Atmosphere music

Atmosphere originally hail from Minneapolis Minnesota, one of the first hip hop acts to breakout of the Twin Cities.

Atmosphere is comprised of rapper Slug and producer ANT, and the duo has been performing together under the name Atmosphere for more than ten years. Former member and co-founder Spawn left Atmosphere after the group released their first album Overcast! Mr. Dibbs has been Atmosphere’s DJ on Tour, however now he tours with EL-P. Atmosphere has been going strong since 1993 and have become hugely successful despite the fact that they are independent hip hop artists. Atmosphere is on the Rhymesayers/Warner, Epitaph and Fat Beats

The first incarnation of Atmosphere was known as the Rhymesayers Collective, a group that included Slug, Spawn and Siddiq (AKA Stress). Originally they had various names, including Urban Atmosphere, Mental Subject, Arhythmic Culture. At first Slug was strictly a DJ, but eventually Spawn convinced Slug to start riming. Slug was introduced to ANT by Musab. ANT Slug and Spawn recorded several tracks at ANTs home, where they began to master the art of songwriting and rapping

Eventually Urban Atmosphere grew to include ANT along with Musab, Mr. Gene Poole (AKA Swift) and the group toured together as Headshots. The group released several albums on cassette and gained notoriety locally. Eventually, the group founded Rhymesayers as the groups record label after Siddiq bought his own label.

The group dropped their debut album Overcast! in 1997 at the same time Spawn left the group. The single “Scapegoat” was played on college radios all over the country and introduced Atmosphere to the rest of the country. The success of overcast as well as Slug and ANT appearing on several compilation albums allowed the group to go on a nation-wide Atmosphere tour on 2000 – 2001′s Ford One Tour.

Songs from this tour were compiled onto at first three EP, two named Ford and one named Lucy Ford EP were combined into the Lucy Ford LP. This was not planned to be a full release but it sold so well that it was released as a stand alone album and has become the favorite Atmosphere album for of many fans. The Lucy Ford album gained Atmosphere the fanbase and attention required to tour the world and their work was distributed nationally through independent distributor Fat Beats.

Atmosphere’s third studio album is God Loves Ugly and was released in 2002. This album would go on to sell more than 130,000 copies despite it being an independent album. The singles off God Loves Ugly include “Modern Man’s Hustle” and “GodLovesUgly.” Atmosphere toured almost non-stop over the next few months supporting God Loves Ugly, performing not only in the US but putting on Atmosphere shows in Europe and Japan.

The fourth Atmosphere record was Seven’s Travels (2003) and was released again on Rhymesayers and Epitaph. Another monster hit from Atmosphere, singles included “Trying to Find a Balance” and “National Disgrace.” Both singles had videos that were played on MTV2 and other outlets that promote music videos. The album also featured an appearance by Brother Ali.

Atmosphere continued to tour and gain more and more fans as they discovered their unparalleled sound. The groups fifth album was “You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having” (2005) once again released on Rhymesayers. The big single off the fifth album is “Say Hey There.”

Atmosphere’s latest album is 2008′s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. This album featured more live instrumentation than ANT normally used, relying on the bands touring members rather than on samples. Slug also used the album to explore storytelling rather than singing about himself. Other artists associated with Atmosphere include Murs, POS, Eyedea & Abilities, Blueprint, Living Legends, Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, Sage Franc and more.

Slug has appeared on several albums over the years, including C-Ray Z Walz, Cunninlynguists, Brother Ali, Eyedea & Abilities, Evidence, Aesop Rock, Unknown Prophets, Oddjobs, Vakill, DoseOne, Jel, P.O.S., X-Ecutioners, Blueprint, Heiruspecs, Jean Grae, Parallel Thought, El-P, Roosevelt Franklin, Living Legends and more.

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