When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

by Atmosphere

When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: 22 April 2008
  • Label: Rhymesayers
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 54:49
  • Community rating: 3.81/5 from 6 ratings

Artists on this release: Kyle Borchert, Nate Collis, Siddiq, Rajiah Johnson, Anthony Davis, Sean Daley, Brett Johnson, Joe Mabbott, Scotty Rapp, Erick Anderson

Album Notes & Community Reviews

On their sixth studio album, the Minneapolis duo leans heavily into live instrumentation, supplementing Ant's boom-bap production with rich pianos, synths, and backing vocalists. Slug's lyricism shifts slightly from pure autobiography to highly empathetic, narrative-driven portraits of blue-collar struggles, parenthood, and working-class desperation. The record debuted in the top five of the Billboard 200, representing a massive commercial peak for underground hip-hop.

Genres

Descriptors: conscious, existential, rap, underground, storytelling, soulful, confessional

Tracklist

  1. Like The Rest Of Us (3:20)
  2. Puppets (3:41)
  3. The Skinny (3:36)
  4. Dreamer (4:04)
  5. Shoulda Known (3:06)
  6. You (3:14)
  7. Painting (3:00)
  8. Your Glass House (3:58)
  9. Yesterday (3:23)
  10. Guarantees (4:32)
  11. Me (3:40)
  12. Wild Wild Horses (4:14)
  13. Can't Break (3:33)
  14. The Waitress (3:00)
  15. In Her Music Box (4:20)

Credits

  • Nate Collis - guitar, vocals [additional], synthesizer, guitar, vocals [additional], written-by
  • Erick Anderson - piano, synthesizer, keyboards, piano, electric piano [rhodes], synthesizer, electric piano [rhodes]
  • Channy Moon Casselle - vocals [additional]
  • Brett Johnson - bass
  • Brian MacLeod - drums [live]
  • Scotty Rapp - synthesizer
  • Mankwe Ndosi - vocals [additional]
  • Dustin Kiel - lap steel guitar [lapsteel]
  • Atmosphere - Primary Artist
  • Joe Mabbott - Percussion [Additional], Percussion, Vocals [Additional]
  • Babatunde Adebimpe - Effects [Delaymodeler Pedal Thing], Vocals [Additional]
  • Kyle Borchert - Trumpet
  • Anthony Davis - Vocals [Additional]
  • Rajiah Johnson - Flute
  • Tom Waits - Human Beatbox
  • Jessie Wilimek - Vocals [Additional]

More from Atmosphere: full discography