Atmosphere, or rapper and beats producer Slug and Ant, are well known in 2018 for touching, old school, rhymes. This is mostly due to the void left in mainstream rap and hip-hop for highly instrumental as well as loud rap.
They may not be one of a kind, but they are extremely talented and through a few singles here and there whether on early Overcast or classic Seven’s Travels, and a very personal approach to lyrics, they remain one of the only dug up classic rap commodities.
An old school approach remains on Mi Vida Local, the third album in a trio about death and a reference to Minnesota presumably. However, there is something even more special in some of these numbers, something emotional, political, and philosophical all combined into one.
Sure, the opener is aggressive, and right from the get go an intrusive guitar line underscores the anger Slug often speaks of in blue collar society. This release, however, is almost Shakespeare, whether on the obvious single, “Virgo”, which is not only dauntingly tear jerking, but meditative, opening with “I pledge allegiance to myself,” and halfway through musing “Like fuck it / You can sacrifice me to the weather / If you promise that you’ll let my songs live forever.” Some tracks are brighter sounding, like “Specificity” or beats-heavy like “Anymore” & “Stopwatch”, but the songs like “Virgo” and equally emotive comic book lyric filled “Graffiti” do so much to take over the album.
Some songs remain more aggressive and more brooding, “Delicate” is just plain sad, about childhood in hardship, “Specificity” is very clearly about death, and emboldened, Slug mocks the money game, “You should try to see us live / You need this like you need another hole in the head,” “Stopwatch” claims, “Life is limited if time is how you measure it.”
Even in the darkness, this is still Atmosphere, there is a respect for the lyrics, a caring for people, perhaps the low point is the song “Drown”, which is overly moody and about relationships, but “Earring” is weirdly chirpy about social life, and towards the release’s end in the other end of romance, in “Randy Mosh (Feat. The Dynospectrum)”, which is still cautious, but at least cool with the fight of his family. Even “Mijo” is borderline happy, and very fittingly everyday in the rhythm and urban metaphors. Mi Vida Local is in the very least a great spiritual drama, if not as happy or peaceful as earlier ups and downs.
