Live at the Current: Atmosphere

Continuing with my interpretation of Minnesota, comes some fresh joints straight out of the St. Paul Current Studios. (Oh, and by fresh I mean from last October.)

See ... I like Atmosphere. Always have. I used to see Sean spit rhymes out of a tattered notebook at The Artist Quarters open mic night. He was a stand-out performer at that time, and a down-to-earth seemingly good guy. Now he's seemingly a prick, but I guess that is just what comes with moderate amounts of locale-fame and success. He has taken his schtick on the road to fantastic amounts of underground success. He sold out something like 69 shows in 72 nights, ducked major-label interest, created a powerful underground record label (Rhyme Sayers Entertainment) and established the local hip-hop epicenter (Fifth Element Records.) These accomplishments together dropped a big red flag right in the middle of snowy minneapolis that said, "Hip Hop? Yeah, we got your hip hop right here. Ya sure, you betcha."

That sort of achievment really makes you think what Sean knew before any of it happened -- when he was rhyming over some busted-ass beats on Headshots 7 (ahem... 1997). He straight-up SAID that in two to three years he was going to put everything in Minneapolis on the map. He worked hard at it, and I would say that he is largely responsible for much of the Twin Cities music scene that has blown up in the last couple of years. Hip-Hop or not, there has been some serious buzz going on in this city -- and it's well known that Sean runs with the indie-crowd.

Unfortunately, I haven't liked the majority of stuff he's put out since Overcast dropped around '99 (oh, who really can remember?) I haven't liked one of his shows since they started selling out 7 nights in a row at first-avenue. I still, however, think he is incredibly talented and every time I can catch him live on the radio, or at a small venue, he blows me away. Even though I've seen him 20+ times over the years, I still get that heeeby-jeeeby feeling when I listen to these live tracks.

Enjoy, suckers. Feel those background vocals -- damn they're tight.

• Atmosphere - Always Coming Back Home to You
• Atmosphere - Panic Attack
• Atmosphere - Smart Went Crazy
• Atmosphere - Say Hey There