Hasta La Creative!

Minneapolis-based hip hop duo Atmosphere has a new album coming out in August called Fishing Blues, which will be their seventh album to date. Unlike previous albums however, this one will feature a bevy of other people including DOOM, Aesop Rock, Kool Keith and more.
Long the stalwarts of intelligent rhymes and great storytelling coming from the POV of the working man just getting by or the seamy side of life, lyricist Slug is hip hop’s Raymond Carver. With each new album, his lyrics and themes grow exponentially.

The video’s hilarious featuring a drunken thespian dressed as a jester, stumbling on the stage while the director of the play and handlers try in vain to yank him off, and sober him up. At the end, defiant, he goes back on stage while everyone still mocks him. As the press release describes it: “a sharp look at today’s pop culture environment where today’s heroes are tomorrow’s joke.”

On “Ringo” the lyrics evoke the schadenfreude when it comes to watching famous people crash and burn. Slug raps from the first person POV on the chorus describing the character’s ups and downs. The chorus is vintage Atmosphere–catchy and sardonic: “I might’a showed up when the party start, i mighta got high with your body guard, I mighta passed out at the airport bar, everybody wanna see a falling star. I mighta thrown up in a rental car, I mighta woke up in a reservoir, I mighta got robbed at Mardi Gras, everybody wanna see a falling star.”

Pre-order the album here.