Atmosphere

Atmosphere

8 songs 8 albums

Hailing from the frozen tundra of Minnesota, better known for its pop idols and drunk rockers, Atmosphere is a rap duo who “put Minneapolis Hip Hop on the map”.

Originally, a collective of Minnesota rappers and beatmakers known as Headshots made mixtapes of their music that they gave away for free. By 1997, the collective had been reduced to Sean “Slug” Daley, Brent “Siddiq” Sayers, Anthony “Ant” Davis, Derek “Spawn” Turner and Musab “Beyond” Saad who began to focus on the “important shit” necessary to creating a successful music business. Siddiq stopped making beats to focus on managing Rhymesayers Entertainment (RSE) – a company that would eventually become “the Twin Cities' biggest record label”.

Touring anywhere for anyone for any price combined with connecting with fans using an early presence on the Internet allowed Atmosphere, at the time a trio of Slug, Spawn & Ant, to grow a following without radio play, MTV exposure or having their albums in stores. Spawn left the group for personal reasons around the time Atmosphere’s first album Overcast was released.