X-2 Atmosphere

Atmosphere is an underground hip-hop group from Minneapolis. The group centers on Emcee, Sean Daley, better known as Slug. 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 Rhymesayers collective with two high-school friends. 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 free styling, clever and complex lyrics, and anti-gangsta positivity. In 1998, Atmosphere released their debut album, Overcast!, which quickly became regarded as an underground hip-hop classic. 

The next Atmosphere album was titled Sad Clown Bad Dub II. The album was sold while the group was on tour and is now out of production. The album is highly sought after and is viewed as a collector’s item. A year later, the group released Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP's, a collection of three EPs built around the theme of Slug's complicated relationship with his ex-girlfriend. Slug regarded her as “the love of his life”. By this time indie rap superstars, Atmosphere returned with their fourth album, Seven's Travels, in 2003, followed two years later by You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having. The group continued to put music out during the next couple of years, including the free download Strictly Leakage in late 2007, a near-party album that they followed up with When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold in April 2008, a record that featured plenty of live instrumentation and guest background vocal spots from Tom Waits and TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. The “double-EP” To All My Friends: Blood Makes the Blade Holy appeared in 2010, with the full-length album The Family Sign following in 2011. I view Atmosphere as one of the greatest groups to ever enter into Hip-Hop.