ARTIST: Atmosphere
ALBUM: To All My Friends
LABEL: Rhymesayers Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2010
Rising to the TOP
Photo by Rhymesayers Entertainment
Written by Alex Groberman
In order to fully understand Atmosphere’s “To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blady Holy” it’s key to note that this isn’t actually a true follow-up effort to their previous album, “When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold.”
Even though this isn’t so much an official album as it as an EP, Slug takes no prisoners right out of the gate as he continues to impart wisdom on listeners for anything and everything.
On “The Loser Wins” he waxes poetic about the trials and tribulations of dealing with friendship and teenage pregnancy. The song feels like it gets deeper with every lyric that he spits, a theme that becomes all too common with this album.
“The Best Day” sends a more general lesson to the people regarding making a bad day into a better day. The beauty of the song, though, is that the subject matter is something your regular folks can understand and relate to. Lyrics like the ones from this particular song are universally understood: “Broken glass, computer crash / The car won’t start and the tires went flat / Dog got loose, brought back a dead cat / Daughter found it and had a panic attack / Plus you ain’t had sex in how long? / Afraid to admit that the fire’s all gone / The better half is talking about separate / You wish you could take it back to yesterday / You’re not alone, its hard as hell / But don’t waste no time feeling sorry for self / We’ll be right here with you, through your war / ‘Cause you’re the one we make this music for.”
The thing that really sticks out about this particular work is Slug’s strange ability to tell all of these fictional stories without appearing like he’s preaching to the listener. Even when he takes it back to his own life like he does on “The Number None,” the way he explains his unsuccessful ways with a female that just wouldn’t let him do what he wanted to do makes even the most hardcore rap fan grin.
That’s not to say that Slug doesn’t take a turn for the more serious at various points. There is no better example of that than “The Major Leagues” where the veteran rapper discusses a friend that he lost to the so-called “dark side.” The metaphors on the track alone are enough to cease and astound anyone that takes the time to truly listen and try to understand.
The “Atmosphere” formula has worked for this long in large part due to Slug’s storytelling ability, but also because of Ant’s production. The growth and understanding of what sounds work and what don’t is noticeably better on this piece of work than it was on “Lemons,” and it will only make the listeners hungrier for Ant’s next project.
All in all, while this may be sold simply and quietly as a “double EP,” there is no denying that Atmosphere (yet again) has put out some of the most fulfilling and underrated music you’ll hear this year. A true treat for any real music fan.