Atmosphere - "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having"
(Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2005)
I'm just a man that loves rap
So much in fact
That I put every piece of myself
Inside these fucking tracks!
- Atmosphere - "The Arrival"
From the opening braggadocio of "The Arrival" to the hope for the future that comes through loud and clear on the album's closer "Little Man," You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having (Atmosphere's fifth album) is an astounding aural experience. Slug, the reigning rap hope of Minneapolis, focuses his rhymes on intelligent and well-developed subjects. And that he finds a way to successfully mix the upbeat anthems with the political suggests he's only beginning to show what he really has in him.
"Panic Attack" is a scathing attack on today's "I've got to feel good" culture, in which we take bastardized "self-help" from the weight loss gurus while doping ourselves with psychotropic drugs at the slightest hint of a problem. And that kind of overt message in a song can quickly be a death-knell for an album. But you know what? The song's infectiously catchy, it's got a beat that you can dance to, and you'll find yourself rapping along with the mind-bending chorus. The two minutes of brilliant commercial-audio samples at the end are just a bonus.
But he doesn't let messages overpower the fun. "Watch Out" rips on rappers like LL Cool J (for "making albums for the girls and shit") and on sanctimonious people who latch on to every cause ("with all those Wellstone bumper stickers") as he tries to stake claim to his own lyrical ground. "When you open up your mouth, I can just smell that you don't know what you're talking about," he raps slyly, before ripping on the rest of the rap culture. "Cars drive by with the booming system, I must be getting old 'cause that bass sounds ridiculous! And nowadays everybody's biting Tupac, so fuck it, I'ma stand over here and do the moonwalk." What's that? A Michael Jackson reference that relates to his music? I thought that was illegal now!
From there the album develops into a sampler's paradise. Each song blends into the next with well-placed gospel, blues, jazz, rock and soul samples that tie the album together. There are flaws -- drug songs like "Pour Me Another" fall flat on their face, as one would expect -- but what there are on this album of that ilk are few and far between. As a whole, You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having is one of the best rap albums I've heard this year. At its best the album channels Aesop Rock, Blackalicious and (thanks to the producions of beat-master Ant) even at times a touch of Paul's Boutique-era Beastie Boys. And at its worst, the album's still a good sight better than anything on urban radio today.
I'm just a man that loves rap
So much in fact
That I put every piece of myself
Inside these fucking tracks!
- Atmosphere - "The Arrival"
From the opening braggadocio of "The Arrival" to the hope for the future that comes through loud and clear on the album's closer "Little Man," You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having (Atmosphere's fifth album) is an astounding aural experience. Slug, the reigning rap hope of Minneapolis, focuses his rhymes on intelligent and well-developed subjects. And that he finds a way to successfully mix the upbeat anthems with the political suggests he's only beginning to show what he really has in him.
"Panic Attack" is a scathing attack on today's "I've got to feel good" culture, in which we take bastardized "self-help" from the weight loss gurus while doping ourselves with psychotropic drugs at the slightest hint of a problem. And that kind of overt message in a song can quickly be a death-knell for an album. But you know what? The song's infectiously catchy, it's got a beat that you can dance to, and you'll find yourself rapping along with the mind-bending chorus. The two minutes of brilliant commercial-audio samples at the end are just a bonus.
But he doesn't let messages overpower the fun. "Watch Out" rips on rappers like LL Cool J (for "making albums for the girls and shit") and on sanctimonious people who latch on to every cause ("with all those Wellstone bumper stickers") as he tries to stake claim to his own lyrical ground. "When you open up your mouth, I can just smell that you don't know what you're talking about," he raps slyly, before ripping on the rest of the rap culture. "Cars drive by with the booming system, I must be getting old 'cause that bass sounds ridiculous! And nowadays everybody's biting Tupac, so fuck it, I'ma stand over here and do the moonwalk." What's that? A Michael Jackson reference that relates to his music? I thought that was illegal now!
From there the album develops into a sampler's paradise. Each song blends into the next with well-placed gospel, blues, jazz, rock and soul samples that tie the album together. There are flaws -- drug songs like "Pour Me Another" fall flat on their face, as one would expect -- but what there are on this album of that ilk are few and far between. As a whole, You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having is one of the best rap albums I've heard this year. At its best the album channels Aesop Rock, Blackalicious and (thanks to the producions of beat-master Ant) even at times a touch of Paul's Boutique-era Beastie Boys. And at its worst, the album's still a good sight better than anything on urban radio today.
posted by Jonathan Sanders @ 12:46 AM
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