Self-proclaimed rap nerd Slug, of the music group Atmosphere, said going to a hip-hop show is similar to going to church or Alcoholics Anonymous.
"In a weird way, when you can get a room full of people to laugh together or throw their hands and wave them around together, that's as close as some of these people get to church," Slug said. "You know people go to church for that same reason. They want to feel a collective energy and a collective purpose that they can apply to their own identity as an individual."
Atmosphere is coming to the Albuquerque Convention Center at 401 Second Street N.W. on Wednesday. Slug will do a meet and greet at 5:30 p.m. at LA Underground at 2000 Central Ave. S.E.
Atmosphere consists of Slug on the mic and Ant as DJ and producer. Slug met Ant through high school friends and started recording tracks. Slug said he was raised in a hip-hop culture that inspired him to explore rapping and DJing.
"It was just nature as a child, in the neighborhood I grew up in," he said. "Hip-hop spoke to all of us as kids, and we all wanted to emulate the culture that was in Minneapolis, which is a long way away from the Bronx."
He said that hip-hop originated as a way for people to express their feelings or problems.
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"Hip-hop was made by people who had nothing, people who needed to take their mind off their rent or their light bills," he said. "I always saw hip-hop as a movement that came out of people making something out of nothing and trying to have a good time."
Slug said he and Ant make sure their shows change and evolve.
"It's really easy to get comfortable doing the same thing over and over and over," he said. "So if every year I have an opportunity to try something new that might not be within my comfort zone, that's the kind of stuff that pushes growth. And that's what I'm looking for, you know? I'm trying to grow myself."
In 2003, Santa Fe teen Marissa Mathy-Zvaifler was killed at the Sunshine Theater during an Atmosphere show. Since then, Atmosphere has played at other venues here and in Santa Fe.
"The connection we have with the fans here, I would say, is probably a little more emotional because of the tragedy that occurred," Slug said.
Atmosphere is on its Paint the Nation Tour to promote its new album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, which was released in April.
Slug said the album has been successful.
"What we were going for was a cross between Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Willie Nelson," he said. "I think a lot of that sound can be accredited to that fact that there are no samples on the record. All of the sounds are live instruments."
Slug said music is similar to language because even though not everyone can speak the same language, everyone has his or her own interpretation.
"Now, with hip-hop, there are a few languages going on," he said. "You have the language of drums; you have the language of notes, but there is also, in a rap song, you can say about three times as many words as you can say in any other genre of music. You take an Outkast song and put it next to a Bon Jovi song and you just print out the words, and there is so much more going on in the Outkast song, not to take away from what Bon Jovi is communicating, but you can break down the details and make it more comprehensible for the listener in rap."
Atmosphere
Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Albuquerque Convention Center
401 Second Street N.W.
$25
