Atmosphere – God Loves Ugly (Re-Issue)

Album Reviews • Tuesday February 24th, 2009 • 9:47 am

I doubt I’m breaking any psychological ground here, but the male ego is a fragile thing. It wants to constantly assert how dominant and full of conviction it appears to be. In rap music particular, music fans can find record after record proclaiming–with a Muhammad Ali-esque sense of braggadocio–that this particular record is the greatest thing since slice bread, and that its creators are comfortably sitting at the number two spot.

Of course, any one with any real world experience can testify that such grandstanding usually means that the person espousing them has no confidence whatsoever. While this contradiction in the real world can lead to annoyance at best, it also leads to music that makes both the self-effacement and self-centeredness of its creators compelling. Take, for example, one Sean “Slug” Daley, emcee of Minneapolis-based rap duo Atmosphere (his co-hort is DJ producer Anthony “Ant” Davis).

Known for being almost uncomfortably honest, Slug is known for writing lyrics that portray, with brutal insight and caustic wit, the perspective of a scorned lover who’s still pining over his ex. He expertly captures both the catharsis of leaving a troubled relationship, and pangs of regret and confusion that arise from still wanting to be with the offending lover (he screams out at one character “I want to say fuck you Lucy/but the problem is I still love you, Lucy”). Though Slug had covered similar thematic material before on Atmosphere’s two Lucy Ford EPs (records about Slug’s frustrated, failed relationship with the titular subject) godlovesugly is the first album of Atmosphere’s that truly manages to coalesce Slug’s clever, rapid raps, and Ant’s minimalist, bass-heavy funk-and-jazz sampling production techniques.

Listening in retrospect, it’s easy to see why godlovesugly was able to raise the national profile of both its creators, and the then-burgeoning Twin Cities rap scene that spawned them. First is the fact that this breakthrough was a long time coming: Atmosphere’s first album, Overcast!, was released in 1997, when the group was a trio. After original member Spawn left for personal reasons, Slug and Ant continued the group, which obtained slow success the hard way: by touring. A lot. The two follow-ups to Overcast!, EPs Ford and Lucy Ford (concept records about Slug’s dysfunctional, but addictive, relationship with the titular subject) were only intended as tour-only releases; they sold so well as to merit national distribution (as the compilation full-length Lucy Ford).

In essence, godlovesugly is Atmosphere’s true debut, even if it’s really the band’s third disc. The album plays with the confidence of a veteran act, and the youthful, hard-working ethic of a group that still wants to prove itself. On the whole, godlovesugly consists mostly of better-than-average party jams (“Give Me”, “Breathing”) and the occasionally transcendent look into failed romantic relationships (the jaw-dropping “F*@K You Lucy”). Atmosphere would later diversify both their sonic scope and their storytelling skills on future releases, but godlovesugly finds a group greatly perfecting past formulas both musically and lyrically, with style and wit.

If listeners care to look for one song that effectively serves as Atmosphere’s manifesto, their efforts won’t take too much time at all. “The Bass and the Movement” grooves on a simple, funk-heavy bass line, and a ferociously tight snare-heavy beat helps define the sonics of godlovesugly. Though there are later excursions into reggae (“Blamegame”), and lush, poignant string-samples for strongly poignant effect (“Modern Man’s Hustle”), most of the tracks here are defined by the bass and the movement. Like the best collaborators, Ant knows how to intelligently stay out of his creative partner’s way, and the just-right level of sparse production allows for Slug to tear it up on one track after another.

And even if there’s a little bit of overshare from a lyrical standpoint (Slug’s huffs and puffs on “F*@K You Lucy seem a tad much), it’s clear that, from the first dropped snare hit, godlovesugly comes off as a surprisingly assured album. It’s the breakthrough record that knows it deserves to be. On “Onemosphere,” the record’s first track, Slug himself summed up his group’s promise aptly by saying that “maybe you don’t like us/but of all the stars in the sky/believe we’re one of the brightest.” With godlovesugly, both past and present listeners can find no real reason to disagree with him.

Tagged as: emo-rap, Hip-hop, minneapolis