hip-hop renaissance man

"Englewood is my heart. My art reflects that."

Designer, Muralist. Rapper, Radio Host. A true Hip Hop renaissance man, his Art and Music has been featured in movies, sporting events, video games, and murals around the USA. He has been able to tour the world performing his deep catalog solo and with frequent collaborator DJ Vadim (The Electric, UK). His inspiration for all this stems from his family growing up in Englewood seeing the performers on the Green line train, and murals and Graffiti art in his neighborhood

His mother was Artistic Director of The Blvd Art Center and did Art programming for the youth in Englewood and the southside. Which was a foundational starting point for Gallery 37, a precursor for what is now known as After School Matters in Chicago. Pugs Worked in both programs and eventualy taught with After School Matters for 10 years. Hip Hop has always been his battery so it was no surprise when he started a collective called The Nacrobats in the mid 90's. Some stand out members of that collective were Mc's like Open Mike Eagle, Psalm One, Thaione Davis, Pianist/Producer, Kenny Keys, Painters like Hebru Brantley, Statik RK, Damon Reed, and Max Sansing to name a few. From that point he started to release albums of the collective, solo projects and mixtapes frequently, even to this day.

After years of painting and rhyming during the 90s and attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Atomz realized he wanted to be a musician and dropped his debut album, "Thanks for Not Rhyming" in 2000. It was followed shortly by 2002's "24 Years Later", which fostered an international tour with stops in London, Amsterdam, and Germany. 2005's "Playing with Matches" was a 17-track effort documenting his life as a Graffiti Artist, featuring an art show and a storefront installation of a scene from the movie "Beat Street". In 2007 Atomz released Conversation with a Chamelion. The album got him on a 38 city tour with DJ Vadim (UK) around the US and Canada. As need for tour merch increased he got more into fashion, designing clothing/fitted hats with the likes of American Needle and Afro Wear. 2008 also saw a rise in violence in Chicago schools, so Mr. Atomz wrote the song “Me and you” addressing it. He got involved with Coalmine Music, and Krs one's Stop the violence movement. 

In the next few years Pugs and DJ Vadim formed a band called "The Electric" that sparked a 3 year tour playing shows from Brazil to Russia non stop. Pugs moved to London to ease his tour schedule, and fell in love with the fashion scene there. Going to Design houses, Fashion shows, meeting designers, and photographers really pushed him to take it more seriously. So upon  his return to Chicago he hit the ground running. Releasing mixtapes with popular blogs like DJ Booth and Fakeshore Drive, and albums with BBE and Tokyo Dawn labels. Currently he is a designer for the innovative www.iridiumclothingco.com, with two brick-and-mortar locations in Chicago and a digital/cultural following worldwide. He's helped to develop the clothing brand in a direction that's attracted celebrities (Usher, Justin Bieber, Gucci Mane, Chris Brown, and Whoopi Goldberg to name a few. As Well as being an incubator for upcoming photographers, models, artists and designers. Pugs has also  started his own Art and accessory brand called www.usuwe93.com. 

Currently he he designs brands like Afro Wear, Modest, Barbara Bates andOkay Player to name a few.  Pugs is gearing up for Projects with New Zealand's Fat Freddy's Drop, Dj Vadim, and a new album with Producer Inkswell tittled the Moon.

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