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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 EPs, 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."
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