STREAMING AUDIO INTERVIEW
If the dominant strain of US hip hop thrives on bravado and boasts, then Minneapolis duo Atmosphere may just represent the flipside. Laden with self-critique, introspection and the minutiae of daily life, their music is unapologetically intense. Producer Ant and lyricist Slug have been studio partners over numerous albums, and that’s not about to change. Their new album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold comes three years after its highly-praised predecessor You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having. This outing is nothing if not ambitious, charting the joys and neuroses of both men as they come to terms with fatherhood.
And contributing to its weightiness is the deluxe edition option: a 40-page gold embossed book, including a children’s story by Slug. Each of the album’s 15 tracks is a lucid vignette grounded in the everyday: from drug abuse to relationships to the trials of making ends meet. While it may sound dreary on paper, Slug brings a disarming candour to every verse. It helps, too, that he’s as much a writer as a rapper.
ITM’s Jack Tregoning got Slug on the phone to find out how Atmosphere keep painting that shit gold.
Atmosphere’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold is out now on Rhymesayers, through Shock Records.
Kitty99 says...
Gotta luv Atmosphere,,,,,,been listen to slug since back in the days. The new cd is great but does comes across with a more laidback approach then the usally hard hitting style of rhymes that we see. Bring on another tour down under....