Overcast! came out in 1998, Atmosphere's "debut LP" consisting of some new material
and some re-used material from assorted EPs and mixtapes that had hit
the Twin Cities music scene over the few years previous. Scapegoat is the only
song from that era that has remained a routine part of Atmosphere's
live performances. That's no coincidence; not only did Atmosphere's
second emcee Spawn leave the group after Overcast!, Slug took the
Atmosphere project in a markedly different direction. 1998's Atmosphere
was edgy, dark, angry, super-intelligent head rap. Slug was the poster-child
for the kind of experimental hip-hop that was coming out of a new
West-Coast transplant camp known as Anticon, but in the years following Overcast!'s
release, Slug began to redefine himself. His music grew both more
accessible and more introspective, and Slug found himself at the center
of an entire new hip-hop genre called "emo rap".
But there are some parts of your past that you can't walk away from,
and for Slug, this song is one of those examples. An expression of
angst and disillusionment with the hip-hop scene and with the world
in general, the song became an anthem for Slug's audience, and he's
been performing it steadily for more than half a decade.
The beat is sparse and minimalistic, a scratchy, eerie, one-note-at-a-time
piano loop playing over some drums. The only voice other than Slug's that
appears on the track is a sample of KRS-One speaking, looped and scratched.
When performing it live, Slug and his current hype-man Crescent Moon
like to segue into the song through a bit of word-play during another
popular song, Like Today. The crowd always goes nuts for the song,
rapping along to every word, and very nearly drowning out Slug's
microphone-amplified voice.
In 2003, I saw Atmosphere perform four times, and I purchased two DVDs
containing Atmosphere performances. Slug did this song at every one
of those shows, and he never performed more than the first verse.
In 2002, when Atmosphere released their third album God Loves Ugly,
they toured in support of the album, and brought a video camera or
two on the road with them. The results of that footage are the tour DVD
Sad Clown Bad Dub 4. Two performances of Scapegoat are
interpolated together for one scene of the DVD. Both audiences are
incredibly hot, and Slug is clearly amazed at how great the response
is to the song. In the scene, he breaks off from performing at the
end of the first verse and expresses disbelief to his audience that
they're giving him so much love for a song he recorded more than four
years earlier. He holds up a copy of Overcast! and asks how many
people in the audience have heard the album, to an overwhelming response.
He continues on, asking his audience: "We're all friends here, right?" and, after hearing
their agreement, asked "How many of ya'll downloaded that shit?" At
least a hundred people screamed their acknowledgement. The scene ends
with Slug looking at his audience in disbelief.
"Aw, hell no. Each of you owes me two dollars!"
It's been a long road, and in some ways nothing has changed.
It is in this spirit, and in the spirit of fair use,
that I have included only the first verse of the song in this writeup.
Artist: Atmosphere
Album: Overcast!
Song: Scapegoat
[ Slug, rapping ]
It's the caffeine, the nicotine, the milligrams of tar
It's my habitat, it needs to be clean
It's my car
It's the fast talk they use to abuse and feed my brain
It's the catbox, it needs to be changed
It's the pain
It's women
It's the plight for power
It's government
It's the way you're giving knowledge slow with thought control and subtle hints
It's rubbing it, itching it
It's applying cream
It's the foreigner, sight seen with high beams
It's in my dreams
It's the monsters that I conjure
It's the marijuana
It's the embarrassment, displacement
It's where I wander
It's my genre
It's Madonna's videos
It's game shows
It's cheap liquor, blunts
It's bumper stickers with rainbows
It's angels, demons, gods
It's the white devils
It's the monitor, the soundman
It's the motherfuckin' mic levels
It's gas fumes, fast food, Tommy Hil, mommy's pill, Columbia House music club, designer drugs, and rhymin' thugs
It's Bloods, Crips, fives, six
It's stick-up kids
It's Christian-conservative terrorists
It's porno flicks
It's the east coast
No, it's the west coast
It's public schools
It's asbestos
It's mentholated
It's techno
It's sleep, life, and death
It's speed, coke, and meth
It's hayfever, pain relievers, oral sex and smoker's breath
It stretches for as far as the eye can see
It's reality
Fuck it, it's everything but me
[ Chorus ]
On and on and on and on ...
The list goes on and on and on and on (3x)