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| Slug of Atmosphere - Photo by Stacy Schwartz |
It feels like a long time since Atmosphere was our own secret. It was good. Around the time of Lucy Ford and God Loves Ugly, I was living in Los Angeles, the conversations in college would turn to music, and when hip-hop came around, Slug was the ace up my sleeve. Throw on a “Modern Mans Hustle” and heads would bob, smiles and friendships would build. Even more so, as I was trying to navigate the concrete wastes of Southern California, here was a connection to a place that I was simultaneously trying to escape from and was nostalgic for. The Minneapolis of Slug was a cartography of green areas, snow, friends, love and hurt. This was a place to hold close.
We still hold him close. The crowd that lined up in front of the Electric Fetus at five in the morning to get the limited number of free passes to the Atmosphere/Brother Ali in-store can attest to that. The constant screams and stomps, the singing along to every lyric, the head-bobbing and arm-waving can attest to that.
And Slug still loves us. He was jovial, triumphant, plain-spoken, and very visibly moved, in a full laid-back Uptown Jesus mode. Brother Ali, the calmest angry man in the room, damn near stole the show, tearing up with freestyles, asides and bouncing renditions of songs like “Forrest Whitaker.” He declared himself “The biggest Atmosphere fan in the room.” The show was full of sweet nostalgia—this is the place where Slug and Ali met, where Slug was working when he dropped Overcast! Slug tried rapping over the intercom, but there was no way that tinny sound was going to be heard over the ecstatic hum of the crowd.
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| Brother Ali - Photo by Stacy Schwartz |
It was all there, the braggadocio and the breakdown. From the start with Brother Ali’s “Uncle Sam Goddamn” and “Truth Is” from the standout, undisputed The Undisputed Truth, Slug and Ali could do no wrong, all we wanted was more. Slug dug back, ripped up “Scapegoats,” closed his eyes and pulled out “The Woman with the Tattooed Hands” and I was transported back to trying to figure out first dates and crushes, trying to figure out what I had to offer and how to do right.
It is amazing, to be reminded of your own history by someone else, to re-connect to formative, earnest moments. Lyrics to songs that I thought I had forgotten rushed back. Slug joked that some of these songs were written before the crowd was born, but the girl in the tie-dye shirt, not out of her teens, won’t ever forget how she saved the third verse of “Yesterday” and Slug rapped it right to her. My family doesn’t live here anymore, but it’s that love that keeps me coming back, makes the songs, the shows, makes the music home.
Location Info:
Electric Fetus
Artist Info: Atmosphere, Brother Ali
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