Atmosphere brings its storytelling hip-hop to the Electric Factory

On the heels of their seventh album, Southsiders, Atmosphere made a stop at the Electric Factory, warming up the show for Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley. While the duo of rapper  Sean Daley, AKA Slug, and producer / DJ Anthony Davis, AKA Ant, might not be household names in the same way Kanye is, if you have heard of them you will know how long they have been around. Since 1989, to be exact, and these Minneapolis heroes make hip hop sound like telling a bedtime story.

Slug comanded the fairly small audience, interacting with crowd members and turning regular stories into songs. His rhymes have always had well-defined lyrics; he focuses on real life situations like love and death and loneliness and last night he told the audience to “raise your hands if you’re happy to be alive.” I was definitely a happy camper when one of the final songs he performed was “Yesterday” from the 2008 record When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that Shit Gold. He ended by thanking the audience for “puttin’ up with our shit.”

Check out a gallery of photos from the show below.