Atmosphere

Atmosphere is an American alternative Hip Hop group from Minnesota, whose members include rapper Slug and DJ Ant. Unlike many modern rappers, Slug puts much emphasis on storytelling through strong lyricism. Though his earlier albums were angsty and confessional (for example, "Trying to Find a Balance" from Seven's Travels, as well as the highly creative "Lucy" songs and the terrifying story of "The Woman With the Tattooed Hands), later works such as Leak at Will and especially When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold contain dozens of complex narratives about diverse people, such as a waitress who gets revenge on her now homeless father ("The Waitress") and a young girl who escapes an abusive father through music ("In Her Music Box"). This practice is similar to Aesop Rock's "No Regrets."

Discography:

• Overcast (1997)
• Lucy Ford (2001)
• God Loves Ugly (2002)
• Seven's Travels (2003)
• Headshots: SE7EN (2005)
• You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having (2005)
• When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (2008)
• Leak at Will (2009)
• To All My Friends, Blood Makes the Blade Holy (2009)
• The Family Sign (2011)

Atmosphere provides examples of the following tropes:

• An Aesop: "The Rooster" and "The Waitress"
• Album Title Drop: "Something So" from The Family Sign has the line "Now everybody hold up the family sign"
• Animated Music Video: For "God Loves Ugly"
• Cluster F-Bomb: "Don't Ever Fucking Question That"
• Creator Backlash: Slug has said that "Trying to Find a Balance" is "the one I hate performing the most, but everybody loves it."
• Domestic Abuse: The song "The Last To Say" from The Family Sign album
• Misplaced Sorrow: In "Superman".
• Lyrical Dissonance: "You." Averted with "Sunshine," which is just as upbeat lyrically as it is musically.
• Ode to Intoxication: "The Things That Hate Us." "Pour Me Another" is an aversion in the sense that it is about the dangers of intoxication, and "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer 2" is a subversion, praising certain drugs but condemning others, and ending with the line "please stop pretending that it makes better music."
• Old Shame: Slug has gone on record criticizing their first album, Overcast! In his own words, "It's obvious that I’m trying so fucking hard on Overcast and you can see through it and tell it's not a person it's more of an attempt at trying to fill the niche, it was like I was trying to prove to myself that I was a rapper."
• Refuge in Audacity: "The Woman With the Tattooed Hands"
• Sad Clown: The group sells albums and EPs at some concerts known as the Sad Clown Bad series, including "Sad Clown Bad Dub" and "Sad Clown Bad Summer"
• Shout-Out: "Millie Fell Off The Fire Escape" is an homage to De La Soul's "Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa." Also "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer 2" is an homage to "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer" by Queens of the Stone Age.
• Theme Naming: Many of their albums and mixtapes have followed the Sad Clown Bad theme.