Since emerging out of the Twin Cities in the late ‘90s, Atmosphere has remained one of the hardest and steadiest working groups in independent hip hop, constantly touring and releasing albums, EPs, and singles at consistent rate. As we break the two decade mark on the duo of Ant and Slug, they come back two years after their last album, Fishing Blues, with their seventh full-length, Mi Vida Local.

A long time ago, their stopped being a real precedent for what Atmosphere were doing as a hip hop group, in terms of longevity and growing older within the genre. A lot of older acts gradually or abruptly transitioned into different careers, or just saw their opportunities dry up. Some groups like De La Soul found ways to keep working but took over a decade between releases. Atmosphere on the other hand have been carving out their own path. In their earlier albums, we got to see energetic and intelligent young men use their music to figure out their own personalities, to work through emotional issues, and to rail against a system that saw them as outsiders. While there was growth and a couple of pivot points before then, it was when they released The Family Sign in 2011 that it became clear that we were officially in a different era of Atmosphere. They were a group of middle-aged family men – albeit ones that made their living making hip hop, and the stories they were telling took on that perspective. Over the course of The Family Sign, Southsiders, Fishing Blues, and now Mi Vida Local, two of the big themes that have been present in this stage of their career are family and community. The subtle shift on Mi Vida Local is that while their internal focus is the same, the outside world has become more hostile and unpredictable, bringing a mixture of anxiety and determination to their music, as they find themselves fighting anew to claim their space in this world. Sonically, this might be their most deliberate album to date, with everything coming in at the slower end of midtempo, with minimal instrumentation as Slug clearly delivers his world at a deliberate pace, so that you don’t miss a single thing he says. For the majority of the album, Ant usually relies on one key melodic element at a time, whether it be electric or acoustic guitar or keyboards, giving the tracks just a little bit of flavor, but never crowding the production. This sets the stage for Slug to deliver his lyrics with a sense of urgency and clarity. You get a real sense of frustration in their music that they were ready to take things easy and enjoy the “dad rap” phase of the their career, but when push came to shove, they weren’t about to sit back and let everything slip away when they worked so hard to build things for themselves and their community. This is best personified by a song like “Delicate,” a song about trying to forge your own way in which Slug laments “Everybody trying to do their best, but everybody’s best didn’t take the same piss test,” which speaks volumes to the class divide we’re facing in this country. While there is a serious tone to much of the album, there is room for humor with a song like “Trim,” which playfully discusses the need to find time for some alone time between Mom and Dad, even when they are stressed and pressed for time with multiple kids and making a living as an independent artist, at one point suggesting that they could even find that time in a Target parking lot. On top of all this, we also get a Dynospectrum reunion, shortly after the 20th anniversary of their only album, as Slug brings I Self Devine and Sab the Artist onto the mic to relive their weird underground days on “Randy Mosh.”

Mi Vida Local won’t blow away first time listeners, who might wonder what the big deal is about the group. Once you start listening just a little closer, though, you’ll start to see why they’ve had such a devoted fan base for so long. Ant is a talented producer who’s managed to establish his own style of beats, while tailoring them for each specific project he works on. Slug is a talented story teller who is able to balance telling third-person narratives with a great deal of empathy for the characters with personal tales that show his true self in 2018, willing to fight for himself and those closest to him.