Artist

Ant

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“There was always this weird dream in my head that I could get somewhere,” says Anthony Davis, better known as the legendary hip-hop producer Ant. As one half of <a href="spotify:artist:1GAS0rb4L8VTPvizAx2O9J" data-name="Atmosphere">Atmosphere</a>, the longtime Minneapolis resident has carved out the type of career that aspiring musicians across the world imagine as they cut their teeth in home studios and on small stages. Yet while decades of sold-out tours and critical acclaim might have been, at one time, an abstract notion to the now 53-year-old, he always had a sense that he could spin his ingenuity behind turntables into a living. While the last 30 years serve as proof positive that he was right, his new four-volume collection of instrumental work, Collection of Sounds, illuminates the variety of styles and skills that made that inkling a reality.

The son of a military family, Ant grew up bouncing between locales: Texas, California, New York, Colorado, even as far away as Germany. While moving every couple of years presented plenty of challenges, it also exposed Ant to a wide array of different people and cultures. It also helped nurture his burgeoning love of music. Soon, Ant was able to forge a reputation, wherever he went, as the kid who had access to songs weeks or months before his peers—or knew about hidden gems that might otherwise never hit whichever new high school he’d parachute into. Music became a sort of skeleton key to the world.

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