Interview: Slug of Atmosphere

Hey kids, this interview with Atmosphere's Sean Daley was featured in issue 18 of Rift magazine. It starts below and continues after the jump. Enjoy! And stay tuned for a Rift-related announcement later today...

To someone outside the Midwest, the concept of a Minnesota hip-hop scene – indeed, even the phrase – sounds laughable. Conventional wisdom holds that the coasts provide enough rap for the rest of the country and besides, Minnesota is far too nice for hip-hop's required aggression, right?

The rest of us, of course, know better.

After all, rap started much more innocently than today's Cristal-chugging chart-toppers. And while Atmosphere MC Slug does have the required aggression, it's the old school party music he was interested in for the most recent Atmosphere record, You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having.

"It's just a continuation of our progression," Slug said when interviewed via telephone from Canada. He and Atmosphere DJ Ant are currently touring behind You Can't Imagine. "It was a conscious effort to sound like Public Enemy and Slick Rick."

The record has garnered favorable notices nationally, grabbing Slug interviews in publications such as Spin. Atmosphere's previous record, Seven's Travels, was something of a phenomenon, pushing the duo out of Minneapolis and into the national spotlight. This was largely due to a distribution deal through punk label Epitaph, but catchy songs like "Shhh" didn't hurt, either.

Though there wasn't a big Minneapolis hip-hop scene when Atmosphere formed, the one-time Sean Daley had enough to look to on the national scale.
"From the time I was 11, I wanted to be in Run-DMC," he said, pointing out that the Adidas shoes and fedoras were strong selling points. "As a kid, I thought I'd have to move to New York."

Minnesota's pull proved permanent for Daley and he, Ant and then-MC Spawn formed Urban Atmosphere. But by 1993, when the group was born, "urban" was overused in the media. So they dropped it and Daley picked up the nickname "Slug" from his father, who was "Sluggo" to his son's "Little Sluggo." It stuck.

And after six records, so has the group's appeal, which Slug said has both changed and focused Atmosphere's performance style.

"In some areas we do really big rooms and you've gotta be really aware of your surroundings," he said. He now pays more attention to "the kids 50 yards back. You've gotta jump around and be a clown."

He seems to have no problem acting the fool and his interview demeanor also reveals a softer, funnier side than his neurotic rap persona might let on. Slug's reputation, which Atmosphere's media coverage has eagerly perpetuated, is one of personal drama and pathos. The word "emo-rap" pops up more often than not, a factor for which the MC partly takes the blame.
"Ironically, I couldn't get mad, because I'm the one who made up the fuckin' term," Slug said. He admitted to being in a somewhat altered state at the time of that interview and was making a joke. "I had just discovered Sunny Day Real Estate and I thought it was funny."

Slug hasn't lost any of his impishness. In May, he was interviewed for The Onion's Random Rules feature, for which musicians and actors let their iPods play on shuffle and describe the songs that appear. Slug, of course, made all his up. Though he is indeed a fan of Lifter Puller and Built To Spill – and the piece's story about Slug inebriating Tom Waits' son is true – he felt he had the license. After all, those guys make stuff up every week.

Perhaps, then, "Shhh" – a slice of tongue-in-cheek hometown pride ("Prince lives here/We got ten thousand lakes!") – wasn't out of character. The song is a five-minute hidden track after "Always Coming Back To You," a particularly melodramatic (though masterful) song from Seven's Travels. In 2005, "Shhh" was chosen as the first song ever played by The Current, beating out obvious contenders like The Replacements' "Left Of The Dial" (which, if the station's online forum is to be believed, was the easy frontrunner).

Slug heard about the honor from fans and was touched.

"I thought that was really sweet," he said. He finished the thought in typical Slug fashion – with a touch of self-deprecation. "But somebody has to be the first song ... what would be perfect is if we were the last song they ever played, too."

He didn't even expect the track – which he and Ant recorded after realizing they still had a few minutes of record to fill – to take off like it has.
"I mean, I rhymed 'man' and 'can' in that song," he laughed in disbelief.
He also rapped, "It sucks that you think where I'm from is wack, but as long as that's enough to keep your ass from coming back," ensuring listeners will not only remember where Slug is from, but will know that the Twin Cities isn't as timid as they thought. For this, Minnesotans owe Sean Daley a drink.

This article originally appeared in a slightly different form in issue 18 of Rift magazine. That article can be read here.