A stalwart and revered figure in the Chicago music & creative scene, Pugs Atomz is a trailblazer who laid the groundwork for many artists in the area today. Born 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 for 5th grade poetry assignment; when he recited his in class everyone said, ”you’re rapping, he’s a rapper”. From that point, it started to make more sense to him.As a 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  (Chicago’s version of The Zulu Nation) and watched the moves being made by Twista, Common, Dem Dare and author/actavist Upski. An avid listener of  Chicago host Jp Chill and Pink House’s Rap shows aswell as The wake-up Show. In high school there weren’t too many people at that time that could really help him with his 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 artists like  Psalm one, Vyle, Mike Eagle, pianist/producer Kenny Keys, producer Prolific (Lupe Fiasco), visual artists Hebru Brantley & Rahmaan Statik among so many others.At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago he majored in Fine Arts, and minored in Video. Pugs cut his teeth designing t-shirts for a small student-run clothing brand and painting graffiti backdrops for 20th Century Fox films. From Tv Host (Barber Shop Hip-Hop) to radio host (CTA Radio 1999-2017) he has pushed his agenda, Chicago music must be played and promoted.  Atomz has released numerous albums, compilations and mixtapes with key independent labels and blogs and recently released a new vinyl single  “Sweat” with Dinked Records (UK) . His first big clothing design break was in 2007 with Afro Wear & American needle working on their branded fitted caps and specialty lines (Red Fox, Malcolm X). At the same time, he was also marketing manager at “Sang Werks” a Chicago based marketing company (Adidas, Scion, House of Blues, Power 92.3 FM).That experience really nurtured his acumen in marketing and promotions. This started to show more in how he presented his music and design ideas. His creative genius awarded him sponsorship from Scion for a fifty city tour (USA/Canada), and he later even teamed with a marketing agency to put out one of his albums. His popularity pushed his name allowing him to tour the world a few times with DJ Vadim and their band The Electric, resulting in Atomz moving to London for 3 years.Currently, Pugs is living back in Chicago now enjoying his time as the Creative Director of Iridium Clothing Company and designing select menswear pieces for the brand. He is also gearing up for the release of his new album “Highly Irregular” with Producer/ Engineer Mulatto Patriot
Nice and Easy ft Wes Restless  (Taken from pugs Atomz and Producer Chris Reads album “Colours of the world” on BBE records that released last year.

Born and raised on Chicago’s south side, Ed Clemons a.k.a. “Dropz” is a Dancer + DJ with love for the funky and deep. Currently he spins around Chicago with the Local Flavors Crew and is member of Renegades Of Funk Chicago.

Instagram & Mixcloud: edo_g_dai