Interview w/Slug of Atmosphere
By: Justin Weleski & Justin Rizzio

Whether you love them or hate them, there is no denying that Atmosphere has become a driving force in the post-90’s wave of independent music. While staying true to their Midwest roots Atmosphere manages to gain more fans from all over the globe each year. Now, with a new album and a slightly different sound, Atmosphere is out to show fans the many dimensions hip hop can evolve to. Recently, while backstage at a packed show at Philly’s Trocadero, we caught up with Atmosphere’s front man, Slug, for a very impromptu interview. Not bad for an on the spot interview. Enjoy (or hate.)
To Purchase the new Atmosphere album; Click HERE

215: Listening to the new album, it’s definitely a new direction for you guys. Who came up with that first was you or was it Ant’s beats?

Slug: The whole thing was pretty collaborative. We toured a lot off of the You Can’t Imagine joint and so me and Anthony got to spend even more time with each other. Usually I would go on tour and he would stay at home and be working on the new Ali record or start cooking up beats for me. Having him on the road with us we knew we were going to sacrifice all the time that he can spend at home working on his side of the shit, so we communicated a lot about what we wanted to do for the next record. We talked about the direction I wanted to go with lyrics and the direction he wanted to take it with the sound. Originally we had a focus of what we were gonna do but by the time we finished the album it wasn’t as strict on the idea to what we had. That’s generally our steez anyway; where we have an idea and we kinda starting doing it and we realize it’s hard for us to stick to rules.
Initially our idea was we were going for the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis sound. I had this weird idea in my head that when I look at Minneapolis music, you know, ’cause over the years a lot of people have asked me “yo do you think living there in the winter and all that shit, does that have any influence on your music?” Then it started to get that shit in my head. I started thinking about when I look at The Time, Prince, all the Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis stuff, and Alexander O’Neal and even on the rock side you got Husker Du, The Replacements and Soul Asylum. It seemed like all the groups from Minneapolis that got somewhere with their music, their sound was like a colder version of whatever was going on at the time. Ya know what I’m sayin’? The Time - they had funk but it was this stiffer funk than you would get from an Earth, Wind and Fire or the Parliament. Same with the rock bands when I started to study, The Replacements. I got into their shit for a minute, and it was like, it was a colder version of what was going on in rock; post-synth but pre-hair band. So, I guess I was kinda on par looking at God Loves Ugly and Seven’s Travels, and they are colder versions of our favorite joints. With Seven’s Travels, I was trying to make a De La Soul record and it turned into a stiffer version of De La. Ya know what I mean? So we were like fuck it, let’s embrace it and run with it! So we started co-opting from the sounds of those other groups. Not just the 80’s shit but even the 90’s, things Prince was doing then, and we was really just trying to study things like that. Ant went head first into the whole Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis stuff, the SOS Band and shit. I’m over here listening to what kind of lyrics everyone is spitting and I decided to go the story route.
It was supposed to be a double record when we first set out to make this shit because I thought this may be our last chance to make a physical double album before digital takes over everything. At that point what’s the point of doing a double record? It costs more than it’s worth. I wrote an album that was based around 5 different characters. There was a guy who was having a hard time as a family man and there was a few different phases in his life; first he was young to when he actually got the girl pregnant and then to when he was a homeless guy. Then there was a woman who was a waitress and she got personified through a few different songs. Then there was a daughter and a son. They were all connected in a few songs and then there were other songs you get to see them away from family inside other dichotomies with other people. There was this whole elaborate shit we set out to do. It didn’t happen the way we set it up to do it, but I’m glad we had the goal that we had because what we ended up with I was really happy with. After we finished up all these songs I had for a double album I started going “well this song is good but kinda convolutes the idea and let’s move it out of there.” By the time we got finished it was only 15-16 songs that I really felt like this tells a story. Then I left Ant alone and re-edited a lot of the words and put the ideas back together.
But, ultimately, the whole thing was very collaborative. I don’t think there was any point where I was ahead of Ant or he was ahead of me. When we started sitting down and listened to the tracks I brought the idea to the table and he brought the beat. He would start making the beat while I, generally, I would start with the chorus. I would kinda hear where this intense moment was and I would come up with the chorus and he would agree.  Then I would try and move the story around the chorus and shit.
Honestly in my little world and in the Bronx inside of my head it’s like this is the most important thing me and this dude have ever made. It’s weird for me to say shit like that publicly. You want to let people see it for what it is. If people hear how much you put into this it kinda of is a set up for a let down. No one in the world is ever gonna feel what I felt when we was making this shit. But like everybody else I wanna down play how important this record is to me.
We took a year off after that tour to sit down and make this record. It was the first time in my life that I had the ability to sit and focus for a year. I finished writing it within two months. But, I got so into the zone that we immediately started another project. “oh lets make another Sound Clown and then another project…” We could then put the record aside once we tracked it out and had it written and produced. We put it aside and started making all these lil side projects. And then we did a tour where I got to do some new songs off this record, last fall. After the tour we went back and decided to mix the record and make any changes I wanted to make lyrically. There was so many things I was learning on the tour, ya know, like if I said a rhyme like this boombumboom. The tour gave me another chance to look at it and re-edit the shit we was doing.  The record took a year to make if you look at it like that.
Really, we did so much other shit within that year. We did 2 tours, made like five fucking other projects but all of it was about the record. Because the other projects, we were making them to back off from the story for a minute. Get away from it. Have some fun. Get some fun shit done.
All of it, without even knowing it at the time, became a campaign for the new record. All the Sad Clown’s we did and the Strictly Leakage. I was just trying to make fun shit but now in hind sight, its 20/20, I can sit back and now say it was all set up to keep the buzz going.
“Ohh shit another EP.”
“Ohh another EP.”
“Ohh well this one ain’t as good as this one.”
Get them talking again so that the name stayed out there without, having..to..rob a bank, (laughs) know what I’m sayin? So I can keep my story hot or at least on people’s mouths. The “ohh I love Atmosphere” or “I hate atmosphere,” just keep it moving like that. When the record finally came out I was able to do it without spending a ton of money on marketing and so on. All the hoops that people jump through; we got to do creative hoops.
I don’t know if this is even a part of your question any more. But shit I just started running with it…especially since I just got off stage so my brains kinda…

215: You mentioned spending money on marketing. I saw in the stores candy and all kinds of stuff. The CD even has a book. You guys are in a great position right now, right?

Slug: Well it’s a situation where I wanted to try so many different things without necessarily going after the big ads in big magazine’s and making commercials. Like we had fucking TV commercials for the Can’t Imagine joint so we tried all these different things. You see what works and what doesn’t. With this record, with everything we tried, we wanted to make it a part of the art.
So, the candy that was Diq’s (Siddiq) idea. But you know..I see it. It makes sense. I don’t eat candy; it’s bad for my teeth, but I wasn’t mad at the idea. Ya know in the end it’s mad cheap, it gives kids diarrhea; so yeah a lemon drop that makes you shit. How much more perfect can you get for the album title.
On my personal shit, instead of them turning to me and asking “what do you want to allocate for this and that,” I don’t want to make those decisions for my own record. It’s a conflict of interest. I’ll sit in on a meeting when it’s a Mac Lethal record or an Ali record but when it’s my own record that’s kinda like..

215: So who makes those decisions?

Slug: The rest of the camp, Bird (Dj J-Bird), ‘Diq, Sky. I stay out of it because what if suddenly my record is on blast? It looks bad to the other artists because they look at it as Slug stepped in and made sure the money went over here, so I stay the fuck out of it

215: Has that ever happened?

Slug: No, I don’t think it ever will, but I see it happen in other people’s camps and indie labels..
215: That’s why I’m askin’.
Slug: I guess I’m just kinda fortunate that all the dudes we fuck with are on some real shit. They all personally know me cause they have all toured with me by now. If anyone at this point has any complaints about me it probably has to do with my personal hygiene. Everyone knows I’m
a generous dude and am a great boss when it comes down to being a boss and I treat people good. But at the same time I’m stern and I’ll let people know how I feel and what I want. I feel everyone appreciates it. So, I’ve never heard anyone online bickering. I honestly don’t think it ever will happen and I think everyone understands my role in Rhymesayers. Everyone understands how I work. I don’t think they’ll start saying “ohh Slug did this or that.”

I mean we all complain about Bird!

215: Until recently, with the Paint Gold videos and the story line book with the CD, you were always an artist that never did that many interviews or explained what this song means and so on. So why did you decide to do it now?

Slug: I like to be in control of what goes out there. I don’t like to do things that I don’t feel comfortable with and I’ve never been all that comfortable with doing the interpretation. But I do see, as I get older, that I want people to stop misinterpreting my shit. Ya know? So now I did the children’s book and shit like that to where it’s my version of explaining to you what this is all about. You can take it or leave it. We did those little Paint It Gold things giving you my interpretation of an interview so I don’t have to have my publicist hunting down anyone with a blog. We can be a ‘lil more discrete on who we approach or want giving us coverage. I don’t have to be that guy who’s whoring himself to every media outlet that is possible.
I’m happy with all the ideas I brought to the table for this record. Like a year ago I told everyone I didn’t want to send out advance copies. They were like “huh?” Yeah but I will do this, this and this to back that up. Shit, I don’t got any other job and I’ll put 80 hours a week into this shit if I have to. If it ain’t rappin’, I’ll do what I need to do in order for it to go down the way I want it to go down. Everyone was kinda like “okay we’ll let you try this.” I’m in a position in front of a lot of these independent artists where I can try different shit and if it fails so be it. I’ll try it again next year. A lot of these artists are living check to check right now where I’m one of the few that ain’t in that position. Ya know I can set some examples that either fools can learn from my mistakes or see what works. I think that’s important for Rhymesayers especially because if me and Ali take this risk or that risk then the other artist can see what we did and decide “ohh I ain’t doing that, it was too expensive and stupid or I’m gonna do that because that shit seemed to work.” Not just for Rhymesayers but for everyone else in the scene. I think it’s important for the few like myself; Sage, Murs, Ali, Aesop, El-P…a couple dudes who are heavy hitters in the independent thing. I think it’s important that we set examples for a lot of other people that are still making this shit. We had a lot of people setting examples for us. We had to learn from the mistakes of people five years ago; we don’t make the same mistakes. I feel a lot of the shit I did was bigger than just for this record. It was for my next record even. I’m seeing what I can do in order to keep this job and not get fired. I love my job man! (laughs)

215: Famous Ghostface Killah line; “goddamn right I fuck fans.” Comments?

Slug: (laughs) It is what it is. Me, personally, I believe all art; film, music, books, paintings…all art is about communication and procreation. Basically if you have something to express you do it like a peacock. You show your feathers, the other peacocks come and look and other girl peacocks might check it out. You’re basically finding like minded people who think like you. The bigger you get the broader that pool opens up of people to choose from for you to procreate and make babies with. Now granted, a lot of us wear condoms so there ain’t no babies being made, but I do think a lot of art comes down to sex. It comes down to the dichotomy between the sexes. For example anytime a girl gets on stage in a rock band and sings all three of us would somehow accidentally give her a ‘lil more attention than we would of if it was just another dude. She could serve you coffee tomorrow and you wouldn’t even fuckin notice her but tonight you see her on stage and you kinda like “she’s bangin,” or whatever. Like look at all the female artists that are homely as fuck and we all still look at, like “yeah I would kick it to her ’cause she’s famous.” Ya know what I mean? It’s the same thing.

215: I remember back at one of your first Philly shows at The Church a few kids got caught writing graf on your trailer, and you came out and prevented what could of been a pretty bad situation. Did you do that just because you didn’t want a fight at your show?

Slug: (laughs) Ohh shit I remember that. Well you know, I do believe in consequences for your actions. But when I can look you in the eye and know you ain’t built for this, as in weak or soft or whatever, and if these dude’s fuck you up, it’s gonna do more bad than good. I do believe that some people deserve an ass whopping. Don’t get me wrong. But only when it’s actually gonna be productive and progressive. So you got a couple of dudes who, maybe, they might whoop my ass. It might even be good for them to whoop my ass because they can vent out some of there day frustrations of the day on me. That’s one thing, I kinda believe in that.  But then when you got a couple of dude’s who don’t got no frustration to vent and want to whoop your ass just for the sake of doing it. That’s a whole different story and to me that’s not a fair one. Granted, I do believe in consequences. I have caught kids marking up the trailer who did catch one. But in that particular situation those kids didn’t really deserve to catch one. You could see it in their faces that they had no idea what they were doing. Some of those graffiti kids are hard knocks and can take a lick to the head. These kids were not built for it man. They were just soft.

215: I hope they read this too…

Slug: And no disrespect to them, it is what it is. You might be tough amongst your little friends but you’re in front of a couple of dudes who bust heads because they know how to bust heads. Homie, I’m gonna step in and make sure this doesn’t go down. (laughs). The beauty of that is those dude’s really had no reason to even listen to me. Who the fuck am I? I was just some lil’ underground rapper who was in town. But, for some reason, I think they caught on to what I was trying to put out there; the energy I was putting out. It all went the way it was supposed to go.
But don’t get me wrong, me and Brad (Mr. Dibbs) would take your shoes if you were marking on the trailer and you were too little to hit. Brad used to love to hit shit like he would hit people, trees, whatever. When you were too little to hit we would just take your shoes and throw them up on a telephone wire and tell you to walk the fuck home now.

215: By looking at the crowd at your shows, it’s obvious you don’t have a “traditional” hip hop fan base. There was like 3 black kids at the show tonight. When you first started out, did you ever expect to have the audience you have? Does this even bother you anymore?

Slug: I used to struggle with it all the time. Just even a few years ago even I used to have a lot of neuroses about it. Ask myself “is what I’m doing bad for the movement?” Then after getting older, wiser and having some of my idols speak to me, they kinda explained to me “what you’re doing, you’re doing the right thing, just make sure you take the kids that are listening to you and do the right thing with them.” Really that’s what it comes down to. If I was exploiting these lil white kids then it would be a different story. The bottom line is that I’m just expressing and these are the people that are coming to me. I can’t turn anyone down. If you want to listen to me than I’m gonna give it to you. And on the sense of where are the blacks fans going?…

215: Well, not so much as just a racial thing, but, the more traditional hip hop fans?

Slug: Ok yeah like what happened to the backpacker? Well the backpacker is actually from 1995. Now the backpacker is 33 years old, has a 9-5 job and has a family. So the backpacker can’t just go to the rap show where he’s never heard of anybody. And, maybe he doesn’t want to be around a bunch of 16yr olds.
People grow. They do what they gotta do. In my own world, I still look at it but I’m not that cynical about it anymore. I learned to just embrace what my tools are and what I have to work with. Now it’s kinda like “what can I do now to ensure that I never fall off that path?” Quality is job one. It’s nice to get validated, a pay check, props and all that shit but the bottom line is I have to continue to give back just how KRS was giving to me. I don’t mean to sound like a bumper sticker. I’m serious. If I can’t keep givin back then I’m pointless and the next one to become irrelevant. So bring your cats, and I’ll rap for your cats and dogs if they’re in the crowd.

215: Have you ever gotten snubbed by someone known who thinks they’re what real hip hop is about?

Slug: I’ve had issues with some fans but never on the racial shit. On some music shit there’s some kids who will say “ohh you’ve been dumbing your lyrics down to appeal to a broader audience.” And then there are the kids who say “oh, I saw your video on MTV 2 - fuck you!” And to me that’s all about identity.

215: Have you ever gotten it from other artists?

Slug: Not from other artists, not directly. I’ll hear about motherfuckers because they don’t know that I know the same girls that they know or some shit. So I’ll hear what some cats say but I don’t pay it no mind because we all know where that comes from. There’s a couple of us who are ahead of the pack, ya know? So as long as you respect me to my face, then I don’t give a fuck what you’ll say about me just to get laid. Shit, just don’t forget I’m helping you bust a nut homie.
I take it a lil more serious when it comes from fans. Because ya know what? I get it, that your 19; I’m fuckin 35. If you can’t see why it’s good that me and Aesop Rock and Murs are getting up on MTV2, if you can’t see how us getting those minutes is taking away from other people getting them, if you can’t see the balance..then what are you even doing here?
Because lets face it, you got my record then I’m already a sell out. You probably ain’t from Minneapolis, you wasn’t there when I first started grabbing mics; so it’s just like that. You caught on to us just how anyone else caught on to us. The way I see it, it’s all about identity because I used to be that dude who was shouting “fuck the mainstream.” But that’s because I had to show everybody who I was. Now I’m to the point that I don’t care anymore what you may see me as. I don’t need to overdue the identity. I guess that’s what it is kinda; people have the tendency to overcompensate for their own insecurities. At a time when I was kinda insecure in my role and identity in hip hop, best believe I was representing all four elements of hip hop. Best believe I was trying to prove to myself on how hip hop I was. Finally you reach a point where you know nobody can take this away. I got pics of graf I’ve done, copies of mixtapes I’ve made. Fuck it, I’m in there and am a part of it now. There’s a point you reach that you just kinda relax and say “you know what I like 50 and the Black Eyed Peas and appreciate what the fuck they do for the movement.” You can finally take a step back and look at everything.
Not only that, but why do we continually bond over the things that we hate and rather than the things that we love. And that’s what keeps the branches of the tree separate in the 1st place.

215: I saw the SXSW video that UGHH.com put up of you denying them an interview. Which I thought was hilarious. We don’t have any connections with them, or even know them on a personal level, but what is the situation with you and those guys?

Slug: It’s Quest, the owner, the puppet master over there. It’s really his issue. You got this dude.  Who owns & runs a website and somehow he became like a star off of it. It’s all good, do your thing. But when you come at me a ‘lil funny I’m gonna pull your bitch card. Not because I’m an asshole but because I try to be very honest and real with everybody. It’s the same thing as if I’m down at the merch table and there’s this kid who spends $150 worth of shit. So I’m supposed to be like “yo this dude is really supporting and showing it with his wallet.” But then he comes over to where I’m signing autographs for a couple of girls and says some frat boy shit like “ohh look at Slug’s groupies.” I’m gonna stop everything and tell him that ain’t how it works. I’ll lecture his stupid ass in front of everybody. Even though the first thing out his mouth will be “yo I just bought all this shit.” So what dog? If I don’t say this to you then I ain’t being me, and then what are you buying? If you don’t believe in me then what are you buying? The fact that you’re buying this from me makes me feel you deserve it even more from me.
That’s how I look at Quest (ughh.com.) He’s a fuckin drunk frat boy who bought too much shit from me and thinks that just because he bought all that shit that he gets to pop off and do whatever.

215: Now onto another website. I randomly lurk on Okayplayer’s forums and I was shocked by how much support they were giving you there. What was your reaction to all of that?

Slug: Yo they hit me up a few days later and asked if it was OK to give me Okay status where you get one of these lil Okay things next to your name. I was like…”fuck yeah.” And it was funny to me because especially with that site; I read that all the time. Because it’s closer to my taste to what people talk about over there. Ya know I listen to the Beatnuts just as much as anyone else and it’s more up my alley. For years I just caught a lot of hate over there, emo this and whatever and it helped me build thick skin. So it was good for me to read a lot of criticism, even the straight up evil criticism. When they offered me the lil Okay thing next to my name, my next question was do I get to meet Melle Mel now? (laughs) So that was the shit.

215: Here in Philly, you’ve moved from the small shows to now rocking a crowd at The Troc with well over 1,000 people. What are your thoughts on Philly?

Slug: Well you got to understand that coming from Minneapolis, Philly at least for me as a kid, was number two next to New York. I hope nobody takes offense to me saying number two. But as a kid Philly was ahead of LA. Philly was ahead of Jersey. Philly was a head of anywhere else because I was into Schooly D and Tuff Crew. The things I was into I would hear Philly’s name get popped off and I would be like “that’s what’s up!”
When I first started coming here to do shows I was intimidated. I always felt the audience had more MC’s in it than normal audiences. You see a lot of the mean mugging and crossed arms. It took a lot of time for me to finally get comfortable here. Tonight, personally, might be my favorite show ever in Philly. It seemed the whole crowd was easy going and they were here for the right reasons. I think I had the most fun I’ve ever had. But over the years of coming here I made so many good friends here and had so many good times. I got drunken stories all over this city. I got a lot of love for this place.
I would probably put Philly in my upper echelon of cities. Of course Minneapolis and Chicago are the center for me, but I would say on the 2nd perimeter of cities would be Philadelphia, Austin and certain other cities. We have a lot of really good friends where when we tour and have a choice for a few days off we put them in cities like Philly.

215: Any last words for Philly:

Slug: Yo, what happened with the primaries Philly?

215: So Slug is an Obama supporter?

Slug: Most definitely and I ain’t mad at the whole PA thing but as far as what to say as last words to Philly, that was the first shit that popped in my head. (Laughs) I love you Philly, one love. I mean it rained all day I was expecting like 75 people..so thank you Philly.

*Edited by: Tom Williams

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