"I gave up caring about what they call me," wrote rapper Slug, born Sean Daley, in an e-mail interview. "Whatever a journalist hasta [sic] do in order to get their paycheck and get laid is fine by me. Not my problem, y'know?"

But journalists--and fans--have been Atmosphere's friend since "When Life Gives You Lemons ..." was released April 22. The album has been met with critical acclaim, and fans purchases 36,526 copies during its first week, making it No. 5 on The Billboard 200 album chart, according to their publicist.

On this album, Slug ditched the fictional stories for which he became known, and decided to explore an autobiographical route, leaving him vulnerable.

"There has been tons of fictionalizing on all of the older albums," he wrote. "But in today's 'keep it real' mentality, people don't seem to want to believe that. So I did make an extra effort to wear the fictionalizing on my sleeve, yes, mostly so that no one would misinterpret what and why I do what I do. I'm a storyteller--not a liar. Lies depend on personal agenda and motives. [The] stories are there for everyone to manipulate--the teller, the listener, etc."

"When Life Gives You Lemons ..." has been a long time in the making for Atmosphere. Slug and his producing partner Ant (Anthony Davis) wrote the songs and demoed them in October and November of 2006 and tracked it the next month.

"Then we left it alone to marinate while we worked on other projects through most of '07," he wrote. "Then we went back and mixed and finalized it in November-December of '07. [We] turned it in on Jan. 1, 2008.

"I appreciated doing it this way, because it gave me the opportunity to tour and do some of these songs live, before we went back and finalized it," Slug explained. "I got to work out some extra bugs and whatnot."

Out of these sessions came a children's story that is included with the deluxe edition of "When Life Gives You Lemons...," which includes a guest appearance by a beat-boxing Tom Waits. It was a ploy to throw off the listener, Slug wrote.

"[It] gives the fan even less of a chance to misinterpret our work," Slug explained. "[I] figured that a children's story is one of the most simplistic ways of making a greater point. The greater point is more important than the songs, or my image, or any of this s--t really. I guess I'm getting more and more sensitive as I get older, about how and what I am used for. I don't want my communication to be misinterpreted anymore. F--- all of that 'ambiguous arty for the sake of arty' bulls---. Let the younger identity-crisis kids do that stuff."

A stunning change for Atmosphere on "When Live Gives You Lemons ..." is the use of a live band--Nate Collins on guitar, Erick Anderson on keys and Mankwe Ndosi on backing vocals.

"These guys have been present for our last few albums and they have been touring with me for almost four years now. The additional involvement from them [on 'When Life Gives You Lemons'] was a baby step."

Atmosphere is on tour (details are listed below), and will appear on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Wednesday, May 21, and on Fuel TV's "The Daily Habit" on Friday, May 23, and Monday, May 26.