Hip-hop outfit and Rhymesayers label heads Atmosphere (consisting of producer Ant and rapper Slug) represent the Twin Cities with introspective rhymes, inventive storytelling, and classic production, building a devoted grassroots following with prolific output, collaborations, and consistent touring. Over their 20-year career, Atmosphere has managed to continually tweak and strive to perfect their formula, while neither straying too far off their path nor resorting to playing it safe. Starting at 1997’s Overcast, the group’s first official album, and traveling through 20 years of new albums, side projects, and various collaborations, Atmosphere’s music has evolved in a way that differs from many of their peers and predecessors.

Musically, Ant has continued to define Atmosphere’s sound, ranging from a healthy mixture of upbeat and fun to the oft more iconic, moody and personal. Throughout the 1990s, Ant spent countless hours in his basement with a wealth of records, a keyboard sampler, a turntable and a 4-track, working with a who’s who of the Twin Cities’ Rap talent of that time. Those experiences tuned his ear, molded his work ethic, and shaped his vision. In turn, those lessons have continually become more prominent in the Atmosphere aesthetic, blending live musicians and sampled production with his keen sense of how to compose a well-arranged song.