Atmosphere boasts about three decades of hard work in Minnesota's hip-hop underground, and Slug and Ant are coming back with a lot of heart. Their new album Jestures comes out on September 19, and they just gave us two new singles to hype fans up for it.
"Yearning" features a hook from Yoni Wolf from the alt-hip-hop and indie rock band WHY?, and "Daley" has just the duo on it. The Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 artists deliver some earthy, crisp, and old-school jams on here, as both boom-bap tracks boast dusty drums and some heavenly sample work. Of course, they still have some grit to them, whether in the mixing or in the density of Slug's delivery and rhyme schemes.
Atmosphere's been through many changes, and to see them continue their mission of solid hip-hop artistry is always heartening to see. In fact, the old track featured at the very end of "Daley" kind of points to that notable history and present nostalgia.
Newer rap fans might know the duo for their 2021 album WORD?, which caused commotion among the community for sadly tragic reasons. This project contained a posthumous MF DOOM verse, which may have been the very last one he recorded.
Nevertheless, that love of the game, the craft, and the art form shows up in the skills on "Yearning" and "Daley." With other singles also building this hype, we hope that Jestures comes through with an enveloping and grounded experience that spins our lyric-catching heads around.
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Atmosphere – "Yearning" ft. Yoni Wolf Of WHY? & "Daley"
Quotable Lyrics (from "Yearning")
I function with no interruption while I shelter,
Underneath a song structure on the corner of the culture,
Made a promise to myself that when I'm on my last breath,
I'll remember it was you gave me life after death
