You can’t blame Atmosphere for wanting to try something new. The Minneapolis hip-hop duo (rapper Slug/producer Ant) had been running in place since 2002’s God Loves Ugly. It wasn’t that their last album, You Can’t Believe How Much Fun We’re Having was bad; it’s just that there are only so many ways to spin quasi-emo tales of groupies and ex-girlfriends over ’70s soul beats. Atmosphere has a new album coming out later this month called When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold; I would’ve liked to have listened to it, but piracy issues caused Atmosphere’s label, Rhymesayers, to refuse to send out gold-painted press copies. So in retaliation, I’m going to assume from the video for “Guarantee,” the album’s first single, that the next Atmosphere record will be entirely rap-rock.
Rap-rock, a genre long thought to have been buried along with Kid Rock’s midget, has made a resurgence of late; I suspect it all started last year with the emergence of the Shop Boyz, Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, and Chamillionaire letting the world know that they too could be compared to rock stars. Then this year came Why?’s Alopecia, the Jackie Robinson of rap-rock, the crucial moment that quantitatively proved what scientists had long believed: It is possible to give birth to a good rap-rock album. Unfortunately, judging from the “Guarantee” video, Slug seems to be the Larry Doby of neo-rap-rock.
“Guarantee” finds the Rhymesayers president looking like a cross between Winona Ryder’s ex-boyfriend and The Grungies. Unlike the rap-rock of the past, Slug goes unplugged, just an acoustic guitar and gloomy lyrics that seem to have been conceived at a Seattle coffeehouse’s open-mic night sometime in 1993. With some hard drums and some harmonica, or some otherwise odd instrumentation, I could definitely see this track breathing, but instead the song feels thin, spare, and anticlimactic. From a business perspective, the song is probably a brilliant move, as it further solidifies Slug’s stranglehold on the lucrative world of suicide girls and sorority sisters. But from an artistic perspective, while Slug remains a very good rapper, Atmopshere’s new direction is Durst.
you know what’s pissing off atmosphere fans more than the potential new sound? slug’s greasy mullet.
Unlike the rap-rock of the past
I don’t know, there was at least one rap-rock song from the past that did manage to rock it acoustic pretty well:
Maxim approves of your record review techniques.
@ Nate I know Doby was a great ballplayer. That’s my point. Slug is a great rapper too, but this isn’t going to live on Jackie Robinson-like either. Only real baseball trivia geeks know Doby, I’m surprised anyone even picked up the reference. Nice work.
@Jeff Weiss: I guess in that kinda context, it makes a bit more sense. Now all we need to know is who nu-rap-rock’s Kenesaw Mountain Landis was.
Definitely someone in POD. I imagine Kenesaw was a church-going man.
I’ll be damned if something knocks “Alopecia” out of the #1 spot for me, but comparing Yoni Wolf to any black guy, let alone a pioneer in race relations…gadzooks!
I like Atmosphere, but Everlast did this better. For three albums. On every song.
Unfortunately, judging from the “Guarantee” video, Slug seems to be the Larry Doby of neo-rap-rock.
You mean “unfortunately” he’s a seven-time all-star, MVP runner-up and Hall of Famer?
Also, that guitar sounds plugged in to me. (And closer to Bill Withers than Limp Bizkit.)
Uh, Larry Doby is a seven-time all-star, MVP runner-up and Hall of Famer. Not too unfortunate.
Plus that guitar sounds plugged in to me. (And closer to Bill Withers than Limp Bizkit.)
(double the comments means double the pedantic nerdery!)
@natepatrin: THANK YOU.
Given the proclivities of Idolator’s newest guest blogger (though I realize he’s not responsible for this post), I’m not sure if I should interpret the Durst comparison as an insult or not.
I’ve heard the album and, no, it’s not the return of mook rock. This track is actually a bit of an anomaly and it was inspired by a one-off charity event where Slug rapped backed solely by a guitarist.
The record is going to surprise Atmosphere fans, tho, and probably piss off some of them. There’s a track called “You” that’s a huge, radio-friendly (and terrific) pop song.
Comment on New Atmosphere Video Reveals Slug May Be Long-Lost Member of Soul Asylum everything about this review is terrible and way off-base. good lord. but then, it IS ‘idolator’
is this for sure the first single?
they released a video for “Shoulda Known” a couple weeks before this one:
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This review is dumb.. Basing a critcization on a single is bull.. I heard Atmosphere’s new album it was great, this is the only song that he has this type a voice on… Songs like Yesterday, Waiter, Glass House were better than previous albums could create..
Slug is doing good..