Atmosphere Packed The Metro With Their 'Time Travel Reunion'
By Katie Karpowicz in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 15, 2013 7:20PM
Live hip-hop can be a wonderful, wonderful thing. Minneapolis powerhouse duo Atmosphere have really upped their live game in recent years with the addition of a keyboardist and guitarist to round out the melodies on producer / DJ Ant's beats. However, sometimes it feels good to get back to the roots; one mic and a turntable kind of roots. That's exactly what Saturday night's sold-out Metro performance was all about.
Dubbed the "Time Travel Reunion," Saturday was a throwback to early the early 2000s shows thrown at the Metro by record label Rhymesayers' manager J. Bird and WNUR hip-hop radio show host AMC, and were some of the first to introduce Minneapolis' sprawling underground rap scene in Chicago. Saturday's lineup was a random assortment of Rhymesayers DJs and MCs (Blueprint, Evidence, Brother Ali to name a few), headlined by Atmosphere.
The duo kicked it back to the Lucy Ford EPs ("Guns & Cigarettes," "Like Today"), channeled fan favorites ("Sunshine," "God Loves Ugly") and even threw in a few surprises (The Family Sign b-side "Cut You Down"). The duo also unearthed a composition originally penned in 1995, "God's Bathroom Floor," a song that's become somewhat of a staple in Atmosphere's live set and hopefully stays in the rotation for many years to come.
Everything about Atmosphere's set, and the whole night in general, was as oldschool as it could get, right down to the freestyle battle that closed out the show — a true treat. I've been to sold out shows at the Metro before and have still never seen the club as packed as it was on Saturday. Clearly, there are still plenty of Chicago hip-hop heads still out there.