Wild Style Wednesday Review: Atmosphere, God Loves Ugly
To sit here and tell everyone that reads this blog that God Loves Ugly is an album that didn’t influence me, is a total lie. I’m almost certain I was in 10th grade the first time that I heard the song “Godlovesugly”, all I was thinking was “Who in the fuck is this?”. When I heard that the emcee brilliantly blessing the microphone was from Minneapolis, I simply couldn’t believe it. This album introduced me to the whole world of the Rhymesayers Crew, and if it were for that reason alone I would still never forget this album. What God Loves Ugly showed me, more than anything, is that great talent is much closer to home than you may think. Yeah Slug may rap about women a little too much, and yeah his ego might come off a little bigger than it should be… but dude has mad skills on the mic.
The album kicks off in classic fashion with the track “Onemosphere”, and Slug decimates anyone who might doubt him & his partner Ant, “Atmosphere, and maybe you don’t like us/but of all the stars in the sky believe we’re one of the brightest”. On “The Bass & The Movement”, Ant makes a fairly simple, yet crafty beat to serve as a canvas and Slug jumps right to the battle aspect and spits some pretty hilarious lines. Slug dedicates an ode to his favorite lady, Lucy Ford, on the track “Fuck You Lucy” and it becomes very evident that he has a love/hate relationship with her. Ant throws down a melancholy yet melodic beat full of high pitched keys and well placed acoustic strings. Slug spits one of my favorite rhymes in his catalog on this song, “…No matter whose math you use to count the dead/progress will never rest, in the hand that has no head./Brought my brain a cane and asked it to be my pimp, you know, to make sure I don’t get stuck up in my fuck ups/a little overanxious I was to bust nuts/and find the answers making love out of a canvas full of touch-ups”. I love Ant’s weeping strings on the track “Lovelife” and the first line is yet another classic quotable from Sean, “Individually wrapped, placed in neat little rows/becoming a piece, of everything that grows/some numbers, a name, to indicate you played the game/came empty handed and left the same”. Slug spits real words about a girl that’s so precious that words are almost incapable of describing on “Modern Man’s Hustle”, and Ant’s piano key and guitar loop driven beat is sentimentally soulful. Ant gives the track “Blamegame” a more Reggaeton feel, and Slug tears through the track like paper and claims his city proudly in the same heartbeat.
My favorite track on the album has to be “Godlovesugly” without a doubt. I don’t care how many thousands of times I’ve literally heard it, it never gets old to me. It is the first Atmosphere song that ever graced my ear drums, and Slug’s witty words on this track are always a pleasure to hear. The first line still gets me every time, “I wear my scars like the rings on a pimp/I live life like the captain of a sinking ship/the one thing I can guarantee/I’m like a stepping razor, I suggest you stay fair with me”, and the next verse packs the same punch, “Once upon a time in Minneapolis/Yo’ I damn near had to steal the show/I stepped on stage, who is it?/My name is Slug I’ve come to kill a couple minutes”. This track was definitely a great introduction to Sean & Anthony.
This album helped me realize how truly blessed I am to live in Minnesota. We have a thriving Hip-Hop scene that shines brighter than the North Star. Slug & Ant will always be a stamp when people talk about Hip-Hop in the Twin Cities, and this album is a perfect reason why. Just two Minneapolis Jacks making some downright kick-ass Hip-Hop.
8.5 FUCK YOU LUCYs out of 10
MIND INVERSION 
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