Renowned indie/underground hip-hop act Atmosphere initially formed as a trio featuring Slug, Spawn D and Ant under the name of Urban Atmosphere almost 20 years ago. And over the past two decades, the act have developed a now, long-held reputation for having an indefatigable commitment to relentless touring and for releasing a number of critically and commercially successful album that have helped push the boundaries of what hip-hop should sound like. Of course, if you’ve been frequenting this site for a while, I’ve written about the act a number of times over the years including the release of the “Ear Blaster” video off their long lost Headshots crew compilation; the Pete Rock and CL Smooth “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” channeling single “My Best Half,” written and dedicated to Slug’s wife and to hip-hop in general; the swaggering boom bap and G Funk era hip-hop channeling “Salma Hayek.”
The act’s soon-to-be-released seventh full-length effort Fishing Blues will feature collaborations with DOOM, Aesop Rock, Kool Keith, The Grouch and others and it features one of the most politically charged songs they’ve released to date “Pure Evil,” one of the uncanniest and frightening portrayals of the banality and stupidity of unadulterated evil and brutality that I’ve heard on record — and they do so while humanizing an evil soul to the point that you can kind of see how easy it is to become evil.
The recently released and extremely cinematic music video manages to evoke old-timey Westerns as it features an evil cop riding through the harsh beauty of the desert after he’s committed a heinous act off screen with no remorse or consideration of what he’s done; in fact, the only thought he seems to have is self-preservation at all costs.
