The tunes review of what’s new

The MC Music Man takes on: Atmosphere

By: Dustin Looney
Features Editor

Just about everyone who listens to music knows about the mainstream rappers such as 50 Cent, Kanye West and Jay-Z. These performers put together catchy beats and trivial lyrics, and people cannot get enough of it. I must admit that I (unfortunately) sometimes listen to these guys myself.

The art of rap is not limited to this style of music, however, and many relatively unknown “underground” artists are making hip-hop albums, too.

One of the most popular underground rap groups--and my personal favorite--is Atmosphere, which consists of Ant (Anthony Davis) and Slug (Sean Daley).

Atmosphere has been making music for eight years, with Ant as the DJ and Slug as the rapper. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minn., Slug’s lyrics have a lot more to offer than typical mainstream rap.

Atmosphere combines high-quality complex beats with clever rhymes, producing a new style of intelligent hip-hop that is rare.

Slug is one of the founders of Rhymesayers Entertainment, a hip-hop label that features rappers who combine witty lyrics and an anti-gangsta mentality.

Atmosphere just released their new studio album, “You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having.” The 13-track CD displays a new style for the group, but it still keeps to their foundation of unique, powerful rap.

The CD opens with “The Arrival,” which has a powerful beat, provided by a potent bass that Slug raps over with a steady flow.

The third track on the CD is “Watch Out,” an upbeat, catchy song with another potent beat behind it. This song might be recognized because it was the background music for the commercial for the basketball brand And 1 which was played last summer.

Track four is one of my personal favorites on the CD. Titled “Musical Chair,” this song is closer in style to the numbers found on Atmosphere’s previous albums, with an upbeat, catchy song.

The next track on “You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having” is a fan-favorite, “Say Hey There.” This catchy song has a strong meaning as Slug goes back to a familiar theme, singing about women: “She still makes time to hate me/but basically, I’m overbooked--no emotional vacancy.”

Track eight on the CD is “Pour Me Another,” which cleverly parallels the addictions of alcohol and love. “Pour me another, so I could forget you now/Pour me another, so I could come let you down/Pour me another, so I can remember how/True that I am to this addiction of you now.”

Probably the most meaningful track on “You Can’t Imagine” is track 11, “That Night.” This song shows Slug’s emotions, as he raps about a tragic murder which occurred at one of his shows. “I got thoughts that I wanna express and let surface/this ain’t for props or the pop culture/it’s about a balloon that got punctured/the sunshine’s fun til it burns someone/and we all got burnt that summer.”

The next track on the CD, “Get Fly,” is a lot lighter than “That Night,” but still has a strong underlying meaning. This upbeat song has the best beat on the album.

The thirteenth, and final, song on the CD is titled “Little Man.” This unique song is cleverly broken up into three different sections wherein Slug raps a message to his son, Jacob, his dad, Craig, and himself.

Overall, I think “You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having” is a solid CD. I do think its quality is slightly below that of some of Atmosphere’s previous albums, but it still has some great songs that have a lot more meaning than most mainstream rap. As “Rolling Stone” magazine said, “One can feel Atmosphere loosening modern hip-hop from its moorings and yanking it into some weirder and far more interesting place.”

Atmosphere’s previous studio albums are: “God Loves Ugly,” “Headshots Se7en,” “Overcast” and “Seven’s Travel.”