Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons...

[City]

Album: When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
Release Date: 04/22/08
Genre: Hip-Hop

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Atmosphere is a two man hip-hop duo. Ant is the producer, Slug is the rapper. I have a friend who's into hip-hop and I asked him to recommend me what he considers 'good' hip-hop. So he gave me a bunch of underground names along with Atmosphere such as Black Star, Brother Ali, Immortal Technique. I liked them all to some degree, like it was chill to listen to, but I was hoping that I would find an album that would blow my mind. Like if I ranked them with my other favorites, they could sit on the same shelf. Even mainstream legends like Jay-Z, Nas and Tupac didn't impress me.

Review: So it starts softly. I'm thinking it's one of those albums I could nod to, then "Dreamer" comes on and I'm just amazed at the flow+lyrics. Great storytelling on his part. The bridge of it is one of the centerpieces of the album. The way his tone changes and you just know he's serious. The next 7 tracks are really concise, it's almost insane.

"You" has an annoying chorus at first, but the verse are really good, once they come around again, it's quite infectious. I'm guessing the song is about a waitress doing what she needs to do to support her love ones. I don't pay attention to the lyrics which is a shame cuz a lot of the times, a particular phases will catch me and I'm like "damn!"

So another thing I have to praise is the beats. I think it's cheap when people sample a song and rap over it. Then young kids think it's a new song when it's just a rehash of a old song. So every track in the album does not feel old or generic, so I never felt bored. I also like that there's some bluesy/rock type of songs as well. Slug will change his style accordingly to the music. So he'll sing depending on the track. "Yesterday" reminds me of Kanye West (in a good way) for some reason.

"Guarantees" is a neat song because it only features an electric guitar and Slug's vocals. It's amazing. "Can't Break" sucks. It's the only one I skip. Too much blurry. It feels too weird with the rest of the album.

Summary: My favorite hip-hop album ever. I love that each track is different enough to maintain my attention. There's rock/pop elements so that's probably why I enjoy the album much. Like the chorus in each song are always good. I love that their isn't any dialog/skits. I also love that their is hardly any 'guest vocals.' I love Slug's voice. The album as a whole works well, very consistences. I'm buying it Tuesday.

Key Tracks: Dreamer, Yesterday, Guarantees
Rating: 9/10