The bling has dulled. Hip-Hop has lost all its shimmer and shine, but dig a little deeper, past the MTV garbage and you’ll find fresh Atmosphere. A trio of old school hip-hop freaks who are single handedly making rap music cool again thanks to their latest release “Seven’s Travels.” Life In A Bungalo caught up with Atmosphere’s resident DJ Mr. Dibbs to find out how life on the road with his comrades-in-arms Slug and Ant has been over the last year.

So what’s it like on the Warped Tour?
It’s really hot. Some days it’s like 120 degrees. Other than that, it’s been like any other tour. In some cities you have the random bottle thrown at you causing the needle to skip. That’s the worst. But in the major cities a couple of thousand kids turn out to hear our set and really like us.

What’s your emergency plan when someone does make your turntable skip?
Move on to the next song. It happens. Our last show in New York, someone threw a CD at us causing the needle to break, and that’s not even the worst part. The worst problem is the stage bouncing. It causes the records to skip really bad, so you have to have back-ups like a CD turntable, mini-disc or DAT. If you don’t, you’ll never get through a complete song. Depending on what venue we’re playing, I have to use a different means of playing the beats. I’ll use a CD to play the background music and use the turntables for scratching and shit.

The new record has received rave reviews. Have you felt any extra love on tour from new fans?
This last year, we basically lived on the road. We did about nine months with two weeks off then we did Europe for a while. Now we are on the Warped Tour for a few more weeks. Since our new record came out, all our shows have sold out. We are going to have to move up in venue size to the point where it’s going to get real boring to watch us live. Scratching in front of a few thousand people really isn’t that entertaining. We are going to have to find clubs that max at around 1,500 capacity so at least everyone can enjoy our show. We could also do two shows in every city so everyone can check us out. It’s kind of creepy playing in front of 3,000 people.

In all honesty, most hip-hop groups don’t tour much. Do you feel it’s tough for rap artists to get out and tour or do they just don’t feel the need to?
There was a point where Atmosphere would come to town and there would be like 50 kids, and we changed that by touring continuously, and traveling 60 miles for a show that paid 15 bucks and beer. That’s what artists need to do, or else no one will come to see you live.

What’s it like being on Epitaph Records?
We are not signed to Epitaph. It’s more of a distribution deal. The next record could be on another label. We wanted to play it safe, because any time you release a record on a label that’s not a hip-hop label, you never know if they can market it properly. But Epitaph has been doing a really good job and they are picking up a lot of records from new hip-hop groups that are really great.

You’ve had a lot of crossover appeal. Why do you think that is?
You’re right. We have crowds that are half hip-hop, half punk rock. I have no clear answer how we hit all those audiences, but it’s really cool. We have no clear cut answer how we get all those different fans.

Do you see good hip-hop making a resurgence?
You see, I really don’t listen to much hip-hop after playing it for so long. I have to play catch up when I get off tour. Other than Jay-Z’s “Black Album,” and all the different colored remixes of it, I can’t recall any other recent rap records.

If you were given the “Black Album” to remix, do you know what you would do with it?
For minute I was going to do it. But then it got overdone. Now I’m gonna remix the next MF Doom record as a “Black Album” spin-off thing. If I re-did the “Black Album” it would have been all hardcore and metal. Like Slayer and Downset. The most loud and angry shit I could find. I still want to do it, but at this point it’s too late.

What color would it have been?
I don’t know… vomit/turd green.