Atmosphere has been an exception to the genre of rap/hip-hop for a long time in my book. I truly believe they have a special thing going. The group is composed of Sean Daley aka "Slug," and Anthony Davis, aka "DJ Ant." They hail from the civically charged state of Minnesota and there's something about their sound that is very unique and identifiable for me. The lyrics are poignant and witty, and rarely mundane or generic. Their range of topics is endless. From domestic abuse, relationships and childhood, to stories using allegorical references and straight up fictional accounts. The samples and production that color in those lyrics can be very emotive on their own, and the diversity found in them is just as great as in the lyrics.
I remember when I first heard this song. It was very literal for me. I could picture everything he said, and easily relate to it. Who hasn't had a long night of imbibing, woken up worse than shaky, and gone outside to sweat it out in the sun. The descriptive nature of the words combined with the catchy and beautiful sample of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Song of India, makes for the perfect summer jam in my eyes. The whole song flows like a perfectly told story from a first person point of view, but the line that always gets me is:
So I think I need to smell fresh air
So I stepped out the back door and fell down the stairs.
The sunlight hit me dead in the eye
Like it's mad I gave half the day to last night.
I definitely know what giving half a day to last night is. At this point, sometimes I wind up giving the whole 24 hours. But to put it into such terms is a kind of poetry to me, and it's those little things that will get me interested and potentially hooked on a group.
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