With “Okay” Atmosphere announce their 13th studio album

SO MANY OTHER REALITIES EXIST SIMULTANEOUSLY, the 13th studio album by Minnesota-based alternative and underground rap duo Atmosphere, is out May 5th. On February 22nd they pre-released four singles: “Sterling”, “Thanxiety”, “Sculpting with Fire” and “Okay”, the latter including a video. Additionally, they announced that they will go on a European tour in 2023. On May 13th and 17th, “The Con Tour” will also take the group to Cologne and Berlin.

Atmosphere

The rapper Slug and his producer Ant founded the label “Rhymesayers Entertainment” in 1995, which is still active today. Their first album together, OVERCAST!, was released there in 1997. Both were previously active in Minnesota’s small underground hip-hop scene. In the years around the turn of the millennium and with the albums LUCY FORD: THE ATMOSPHERE EPS, HEADSHOTS: SE7EN and GOD LOVES UGLY, they were able to build up a loyal fan base and play their first USA-wide tours. During this time, Slug is said to have coined the term “emo rap” as a self-description of their music. Long before artists like Lil Peep and Yung Lean were conceivable.

Atmosphere also differ from these by a very classic musical approach: just raps over beats. The former focuses on flow and text, the latter on samples, synthesizers and drums. Slug’s rap style ranges between storytelling and consciuos rap. Whereby his at the same time distanced and urgent delivery ensures that his parts don’t suffocate under sometimes complex words, sentence structures and rhyme schemes.

SO MANY OTHER REALITIES EXIST SIMULTANEOUSLY is intended to deal with the topic of paranoia, inspired by the current phase of civil unrest and general insecurity just before post-Covid. The alien and mind control themes, as well as the racist, anti-Asian undertones of the video for “Okay” definitely pick up on these three intertwined strands. It remains to be seen how Atmosphere will tell this story.

<!–

–>

<!–

–>