#57: Atmosphere — God Loves Ugly (2002)
Minneapolis, MN — Rhymesayers Ent.
This one, folks, is gonna be our first foray into two things. One is the turn-of-the-century beginnings of indie rap (not to be confused with underground), a phenomenon on its own right, an epoch marked by weird off-the-wall music, more or less successful experimentation and angsty white guys picking up the mic. The other, of course, is midwestern rap, their somewhat late and modest response to the classic east coast/west coast/dirty south trifecta. And we’ll also get a little bit of early emo rap too, as a treat. Composed of Minneapolis natives Slug (the rapper and proud owner of that mug on the cover) and Ant (the producer), Atmosphere has been putting out music since the mid 90s and have not stopped since, and are the founders of famed independent label Rhymesayers, home or former home of artists such as Brother Ali, Aesop Rock and MF DOOM.
Now, these guys have built an impressive discography over their 25+ years of existence (17 albums and 16 EPs, to be exact), and I’m not the biggest expert on their opus, but the reason I chose God Loves Ugly for this list is that it was the one that got them the attention of the recording industry bigwigs, which they nevertheless rejected, opting to stay true to their independent streetwise ways. And their commitment to the real indie shit is one of the main themes here, as well as their flawed, scarred, but still very real love for hip-hop, and what might be Slug’s main defining characteristic as a poet: his open, vulnerable, yet terminally irony-poisoned and self-deprecating style of talking about his anxieties, fears, addictions and dreams. From a comment on Genius dot com:
Ugliness is a theme on the album and for Atmosphere more broadly. It captures the fact that life is ugly and people are [fucked] up and complicated and we are all messes and there’s something beautiful in that […] someone is wondering what ugly even means and maybe it isn’t the terrible thing that everyone thinks it is. Maybe ugly just means different.
For quite a while now, Slug has been the self-proclaimed sad clown of indie hip-hop — quite literally too, considering the extensive Sad Clown Dub release series, and the fact that he straight-up calls himself that multiple times. And I’m not gonna lie, I personally don’t have the highest tolerance for that “I’m so fucked up, I deserve this” flavor of vulnerability. But, while Slug does do that a lot, he also manages to counteract some of the cringy corniness through various mechanisms.
Maybe the most important one is how he almost never fully surrenders to caustic irony, never becomes completely detached and uninterested. One of my main turnoffs with dark humor and self-loathing in rap is when the artist is so up their own ass in the whole “har har, I don’t give a shit, everything is fucked up, har har” schtick that it gets me like “well, go fuck yourself then, why should I care if you don’t?”, and Slug almost never goes there in God Loves Ugly, even if there are a couple of tracks like that — simply put, even when he’s at his most bitter and sarcastic, he’s still grounded in something sincere, earnest and true, and absolutely owns it instead of hiding behind a protective layer of sarcasm.
Common themes are his addictions, sex life, angst regarding his position as an independent artist with a considerable curriculum and how he’s (un)seen by others, all orbiting that general depressing and bitter but also somewhat hopeful and sincere tone. His later storytelling tendencies are not 100% in here yet, but already are a strong suit of his. I want to add that the midwestern scene in general, and Atmosphere most of all, are strong stepping stones in the establishment of what’s now known as emo rap, and Slug even claimed to have been the first to coin the term in a 1997 article.
It’s a coincidence that this album came up the week after To Pimp a Butterfly, because Slug, beyond talking about many of the same subjects Kendrick does in a very similar manner, also has this allegorical character called Lucy, a stand-in for addiction, loneliness, temptation, hatred and love. Is Atmosphere a big inspiration and reference for Kendrick Lamar? Not likely, but it’s still interesting to notice this kind of similarity.
It all goes well with his lyrical style: not showy or pyrotechnical at all, with enough complexity to keep it fresh and interesting. It’s constantly humorous and punchliney, but not overbearingly so, and gratuitous technical flexing is definitely not his shit: there are few if any flashy speedflowy multisyllabicky moments, relying instead on tried-and-true wordplay and storytelling, which are not as immediately impressive but definitely pay off way better in the long run (with a few mind-bending bars scattered around here and there, as a treat). Slug has significantly laid off of the technical complexity he used to bet his chips on in Overcast!, their 1997 debut full-length, and while it might not always be the best course of action, it’s a bet he fully believes in and play by to the last consequences.
When the soldiers started runnin’ short on rations
I began tappin’ the egg to spark the hatchin’
Make it happen, and take this captain to the gallows
I keep steering us into an area that’s shallow
Talking to my shadow, he advised me not to worry
Said, I should plant my tree and let it rise out of the fury
So give me some light, a little love and some liquid
I’ma creep through the night and put a plug in the spigot
And when the water grows, and the dam starts to overflow
I’ll float atop the flood holdin’ on to my ugly- Track six, “GodLovesUgly”
It is a good example of that specific flavor of dark humor you only really see in midwestern acts such as Deep Puddle Dynamics and Sage Francis, utterly inconceivable and incomprehensible to the coastal mind. And his sometimes corny but overall solid lyricism is definitely essential in keeping God Loves Ugly afloat, because the production and performance, as well as the general record sequencing, mostly do not help.
I want to say that I like Ant’s beats. He was never the most daring or experimental beatmaker, but his stuff is solid. God Loves Ugly, however, might be Atmosphere’s least daring work in that front: the beats are very safe and tame, doing just or a little less of what you’d expect them to, and are mostly just OK at best (honorable exception goes to the mind-bending, inexplicable dub reggae business in Blamegame — that really knocked my socks off). Not a whole lot of terrible beats in here, but not a lot of great ones either — as I write this I’m jamming Overcast!, and it has me in awe at how much better and more creative his beats were a whole five years prior. [Edit: I’m now proofreading this and jamming their following album, Seven’s Travels, which also has great beats. Seems like I really hit the bullseye with God Loves Ugly.]
Similarly, there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of thought gone into the album’s structuring, and I regret to inform that this is yet another flat, filler-riddled joint with little to no dynamics. Zero interludes and skits, just a collection of tracks (a lot of which are frankly unneeded), and Slug’s flows and delivery, while not bad at all, do get pretty samey and grating eventually, and had me jonesing for a switchup of any kind about halfway in.
Ultimately, God Loves Ugly is a flawed, uneven record, especially when compared to some of their other works, but Slug’s sincere and creative writing is mostly enough to keep this interesting, if you manage to make it through the general slog. Atmosphere is nowadays not just a household name for any indie rap connoisseur but also purported pioneers of emo rap, their back catalogue more than commands respect, and God Loves Ugly is by all means a fundamental stepping stone in their career.
Favorite tracks
Give Me: hands down my absolute favorite, features an amazing beat, a nice performance by Slug and very skilled writing rife with witty interpolation and references. It feels disheartened and melancholic but still proud and hopeful, the ideal Atmosphere emotional scenario in my opinion. “And I’ma play this game, I just wanna say/ All I really want is for you to remember my name/ And I’ma run for as long as I’m allowed/ And hope to God I inspire some of ya’ll/ But don’t you dare stop there/ That’s the tool, and I play it cool/ I’ve seen things, that used to be dreams/ The name’s Slug girl, give me a hug”
A Song About a Friend: fluttery little piano trills and bone-dry drums are two big soft spots of mine, and Slug’s woman-themed lamenting in here is pretty convincing, with just the right amount of resentment — not shockingly vulnerable, but vulnerable in a shocking way. “I feel alone on this mission, I’m wishin’ there was more of me/ A pair of me, apparently I’m a parasite caught inside a paradox/ A paradise, a parody, the hair police have got what you need/ For you to get over me and move on with Godspeed […] Standin’ at the bottom of the steps/ And if I tilt my head a little I can look up her dress/ And I’m willin’ to bet that she’d move if she knew/ So I’mma tap her on the shoulder, I’mma give her a clue”
Modern Man’s Hustle: apparently one of the most successful tracks off of God Loves Ugly. Not gonna lie, it’s a little trite, but also interesting and endearing, not to mention a little scummy and cynical, so, eh, why not? Narrates Slug’s experience with the aforementioned allegorical Lucy. “Trying to hook up a full belly and a foot rub/ The modern man’s hustle I dig it, I shuffle […] She doesn’t want to understand why I still come around/ She looks at the mirror, she don’t see what I see”
