Track of the Day: Atmosphere – “Don’t Forget”

This past summer, rapper Slug and his sidekick producer Ant (together known as the underground duo Atmosphere) released the ninth volume of their Sad Clown Bad Dub series, titled “Sad Clown Bad Summer.” The standout track “Don’t Forget” is a perfectly paced narrative. It illustrates the adventures of Ant and his buddy Mark, two 10th-graders playing hooky and driving around in Mark’s mom’s Cadillac looking for something to do, with lyrics such as, “And we would skip out on class and stuff to go visit other schools, just trying to act cool / And looking back, I have to laugh at it, ‘cause all we did was burn up gas and flunk math, fool.”

Ant makes this track a laid-back classic by remaining humble and truthful to his faults as a youth. He makes no room for ego-driven fillers with lines such as, “But I loved the looks that the girls shot at me from the bus stop when we pulled up in that Caddy / Good thing back then I had bad game, otherwise there’d probably be a few with my last name.”

The song also touches on memories of a simpler time, as Ant recalls making up names for graffiti crews and recording songs onto cassettes straight from the radio. He says, “I was addicted to the radio / Make my request, and wait for it / Holding my finger on the pause button, like ‘now go’ / I guess that was the original download.”

Complemented by a very clean piano-laced instrumental that calls no attention to itself, “Don’t Forget” shines brighter than July 4th and has what can only be described as a “feel-good vibe” to it.

The storytelling elements displayed are flawless, prompting one to reminisce about his or her own escapades as a carefree youth. This is living proof that hip-hop can possess a profound energy that can incite the smallest of outcomes – a smile.