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Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
Rhymesayers (4/22/08)
Hip-hop / Rap
Much like the Coen Brothers, Atmosphere are a two-man outfit from Minnesota; also like Joel & Ethan Coen, they take a genre known for being a spectacle of macho violence and add an introspective, personal flair to it. Made up of emcee Slug and producer Ant, Atmosphere are the pioneers of what many refer to as "emo rap". Rather than drumming up some inauthentic rhymes about the usual hip-hop subjects, Slug tells a story in every track and delves into the emotional side of his characters' lives and loves. While a lot of Atmosphere's stuff is serious in lyrical tone and mood, Ant provides some revelatory backing tracks, with a spacey stoner vibe on many and a lot of deep digging into some different musical styles. Together, Atmosphere are pushing the boundaries of what independent hip-hop can be in the '00s.
When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold was streamed on their MySpace page on 4/20 before being released on Tuesday. We kick off with "Like The Rest of Us", which is a poor choice for an album opener. It's built around a piano line that sounds like an augment to a bass-driven beat that isn't actually there, it just sounds like it should be. The song is quiet and introspective, definitely falling into that "emo rap" category, but it seems like a mid-album track and it feels out of place in the opening spot. While the emotional tone of Slug's lyrics are what makes Atmosphere stand out, songs like "Me", with its Enya-ish sample, and the touching-but-depressing-paean-to-a-dead-father, "Yesterday", can feel a little saccharine.
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