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Atmosphere, 'Strictly Leakage'

The Midwest’s best indie rap duo puts out a free party album

By Andy Hermann, Metromix

January 14, 2008

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Backstory: The Minneapolis duo of rapper Slug and producer Ant have been underground faves for over a decade, the cornerstone act of Midwestern indie label Rhymesayers. Over the holidays, they snuck out the “Strictly Leakage” album as a free download, whetting true-schoolers’ appetites for a proper release later this year.

Why you should care: Ant helped fellow Rhymesayer Brother Ali make one of the best hip-hop albums of ’07 with “The Undisputed Truth,” and Slug remains one of the sharpest, wittiest spitters in the game. And hey, “Leakage” is free! What more could you want?

Verdict: Compared to your average mixtape, “Leakage” is a marvel of quality control. The beats are all original Ant joints—not a tired remix in sight—and only on the aptly titled “Crewed Up” does Slug sit back and let his friends drop the rhymes. Slug has said that “Leakage” is meant to be a party record, and it fits the bill: Ant fills tracks like “The Things That Hate Us” and “Get It to Get Her” with fat, bouncy bass lines and loads of light-hearted studio chatter, making them sound like the Go! Team hanging out at a De La Soul recording session. And Slug’s best rhymes here are tongue-in-cheek riffs on everything from hip-hop’s popularity with suburban white kids (“Little Math You”) to picking up chicks at the grocery store (“Domestic Dog”). The album starts to wear thin towards the end, with a string of fairly by-the-numbers dis tracks, but overall, no one this side of Lil Wayne has released this much quality product without a price tag.

X-Factor: Is that a sample of Billy Joel’s “Stiletto” we’re hearing on “Road to Riches”? Nice! Now let’s all hope Joel doesn’t sue Atmosphere, because something tells us that sample wasn’t cleared.

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