Pugs Atomz
Pugs Atomz awoke in this world a Leo in Pittsburgh PA., son of an ex Panther turned Radio host and a Painter. His love of Hip Hop developed when his family moved to Chicago; during grade school he would see the graffiti on the trains and in his neighborhood of Englewood. These trains also would have rap groups performing and singers doing their thing for spare change. The first rap he wrote was in 5th grade, so the next day when he recited his, everybody said, ”you’re rapping, he's a rapper". From that point it started to make more sense to him.
As teenager his parents would have people like Oscar Brown Jr. in his living room performing ”Signifying Monkey" and various other poets/ visual artist schooling him to give me a sense of culture. He would attend Chi Rock meetings (Think Chicago version of Zulu nation) and watching the moves being made by Twista, Common, Dem Dare and Upski. An avid listener of Jp Chill and Pink House’s Rap shows on WHPK and WKKC. In high school there weren’t too many folks at that time that could really help him
with his [HIP HOP] goals, so he became a leader and started a crew called the Nacrobat’s. This got him into throwing parties and performances with his and other crews. From that revenue he started to put out Nacrobat tapes and CDRs in the mid to late 90's. Nacrobat’s was a crew that was influential to so many kids coming up at that time, with 100 plus membership, and rep for freestyle battling any and every ware. This was the starting point for Chicago now artists like Qwel, Psalm one, Prime, Vyle, pianist Kenny Keys, producer Prolific, Million Dollar Mano, visual artist Rahmaan Statik and so many others.
2000 was his first solo record titled “Thanks for not Rhyming”, on Galapagos4 records. It featured his crew and production from the Molemen (Mf Doom, Rhyme Fest, Atmosphere, Saigon) and received a warm response from the underground and started him doing shows across the USA. His second album titled “24 Years later “ on his own Birthwrite Records faired even better, getting him shows overseas and on a few tours to get his music to the people. The time he spent in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Germany, and London seeing all the graffiti pushed him to go deeper with his music. So when Pugs arrived back in the states he started writing for the album “Playing With Matches “on Audio 8 recordings. This album was dedicated to discussing the real life of a Graffiti writer from an autobiography perspective. Pugslee the Vandal, to Sterling the young adult getting paid a thousand dollars a week to paint movie murals (“Light it up” 20th century Fox) and finally the corporate graffiti writer for Ecko, IBM, Nike etc…While all this was going on, he started doing CTA radio with
Thaione Davis and Kevin Maxi, a radio show dedicated to Hip Hop with interviews and freestyles, pushing Chicago Artist on the legendary WHPK 88.5fm. Hosting a TV show, “Barbershop Hip Hop”; interviewing everyone from American Gym Class heroes to Kurtis Blow, Pugs and partner Slim the barber would even shoot videos for the locals to have more content.
2006 he released a compilation with Raptivism Records titled “Pugs Atomz presents CTA Radio - Chi City Hip Hop”. This CD was basically an excerpt of the CTA Radio show; he has been a part of every Wednesday night from 9-12am for the last eight years. This was a definite must to anybody digging the Chicago sound, ft. new songs from Common, Lupe Fiasco, Rhyme fest etc.. Also, this was the year he started designing clothing and hats for Original Afro wear and American Needle. At the same time he was finishing up his fourth album “Conversations with a Chamelion” featuring production From DJ Hi-Tek and Colin Response, guest vocals from Capital D (All natural), Dave Ghetto, Deuce Eclipse etc… This is his most moving work to date on Gravel records. It even got him on a 32-city tour of the U.S. and Canada with DJ Vadim and Abstract rude. With four music videos to boot with this release, and MTV2 featuring his “Tear N Your eye” video.
He is well on his way to move people with his music. Okay Player describes him as “a rare renaissance figure in hip hop with a background in all the elements. Pugs drops a fun and thoughtful albums that take a few listens for you to realize how rare that combination is nowadays. It’s clear he takes rapping seriously without being so himself, always exuding laid back confidence”.
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