Something in the air

Here in the Midwest we love county fairs and NASCAR almost as much as we love euchre and whisky. We have more corn, cows and good ol' boys than you can shake a stick at and thanks to the Minneapolis hip-hop group Atmosphere, we also have some of the illest underground music any coast has ever heard.

It was in the fateful year of 1997, while the spilled blood of 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. was still fresh and the inquest into gangsta rap was raging, that the rapper Sean Daley and producer Anthony Davis took the names of Slug and Ant, and collectively formed Atmosphere. They joined the Rhymesayers record label and released their first album, At Overcast!, introducing the world to their own blend of hip hop. Free from cop killin' and champagne sippin', opting instead for bare-bones production and self-aware, self-deprecating lyrics about girls and life in the middle of America.

Like any underground artist who wants to make it, they've been living for the music and 2005 is no exception. They kicked it off with eight consecutive sold-out shows in Minneapolis followed by a two-month, 52-show tour (49 of which sold out). The duo also worked on a project called Felt with Murs from Living Legends. The album, A Tribute to Lisa Bonet, is the second in a series of homages to celebrity crushes (the first was A Tribute to Christina Ricci) and even has an accompanying comic book drawn by Jim Mahfood.

While Slug is no stranger to a packed house, Ant, on the other hand, is joining him on the road for the very first time on their Pour Me Another Tour in support of their new album, You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having, which drops on October 4. Atmosphere will be performing at Rhino's Youth Center and All-Age Music Club in Bloomington along with labelmates Blueprint and P.O.S. on Monday, October 19. The show is $15, but tickets are only available at the door, so get there early.

Last night was the first night of the tour and the first night with Ant in the live set. What is the major difference with him added into the show now?

Slug: As of now, I can't even answer that question. I don't know how long it's going to take for me and him to find our stage personality together. When I'm rapping with the band, there's so many people on stage it's not as important to push forward any particular personalities. As long as I'm rapping and talking to the kids my personality is basically going to be the one. Whereas with Ant, there's not as many people up there and it's not as active. Ant's not moving around as much as my guitar player who likes to jump around. Me and him are going to have to find our stage personalities still. Last night was the first step towards that, towards finding how we're going to react to each other.

So you have to work balance those two voices on stage?

Right. Ant's not going to jump around. Slowly we're going to find out what the fuck Ant is going to do to make sure that he's heard.

You two have been working together for eight years now and it seems like you have a pretty good following just about anywhere you go, considering that the tour earlier this year sold out almost every night. What do you think the big success of Atmosphere is? What makes people come to the shows?

That's a good question. I don't know, man. I try to stay away from thinking about that kinda stuff, because before you know it I'm going to be strategizing and I'm going to have all kinds of little plans as to how I take care of this and do that. I don't really know what the fuck these kids are coming for, to be quite honest. I know plenty of rappers who are better than us. Maybe it is the fact that I do keep coming back to the town. I think there is something to be said for the fact that I'm not scared to come back to Bloomington, Indiana twice a year. How many fucking times has Mos Def been there? Like, once ... ever? I've been to Rhino's ten times alone, much less other places in the city. That is by no means meant as a diss to Mos Def, but just as an example. I think that it's possible that my dedication to coming back over and over gives people the illusion that I'm friends with them ... that I like them.

Well, I guess people are falling for it.

No, I'm kidding. It's not an illusion. I do like coming. It all goes back to the fact that I love to fucking rap. I can't rap at home every night, because no one would come see me every single night, so I'm going to go move around. Rap here, there, here, there ... especially the smaller towns. Most of the Midwest kids take that seriously. When you keep coming back over and over and over you're going to fucking knock them dead. They're going to love you. They're going to come see you over and over. You know, you get to New York and it's like, "So fucking what? You're a rapper?" Well, there's a rap show every fuckin' night in Manhattan. In fact, most night's there're probably two. I don't know how to explain why we have followings in the bigger cities. I know why the kids in Iowa like us, because I'm from fucking Minnesota, man!

Would you say there's anybody you're listening to that's unknown, but is going to get big in the near future?

It's hard to even say who is unknown. Personally, I think (Brother) Ali is going to be fuckin' huge! I could almost fit into the relatively unknown category when you compare how many kids know who I am compared to how many kids know G-G-G-G-Unit. I'm going to put it on Ali. Or that girl from Chicago, Psalm One, she is relatively unknown and I think in the next two or three years she is going to get known and OneBeLow. We've been watching each other take these baby steps and move forward and now we'll bump into each other on the road somewhere and it's like, "Look at us, dude! We're rappin' still!" It's amazing.

Some people are saying You Can't Imagine is going to be the album that puts Atmosphere on a new level. Beyond just selling out shows, it'll be a record that everybody owns.

We'll see. Some people say the record sucks. All that speculation I try not to pay too much attention to, because if I do, then I have to start paying attention to the negative speculation as well. And if I start listening to that I'm going to turn into a mess.

I wanted to talk to you about the Felt record.

I like that record.

Yeah, so do I. And I think the comic book is hilarious.

Yeah, that dude Jim (Mahfood) that made it is fuckin' amazing. That poor guy, we put him through hell. I say it in this fun way, but we really made that dude bust his ass to get it done. He pulled it off. I was really impressed and it was really funny. I like people that can be funny. I can tell jokes, but I tell jokes that I heard somewhere else. But when people can come up with funny shit on their own, I think that is amazing. And that shit he put in there about Morris Day I think is awesome. If anything, I think Morris Day should come and kick me and Murs' ass for the comic book alone.

So are you and Murs going to do another Felt record?

I don't know. This whole thing wasn't planned. We were just like, "Hey, do you wanna make another record? Who do you want to make it for? Oh, OK." So really, we both just gotta have a crush on another girl, again. And I'm not just giving up on this Lisa Bonet thing so easy. I'm going to go and try to roll with this before I go and make another record for another person. Like, Ricci totally shit on us. She didn't want anything to do with us.

Have you heard anything from Lisa yet?

No, not yet, but I feel it in my bones. It's comin'.

She'll be calling you soon.

She'll be sending us a cease and desist soon.

So, who's hotter Christina (Ricci) or Lisa (Bonet)?

Lisa.

Hands down?

Well, her forehead isn't as big.