Damn I wish I woulda been up on this thread back when it first popped off a year ago. I was deep in the indie/underground hip-hop scene. I agree with the general premise of this thread. Alot of that nerd CAC shyt that dropped back then aged horribly. It was self-righteous, pretentious, off-beat bullshyt.
It also was low-key
with its holier than thou attitude like their brand of hip-hip was too
advanced for the average, typical hip-hop consumer.
HOWEVER make no mistake about it, that era was NOT the worst for hip-hop. Its actually the second best era to me behind the Golden 90's era. That underground/indie period created so much dope and slept on hip-hop with artists like....
- All Natural + Family Tree
- Binary Star
- Vakil
- Molemen
- Mr. Complex
- J.U.I.C.E.
- Five Deez
- Lone Catalysts
- Scienz Of Life
- Mass Influence
- The Arsonists
- Jigmatas
- Black Attack
- Basement Khemists
- Old World Disorder
- 427
- Self-Scientific
- Micronauts
- Laster
- C-Rayz Walz
- Oktober
- Sub-Con
- Mike Zoot
I could go on and on and on and on literally.... but you get the idea. Alot this shyt age gracefully and some sounds dated but still bangs. If I get some serious free time I'm going to make a dedicated, on-going thread about the best music to come from this creative period of hip-hop.
You da homie...
... but I probably couldn't listen to any of those albums anymore without
Only shyt I could probably fux with today that was/is considered underground (to varying degrees):
Canibal Ox - Cold Vein (personal classic)
J-Zone's shyt
J-Live ... of course... he literally made the Illmatic of underground shyt (personal classic)
J-treds (so many fukkin' J's lol)
Natural Elements
Some of Apani B's shyt
Benefit's first shyt
Jean Grae's first shyt (personal classic)
Some of the Rawkus projects of course
Last Emperor
Juggaknots - Clear Blue Skies... (every underground/indie heads magnum opus)
Punch -n- Words
Wordsworth early solos
Brother Ali's Shadows (personal classic)
...but it's levels and sub genres to this underground shyt from the mid 90s to early 2000s... don't forget at one point, BlackMoon (and those similar... Buck even broke down the true meaning of "backpacker before
corrupted the term) were considered "backpackers" and "borderline" underground (meaning non-mainstream) with a street edge (shyt I usually fukked with) but sometimes had a major label backing... sometimes... then you had the nerd shyt... then had the "incense" shyt...
the boundaries often weren't really clear... it's like someone could be indie, but not considered "theoretically underground" according to purists... then fans started getting on some "holier than thou" shyt...
Maaaaan this is some shyt that could get me excommunicated from the rap/hiphop community but I can't even listen to Funcrusher Plus hardly at ALL anymore.
And I used to write for Industry mags about Indie/Underground rap
that era was needed, tho... and it produced some dope, creative music. And I'm appreciative of its place in hip-hop... I still think a similar movement needs to reemerge now... if not, rap is gonna morph into some unrecognizable hybrid and take on a different name.
In a sense, I think there is a "new underground" movement happening, it's just in the form of mixtapes. However, I think more variety is still needed.
there was another thread along the lines of this one that was really good, too.
but the second 3rd lp....
I remember when whiteboys on forums used to pretend like this was the greatest thing ever recorded.
