Artistic Swagger

I just saw Atmosphere on the Late Show. I’m in awe of Slug’s stage presence coupled with his writing. He’s got the arrogance and swagger that is necessary for all hip-hop emcees. And the beats and music upon which the lyrics are hung are always interesting and engaging. Sometimes surprising. But, there’s something more going on.

I like plenty of musicians and musical groups. There’s a bunch of rappers that I really dig on right now. I think the politics of Brother Ali and the passion of P.O.S. are unmatched by national acts. Plenty of other music speaks to me, I can’t stop listening to Dan Wilson’s “Free Life” album, for example. There’s another level, though, where I’m hit when I put on an Atmosphere album.

I’ve been trying to figure it for a long time. Actually, I’ve been trying to figure the rapper confidence in general for a long time. I’m embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t terribly long ago when I realized that comics and rappers have the same excessive confidence. They speak from a place of authority even on topics they don’t know shit about. I’m drawn to art that is presented this way by this type of person because it’s how I want to be. It may in fact be exactly how I am. I may be a repressed excessively over-confident person waiting for the chance to express what I really think about myself.

Why else would I publish blog entries and mostly not tell anyone about them?

That’s a bit of a tangential topic and it would probably take me a heap of words to take a look at so I’ll move back to Atmosphere. Slug’s lyrics, Slug’s stories more accurately, manage to capture the very specific and personal aspects of his life while also being far reaching, universal. He writes things that I shouldn’t have any frame of reference on, that shouldn’t be accessible to me at all and presents them in a frame that let’s the listener in comfortably. He’s startlingly confident, startlingly personal, while really caring about the words he’s using and what he’s saying he manages to keep a level of humor and separation that must work as a buffer between the artist and his art.

I’m not sure I’m saying what I mean. There’s a bunch of Atmosphere songs that are really about things Slug has done that are clearly not things he’s proud of, but they are him and that’s what gives them value and makes them good. There’s this hometown pride thing that is strongly pronounced on Atmosphere albums and whenever I’ve seen Slug on stage. He wears Minneapolis or Minnesota related shirts, he name drops local places and towns. He talks about these parts of where he’s from in the same way he talks about his life experiences, both good and bad, because they’re all where he’s from. What he’s from.

I think that’s the deeper connect I get from the music. I’m the product of where I’m from, as all people are, and I want to embrace that, but I have some carry over shame about where I come from or what I’ve been through. The life I’ve lived, the experiences that shaped me aren’t terrible enough to seem powerful and moving and they aren’t impressive in a positive way either. They just are. I want to be the product of something sensational. But the sensational I’m getting from comics or rappers is how they are presenting the pieces of life that are largely mundane.

I don’t know if I’ve said anything.

Goodnight.

Levi