There are prolific artists and then there is the Minneapolis-based hip-hop duo Atmosphere. Made up of vocalist Slug and producer Ant, their discography dates back way before their debut as young hopefuls attempting to find solace in a genre that was never necessarily associated with their hometown. Now those early days feel like a blip on the radar compared to their gigantic discography filled with so many flavors and colors, although that feeling couldn’t be more wrong. During those days in the mid-to-late 90’s, Atmosphere was doing everything by hand. Everything from recording to packaging those recorded tracks was done by the duo themselves and ultimately led them to start Rhymesayers Entertainment, an independent hip-hop powerhouse that continues to release groundbreaking music to this day.
One of the major lures of those early Atmosphere days is their historic Sad Clown series, a string of independently released recordings in a wide range of formats with the crown jewel of it all being the Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 recordings. The story goes that the duo recorded these 12 songs back in 2000 and produced 500 CDs to sell on tour. Almost instantly, the mixtape became more than a promotional tool. The rawness of its recordings became the center of conversation for underground hip-hop fanatics.
Over 20 years later, that lure has manifested itself in the official digital and vinyl release of Sad Clown Bad Dub 2, an album that continues to be ahead of its time even after two decades of circulating Discogs and blog posts. Atmosphere is giving us this gift on a silver platter, the 12 songs presented on this album are as raw as a recording can get and shows that the career the duo has built for themselves was in their heads all those years ago. Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 shows us the early stages of a hip-hop powerhouse at their hungriest, preparing to ship off on tour and hoping people hear these songs and realize what the two artists seemingly felt all along; they were destined to go down as hip-hop icons.
These demo-style recordings hit harder than any polished release could dream of. Ant’s production was just coming into its own on this release, the wide range of sample choices is anchored by dusty drum loops and whimsical melodies. Once all of these elements are filtered through independent thinking and a homemade studio, their emotions become more visceral. The neck-breaking drums on “Fashion Magazine” are soothed by an angelic vocal sample while a moment like “The Wind” shows that Ant had a hold on what would become the modern standard long before it became such. The beats that comprise Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 are more than the blueprint for what Ant’s sound would evolve into over the years, it is a clear understanding of his environment and making the most of it. The grimy nature of these instrumentals creates the perfect canvas for Slug to paint his lively and vivid verses over.
Slug’s lyrics on Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 spin tales of the depressed and lost but when delivered with his signature gusto, these sad stories become almost enviable. He kicks things off with the title track where he tells the story of the sad clown through the eyes of a curious child. Slug plays both sides of the coin by answering his own questions about why a clown would cry through slick wordplay and criminally smooth rhyme schemes. This high-level songwriting continues throughout the LP like on the aforementioned “Fashion Magazine” and “Body Pillow”, the latter detailing a misunderstanding about loneliness that ultimately leads to even more of that empty feeling loneliness brings with it. His style takes on many forms within these 12 songs, his stories fade during moments of relentless rhymes like “When It Breaks”. The sadness explored in those stories switches to anger on “Inside Outsider”, an anthem-ready track that positions Slug as the leader of a new generation who is tired of the conventional.
Despite Slug’s reminder on “Hungry Fuck” that this is not an album and simply a means to eat better while touring, Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 continues to aid Atmosphere in their discography. The album acts as a reminder that some of the best artists might be right around the corner and simply need a means to showcase their art, Atmosphere created that for themselves. These tracks with their imaginative lyrics and expertly crafted instrumentals stand in a world outside of their “mixtape” label, they arguably go toe-to-toe with the rest of the duo’s discography. Thankfully, Atmosphere hears this quality as well and gifted us the original, untouched recordings so every breath from Slug and drum kick from Ant arrives in your ears with the same frenetic energy they were recording with. Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 is finally getting the treatment it deserves and even two decades after it initially entered the world, Atmosphere’s youthful passion isn’t lost in time.
