Before picking up a microphone and putting lyrics to the beats of Anthony Davis, AKA Ant, Sean Michael Daley was a courier driver, loving every second of it.

“I was delivering stuff, and I probably will go back to it someday once I get fired from rapping,” Daley joked during a recent phone interview.

Nearly 30 years later, Daley, who raps under the moniker Slug alongside Ant, is celebrating three decades as the hip-hop duo Atmosphere. The group will tour with Sage Francis, R.A. The Rugged Man, Kool Keith and Mr. Dibbs with stops at The Observatory North Park in San Diego on Feb. 10 and at The Novo in Los Angeles on Feb. 12.

“It’s a circus of creatives,” Daley said of the upcoming tour. “This show is like a small festival where every artist and every single member of this tour is a notable creative in their own way, whether it’s one of the rappers, the DJs, or the light guy. Any of these groups could be headlining their own tour, but the fact that they were all willing to come out and do this tour with me really speaks volumes about the type of community I’m part of.”

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Slug (L) and Ant (R) of Atmosphere will perform at The Observatory North Park in San Diego on Feb. 10 and at The Novo in Los Angeles on Feb. 12. (Photo by Samantha Martucci)

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Atmosphere got its start in Minneapolis, a place not exactly renowned for its rap scene relative to other major cities around the country. Because it wasn’t as large as the coastal scene, it was smaller and easier for the community to develop. When Daley started rapping, he said he wasn’t taking it too seriously. He grew up showcasing his skills in talent shows, mostly because he liked being on stage and getting an audience’s attention. He’d also pull up at parties to freestyle and jump into rap battles, but never imagined it could be more than that.

“I didn’t really think that there was a rapping job here for me, because it was Minneapolis,” he said. “None of us really had any aspirations to create careers out of this, because the winter here makes you realistic. I knew no record labels were coming to look for some skinny white passing dude who raps in South Minneapolis. So I rapped for props and to make people like me and get validation.”

Daley had also developed an affinity for cutting and mixing tapes at his high school, adding to his production repertoire. After a few years, Spawn, an older rapper from the Twin Cities, asked him to be his DJ, but later proposed that Daley step up and rap with him instead.

Through another rapper, Musab, Daley was introduced to producer Ant, and he saw an opportunity to work with him, convincing Spawn to give him a shot as well. They soon started recording songs together, up until Spawn left the group three years after their debut record, “Overcast!” After meeting more like-minded rappers, some of whom Daley said had the same motivation to make it, he was sparked with the same drive to keep chasing the dream.

“I’m still on the same path,” he said. “I’m still just putting one foot in front of the other. I do not take this for granted. I know that at any given moment, I could get fired, and music is subjective. You have no way of knowing how to connect with people. You just have to connect with yourself and hope that it connects with people. The day will come when I will no longer connect with people. It’ll just go full circle, and I’m okay with that because this has been a great ride.”

Since Atmosphere’s first release, the duo has put out an album nearly every year or every other year, with a couple of exceptions. Daley said they don’t feel the need or pressure to take a break, so when they’re done working on one album, they immediately start on the next.

That was the case after Atmosphere released “So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously” in 2023, and they began working on their latest album, “Jestures.” Daley said that when he and Ant are coming up with the concept for an album, they tend to start from a fairly silly, unserious place and chip away at it until something relevant emerges.

For “Jestures,” the album comprises 26 songs and was influenced by the alphabet, a concept incorporated into the album art through letter blocks. The songs on the album are arranged alphabetically by title, and even the lineup of guests follows this concept, with Evidence on “Effortless,” Kurious on “Kilowatts,” and a trio of heavy hitters — Musab, Muja Messiah, and Mike the Martyr — on “Mash.”

Like its predecessors, the album incorporates Ant’s sticky signature beats on production and Daley’s clever rhymes, leading listeners through a world full of literary devices that drive introspection and sometimes the everyday insecurity of existence.

In “Neptune,” Daley raps, “Everybody wants to feel connected collectively/Proudly independent but drowning in dependency,” and follows with “Maybe I’m just anxious and afraid I’ll realize/I’m an imposter poser obviously a performer/In a world full of performances nobody even noticed him.” The lyrics are consistent with the numerous stories the rapper has crafted, word-for-word, throughout Atmosphere’s decades-spanning career, which often detail his inner struggles or those of others he’s met.

Atmosphere was undoubtedly an early pioneer of emo rap, with vulnerable lyrics about addiction and personal relationships, but the group also belongs to the conscious hip-hop subgenre, which focuses on social, political, and cultural awareness, challenging the status quo and promoting positive change.

Daley said it makes sense that fans and others associate his music with conscious hip-hop because he grew up heavily influenced by acts that championed the subgenre, such as Run-D.M.C., the Fat Boys, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane and Rakim. Although Atmosphere hasn’t been overtly political in its messaging like many conscious rap groups, social justice issues were often at the forefront of Daley’s early days on the mic, but the group has been doing its own version of the subgenre.

“Somewhere in my 20s, I had to be responsible for more than just myself, and I started focusing on the inner revolution,” Daley said. “I started focusing on consciousness from a space of personal identity, and the lens I view this world through, and how I want to reflect that to people. I am a conscious rapper. I just might not be the typical conscious rapper people think of.”

When asked about the ongoing anti-ICE demonstrations happening in Minnesota, and the killing of Renee Good by an officer just blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered in 2020, Daley said he grew up understanding that racism and classism were very much present issues. He added that while the state has historically served as a safe haven for refugees due to the state’s religious Lutheran and Scandinavian roots, there has also always been an opposite reaction to tolerance.

“There are inequities here, specifically racial inequities that are out of control,” he said. “This place has lots of problems. However, when it’s time to step up, we put those problems aside, and we all step up. Whether that’s winter, ICE, a herd of zombies, or a moose, we’re going to come together and defeat it. After we’re done, maybe we go back to being mad at each other, but right now, when we have a common target to be mad at, we step up, and we persevere.”

Atmosphere

When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12.

Where: The Novo, 800 W Olympic Blvd., a335, Los Angeles.

Admission: $49-$165 at axs.com.

Also: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10 at The Observatory North Park, 2891 University Ave., San Diego. Tickets are sold out, but resale tickets are available via Ticketmaster.com.