Atmosphere @ Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON, Canada (Support: The Lioness & Nikki Jean)

Minneapolis, MN-based hip-hop duo Atmosphere, which consists of rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ/producer Ant (Anthony Davis) dropped one of their best projects last year, entitled Whenever. Being the founders of Rhymesayers Entertainment and having the most consistent and long-running careers in the underground hip-hop community, the duo’s new album brings a lot of conversations about maturity, their life-long run in the underground scene, as well as turning a new face to their older sound and working on being the better duo through today’s new scene. With the strong critical acclaim of their new project, as well as their start of their 2020 “The Wherever” tour, they brought the tour to Toronto’s own Danforth Music Hall and they also brought talent from the Minnesota state, such as Rhymesayers-signed R&B singer Nikki Jean and Minneapolis-based rapper The Lioness.

Starting off the show was Nikki Jean, and she brought a unique vibe for her performance. As she performed with the instruments, she swayed the show with a variety of her track releases under the label, as well as how she managed to make her set less of an unorthodox-based performance and more of a get-together, for all the Atmosphere fans and Rhymesayers fans that were in the building. Within each song, Nikki talks about her mental health, the patterns of her own life, and explains her story as an artist. From meeting Sean (Slug of Atmosphere) in her home in St. Paul, MN to her rising fame, she became a unique force that the Midwest urban sound has never seen. She performed quite elegantly and brought a soothing voice that most of the Rhymesayers and Atmosphere fans never thought they would hear before. With her guitar and piano performances, it was amazing to see and hear. To conclude her set, she performed a medley of her featured track that she did with Lupe Fiasco, called Hip Hop Has Saved My Life, and it was something that warmed my heart since I’ve been a big fan of Lupe Fiasco.

Before The Lionesses’ set, DJ Keezy (her DJ) played some tunes and the Minneapolis rapper came on stage and came out with a bang based on her deep lyricism and unique stage energy. The Lioness performed a variety of tracks and came out with a unique bang with every song, providing deep lyrics and cadences, a unique rhyming pattern, and a heart for performing. The unique tones and sound whenever she performed were the greatest that was ever brought for and the delivery for each track was on point. The stage lighting and stage setup for The Lioness was well astounding and her set brought something remarkable to watch and listen. She had a mic cut and Keezy managed to play some tunes; once it was resolved, the Lioness then came back and performed more tracks, including new tracks off her new album.

Once The Lionesses’ set has finished, Slug and Ant came through and brought the old school, Midwest rap vibes to the Toronto crowd and the fans were enjoying every moment of it. Ant’s DJ setup and stage style were set at an all-time high and Slug brought lots of bars and versatile sounds in all of his songs, including tracks like Bde Maka Ska, The Loser Wins, Shoulda Known and F**k You Lucy/Pour Me Another, as well as God Loves Ugly. Slug managed to deliver a great stage presence, the crowd participated very well with his performance, and Ant was very excellent with turntabling, which is very essential in hip-hop. Slug’s style and essence to the genre were set to perfection whenever he would rhyme, use a different chant to excite the crowd, bring a cadence and/or production sound in his music. The stage lighting was very adequate toward the emotions of Slug’s sounds and how each song describes a certain meaning. 

He tends to enjoy every moment of his performance, he’s never afraid to be himself and the crowd brought excellent energy to rapping the same lines, dancing and vibing to the beat, and relating to his stories and rhymes about his life and feelings. The aura and the vibrations of the show was something that you would never see in a hip-hop show as much, and I enjoyed every moment of the duo’s performance. The show astonished me and it made me enjoy every moment of it. For the encore, the duo performed tracks like Puppets, Always Coming Home to You, and Scapegoat. Atmosphere will continue on their tour until February 28th, 2019 at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. You can find out more at https://rhymesayers.com/artists/atmosphere.

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Atmosphere

Nikki Jean

The Lioness

By: Joshua Habtwold | Exclusively for @Music, Why Not!

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