and persevere, even though he’s admittedly not the best dad in the world.
Combine this honest, vocal approach with the seamless fusion of jazzy, almost classical music, and you have some fresh sounding hip-hop. Too many MC’s these days use synthesizers and electronic bass sounds to coincide with their flowing. Atmosphere, however, incorporates everything from classical piano, violins, and trumpets to samples from movies and television shows. He even consciously contradicts himself to demonstrate the paradoxes in our world in songs like “It Goes”: “I’ll bet my fans know me better than friends do, because my friends don’t pay that much attention, my fans memorize every single sentence, which makes them far too smart to ever start a friendship.”
Just how big is Atmosphere going to be? Although that’s hard to say at this time, people are predicting big things for him. Some are calling him the next Eminem, and while that’s definitely a compliment, I think that’s an overstatement, because he’s not produced by Dr. Dre on a major label, and his music isn’t nearly as dance/club oriented as Eminem’s.
He needs to be careful though, as there’s a fine line between being confident and having an oversized ego. While Atmosphere walks that line, I’d say he has just the right amount of confidence as he claims he’s “Bigger than Jesus, and bigger than wrestling, bigger than the Beatles and bigger than breast implants, I’m gonna be the biggest thing to hit these little kids, bigger than guns, bigger than cigarettes.” Take one look outside of the main lobby here at Raymond Walters and you’ll soon realize that there’s nothing bigger than cigarettes.
Atmosphere will be spitting his flows at this year’s Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee, and this time the promoters will surely put him on a larger stage. With Tom Petty, Radiohead and The Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh, this event is not one to be missed. For those of you that just want to get out on the dance floor, stick to Usher and Nelly, but for those wanting more insightful content in their hip-hop, look no further than Atmosphere.