Back Catalog: Atmosphere
Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 (2000)
About halfway through Atmosphere’s semi-official, wholly fantastic 2000 release, Sad Clown Bad Dub 2, frontman Slug points out, “The words ‘bad dub’ are right in the title / So fuck your criticism about the sound quality / This is not an album / The sole intention is to eat better while on the road.” So the group pressed 500 copies to sell exclusively at shows, and ostensibly prayed for some form of affordable protein to add to its rice.
Then the Internet happened. There has always been something extra-geeky about underground hip-hop fans, a compulsive gene that prompts them to scour the Web for uncommon, ideally unheard-of tracks by their favorite artists. And Atmosphere’s music includes an inherently narrative element—sustained use of certain images and characters (Lucy, vampires, the sad clown)—that, if you miss hearing even a single song, is like having skipped a chapter in a novel. So Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 is doubly indispensable: It’s rare, and it functions as a prologue to the rest of Atmosphere’s albums (even though it was released after the full-length Overcast).
This is where we’re properly introduced to Slug's Woody Allen-like neuroses (“And she still wonders why I’m so insecure / She giggles because I sleep with a body pillow”), his faux-misogyny (“Nine out of 10 doctors prefer their secretaries / 'Cuz they’re sick of going home and going down on what they married”), and his love-hate relationship with himself and, well, all of society. We're also introduced to the wordplay. The production is fine—more creative than on Overcast, even—but that doesn’t matter. While Atmosphere’s producer, Ant, has become a wizard in the studio, the beats on this album are just syncopated stepping-stones for Slug’s rhymes to jump across. The lyricism has always been the big draw, and Sad Clown Bad Dub 2 is filled with rhymes exhibiting that patented clever/memorable/whoa! quality.
The Legacy: If eating better really was the reason for releasing Sad Clown Bad Dub 2, then Slug and Ant should be fat as hell by now. “Sad Clown” has become the aegis for an irregular yet ongoing series of unofficial Atmosphere releases. (We’re up to Sad Clown 12 now.) Together they comprise a fantastic complement to the studio albums. As Atmosphere gets busier with its global indie fame—the duo is about to head out on international tour to celebrate the ongoing success of 2002’s recently reissued God Loves Ugly and 2008’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold—these serial spin-offs act as mini-meals to feed the ever-hungry heads.
Atmosphere, "Running With Scissors" from Sad Clown Bad Dub 2:
