God Loves Ugly is released

Why it matters

God Loves Ugly came out June 11, 2002, on Rhymesayers Entertainment. Atmosphere is the duo of Slug (the MC, Sean Daley) and Ant (the producer, Anthony Davis), out of Minneapolis. The album is their third studio LP and the one that pushed them past the regional underground-rap circuit into a national audience. What Atmosphere did across God Loves Ugly is establish a kind of self-deflating, emotionally direct, vulnerable-male-MC register that almost nobody in commercial rap of 2002 was attempting. Slug's writing is autobiographical, often miserable, occasionally funny, almost always in the first person. Ant's production is melodic, soul-sample-derived, deliberately warm. The combination became one of the foundational documents of the underground-conscious-rap sound of the 2000s, and the Atmosphere catalog and the Rhymesayers label collectively built the platform for Brother Ali, P.O.S, Eyedea, Aesop Rock (later), and a substantial chunk of the post-2000 Midwest underground scene. You should hear God Loves Ugly. The combination of the title and the contents is one of the more honest album-marketing decisions in 2000s rap.