For the Love of Hip-Hop: A Candid Conversation with Slug of Atmosphere

In this 2005 cover story, Slug addresses the death of a young fan, the diversity of his audience, and his newfound responsibility as a cultural influencer

URB Est. 1990

Jun 04, 2023

Our October 2005 Cover Story

For the Love of Hip-Hop

By Scott T. Sterling

Photography by Dan Monick

The phenomenon known as Atmosphere is one of those legends that will be talked about years from now when kids remember how this one dude from Minneapolis, of all places, loved rap so much that he started a label and a band that was unlike anything else in hip-hop. How he and his friends got their grind on until they were buying buildings in their hometown and selling out more local shows than the Replacements.

Slug is among the most intriguing figures in hip-hop today, having built a new model army of disenfranchised suburban kids longing for something real and raw and meaningful to them right now. Watching his public maturation is awesome, as he evolves from metaphorical rhymes about girls to now addressing very real issues, like the horrific events in New Mexico where a young female Atmosphere fan was murdered by a convicted child sex offender who was incredulously working at the club as a janitor. Throughout a two-hour conversation, Slug pulls no punches when addressing the world around him. He’s got some real shit to spit, so listen up.

URB: So what up, Slug?

Slug: There ain’t no coffee in this fucking house, man. I got my earpiece in, so I might just walk your ass over to the little coffee shop around the corner.

Do you mean Muddy Waters?

No, that’s like two or three blocks away. Don’t go to Muddy Waters. Boycott that bitch.

Why?

My ex runs the place (laughs). The infamous “Lucy.” Everybody’s like, “Who is she?” I say she’s not a real girl, that Lucy is really hip-hop, or that she’s my cat. No, Lucy runs fucking Muddy Waters. So anyway, what’s the deal with this being a phone [interview]?

I know, I know. But there’s so much going on with Rhymesayers and Atmosphere right now that we’ll have plenty to talk about.

Holy shit, you think?

Yeah, I think.

Well, you’re about to convince me. Let’s do it.

Atmosphere "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having" - Rhymesayers Entertainment

I’ve been digging into the new record, and I’m feeling it so far.

Do you like it?

I really like it.

Whoa! Why would you say that?

For one, I think Ant’s beats are brilliant. He’s definitely turning up the heat down in the production lab.

I think he has stepped up and taken over. Soon he’ll be taking a lot of pressure off me, always being the guy that has to talk the shit. To me, he’s always been dope, but now it’s to a point that his personality is starting to come out. That’s gonna help to balance the one-sided- ness that’s been going on with Atmosphere and the imagery.

He’s cool with being in the public eye more?

He’s still not where I am, but he’s gotten a little more comfortable with it.

I also like the lyrical content on this one. You mention BDP and Public Enemy as inspirations on the album, and I can hear it in the words.

I’m glad you say that. When we were making it, we intended the first half to be a throwback to PE and the second half a throwback to BDP. In our heads, anyway. Nobody else will get it.

You’re talking about more than just girls on this album.

That girl shit wasn’t very serious. It was a fun and interesting part of my life. I can look back in ten years and be like, “Wow, I slept with how many women?”

That’s kind of where the Felt album comes in. It’s much more of a fun party record.

That’s our Wilt Chamberlain record.

And he claims to have slept with 20,000 women!

I don’t think 5000 people bought the first Felt record, but that’s hot.

“The experiences, days and evenings that led to these songs were not fun. The last two years in the life of Atmosphere has not been a big party.”

Atmosphere’s other half: Ant • © 2005 Dan Monick/URB Magazine

Would you say there’s a link between the new Felt and Atmosphere albums, with you and Ant all over both?

I think they are definitely separate from each other. I allowed myself to be a clown on the Felt record. I didn’t give myself any clown room on the Atmosphere record. To people that know me, they’ll probably see them as companion pieces. They know me well enough to know that half of me is a clown. I don’t know if your average fifteen-year-old white girl with her first lip piercing is gonna pick up both records and be able to see that. I guess that kind of makes me arrogant to think that people take my records and dissect them enough to figure shit out. Most people are just, “I like track four.”

What’s the concept behind the title You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having and the somber cover image?

The experiences that led to these songs were not fun. The last two years in the life of Atmosphere has not been a big party. At the same time, I’ve done a decent job of keeping a smile on my face and just being in people’s faces, shaking babies, and kissing hands (laughs). Giving people the idea that this is a great job and that I’m having a great time. When this record started coming together, I realized that it was completely opposite of how I’ve been portraying myself. I wanted to show people that it ain’t really been all good without necessarily going into complaints. I don’t want to be one of those whiny-ass artists. I’m not even talking about that. I’m talking about actual life, aside from the artistry and rap. I’ve never been one to shy away from talking about the shit that really bothers me. At the same time, I’ve yet to fully develop into the one that talks about the big things in the world that bother me. This record is a baby step in that direction.

So should we expect a more serious Slug in the future?

I don’t know if it’s me getting older or what, but I see myself as more and more responsible to say things that really do matter to more than just myself.

The list of inspirations on the album’s liner notes is interesting and varied, to say the least. It goes from TV on the Radio to Alopecia.

Did you know Alopecia, or did you have to Google it?

I Googled it.

Cool. It’s a condition I came down with around November of last year while I was recording this album. The version that I got was alopecia areata, which in my case, was temporary. It was simple. It came as a result of a tooth infection that I had. The white T-cells went to my head to fight the infection and left their posts in my head, which made my hair fall out. So rather than have a patchy head, I just shaved it like Mr. Dibbs. But when it started growing back, I just said fuck it and got a Mohawk.

Another inspiration listed is “the women’s bathroom at the Empty Bottle (club) in Chicago.” What happened there?

That was a phone call I got from a now ex-girlfriend about something written about me on the bathroom wall there (laughs). The original message boards! It was so… you can’t say the word “retarded” anymore. It was so ridiculous that I was getting a phone call about something somebody had written about me on a wall, especially since me and the girl that was calling me on it wasn’t even together anymore. It brought me back to when I was 17 and reminded me of why I am the way I am when it comes to relationships with women, even now at 32 years old.

How hard was it to write “That Night” about the girl killed at an Atmosphere show in New Mexico in 2003?

I’ve been very cautious when even talking about that situation. There’s a line you’ve gotta be careful not to cross out of respect for her and her family. I don’t think that my opinions would offend them. If anything, it’s important that I have an opinion since I have something of a public voice. I can’t just come out and call for the execution of people who commit these types of crimes. That’s not helping push a negative situation to a positive. I’m just a rapper, so the power I do hold is based on entertainment and people wanting to have something to inspire them. We have to be careful because these 15-year-olds take it a little too seriously. When I was 15, KRS-1 could’ve said anything, and I would’ve been like, “That’s the law.” That was a difficult song to finally write. I was very neurotic about it. I think I was able to finally write that song from my point of view without it coming across like how I feel about it is the way everyone should feel about it.

Right now, my favorite song on the record is “Get Fly.” So how’d Atmosphere come to do a gospel track?

That was Ant all the way. The original version of that song was a lullaby. It was sunny but moody. I felt like it was right, but not for people to hear. Ant and I make a lot of music that nobody will ever hear. He liked the words to [the song] “Get Fly” so much that he kept pushing me to keep working with it. He thought we should take a risk with it. It’s not a risk in the sense of pushing the envelope of music like Radiohead, but a risk for Atmosphere. The first time we did it on four-track, it blew my mind. It is so different from the original version. I think the gospel sample brought out something in me. I felt like I was actually part of that choir. It gets my point across better. My whole take on it now is, “I’ve been hollering this for a minute, but now I really feel it.” I’m sick of preaching to the choir; those same kids are just gonna validate me. It’s time to focus on taking this to kids that don’t know what’s up and might not agree with me so that I can attempt to help them become like-minded with us.

Was that idea behind Atmosphere doing the Warped tour two summers in a row?

It was, but it wasn’t as focused for me. The Warped Tour was on some rah-rah shit. That was me thinking that if I jump around and yell at these kids, they’ll like it too. Now, I’m realizing that’s not me. I’m not that dude that wants to jump at you anymore. I want something different. I’m not Sage Francis, either. I’m not trying to present myself as having the most important things to say. I don’t. Sage does. Everything that dude says, I’m like, “How do you know this already?” He’s under 30 but already so aware, so all props to that dude. I’ve never been that smart. But I realize I don’t have to be that smart. It’s not about me anyway. It’s the bigger cause and introducing kids to all these other MCs. I have been given that opportunity to get in front of kids that otherwise wouldn’t even fuck with hip-hop. They come up to me and say how they’d given up on hip-hop and then got a copy of Lucy Ford, and then they went on to discover this and that. I get to be a doorway for these fools. Am I making sense right now?

Yeah, it’s coming together.

Awesome. I used to just be excited about the opportunity. Now it’s more a matter of wanting to know what (the audience) is thinking. What about me is dragging you in? Is it the fact that me and Dibbs were jumping around and making y’all push each other? Is it the lyrics? Is it the way I say things that make you think maybe if you knew me, we’d probably get along because we think similarly? Is it the beats? I have a hard time accepting that our popularity has anything to do with the way I sound. I know that I am not the tightest MC. I have to think it’s got more to do with the writing and how it works with Ant’s beats, the rah-rah shit, and of course, a little bit about how I fucking smile. What can I do to make it about more than that, the greater cause? I have a hard time identifying with it on a national or international level. Locally, it’s easy. We played a show four years ago for this many kids; I play a show now for a bunch more kids. A lot of these new kids came from places like Minnetonka and Burnsville, and other distant suburbs. How did they find out about me? They don’t come to see all the other local rappers, but they show up for my shit. What can I do to make sure they leave with more than just me but all these other cats, too? Does that make sense?

Totally. It’s the kind of responsibility I don’t see nearly enough artists taking.

But I can still only grasp it on a local level.

But given communication technology, especially regarding your audience, that locality goes global faster than you might think.

I’m fully aware that a lot of my audience is a bunch of little white kids with money. And these kids ain’t going to see the Beatnuts when they come to town. I don’t want these huge crowds if it’s not like that for Blackalicious, too. But I’m sure Gift of Gab is as bummed as me that it’s just a bunch of white kids. While a lot of indie rappers talk about it, I don’t hear so many of the white MCs bringing it up. They want to think it’s because they’re so dope (laughs). This audience is white right now because these college kids are identifying with the fact that somebody is saying something in their music. It’s no different than when college kids were getting into Bad Religion’s first record. They were saying something when those kids were in a phase of life where that’s what they needed. A lot of them are coming from the indie rock scene, which is another part of it. Lots of these white rappers, myself included, get props just for being indie. But above all, they’ve gotta realize that a lot of it comes from being white, and these white kids can relate to them better than someone like Freddie Foxx. Jean Grae should have an audience as large as mine. Where are the young black children? There have to be 200,000 young Black kids in America that would love her and buy her records.

“I’m fully aware that a lot of my audience is a bunch of little white kids with money.”

Absolutely. But how is the average black kid on the street even going to hear Jean Grae? Isn’t that the problem?

I never thought there was a way to reach 200,000 white kids that think outside of the box. I always felt that way because when I looked at those kids, they seemed so misidentified and didn’t even understand themselves enough to ever become a target market for anybody to tap into. It’s gotta be even harder for young black kids when the only reinforcements they’re seeing are hardcore shit. If you don’t feel that way and trying to see something else, where do you turn? Back in the day, you had BDP and Brand Nubian saying things that would have us out trying to find that book being talked about in their songs, you know? How come that’s not happening now, especially with the internet? It doesn’t help that these writers, the same ones that bashed Eminem for being homophobic and misogynistic, are now sucking off Cam’Ron and Dipset. These dudes would dis other writers for not covering Aesop Rock, and now they’re all about the Diplomats? Come on. It’s saying it’s OK for black men to be savages, but not white guys.

That’s what I’m talking about.

The stereotyping in the media has been going on forever, so we can’t blame that. Is it hoop dreams, the idea that if you want to be something, you better learn to rap or play ball? I can’t call it. Acts like De La and Ultramagnetic MCs were at least pushing something different. You had to decipher what the fuck Kool Keith was even talking about! It made you think. If TI would come out and do that, I’d totally holler at TI. Just come out and confuse us. Do something different. That’s why Outkast and Busta Rhymes are always going to be the shit. They bring something unique to the game.

And now Atmosphere brings something unique.

In the early ’90s, I made the conscious decision not to just rap about dumb shit. Why would I want to talk about some street shit when I don’t do or know street shit? The reason I don’t know street shit is because of hip-hop. It’s because KRS-1 and Big Daddy Kane convinced me that some of my friends were not tight (laughs).

“I made the conscious decision not to just rap about dumb shit. Why would I want to talk about some street shit when I don’t do or know street shit?”

So what’s next?

By structure, we should be moving into a whole new renaissance, a new version of the haves and the have-nots. This is all just my high-ass thinking about shit too much. I think the next big war will be over information, not oil or drugs. Who controls the information? In that kind of climate, we should be seeing new art full blast. Sex, full blast. There should be a rise in all of the things that the have-nots do to get over depression. But even the brokest of broke kids have a PlayStation. Everyone’s sedated and complacent. I don’t know what to think. Where are the revolutionaries and the orgies, other than on the TV and your iBook?

How profound is all of this as a father?

Extremely. Having [my son] Jacob became a big part of all decision-making. I could never really understand rap cats with kids that make shit their kids can’t listen to.

Any parting shots?

I don’t want to come off as negative because things are good. Rhymesayers just bought a building for the label, the record store (Fifth Element), and even haters around here are proud. For the most part, we kept it real. They’re like, “You still can’t rap, but we’re proud of you.” We stayed here, and that means a lot. They can’t front on what we’ve done for the community.