Man, Atmosphere has been putting it down for a long time. The Minneapolis based duo of Slug (aka Sean Daley) and A.N.T. (aka Anthony Davis) started releasing music back in 1997. It wasn't until 2002's God Loves Ugly that the Rhymesayers Entertainment stalwarts really blew up. From there they started changing up their sound, with Slug's rhymes verging on spoken word and A.N.T.'s productions hewing towards more live instrumentation. Surprisingly, their audience stuck with them as 2008's When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold became the biggest seller of their career. Southsiders finds Slug ruminating over his home life rather than the tour conquests of past releases. This is the the grownup side of Atmosphere. They've matured but are still making music and the fans will still love them for it. They pulled out all of the stops with the packaging on this release. Double metallic silver vinyl (looks kinda grey) housed in a gatefold sleeve with full color printed sleeves, 8-page LP sized lyric booklet, custom printed plastic casing, and a free digital download of the album.

• music label: Rhymesayers Entertainment 2014

reviewed by Kool Moby 06/2014