Real talk: looking back, most of that def jux/anticon/rhymesayers indie nerd rap was fukking garbage

[Unknown Poster]

Only cacs were bigging up that garbage. I tuned out of the underground when it became saturated with nerds raping about raping

But that was more of the east coast underground. The west had groups that were still decent and underground like dilated peoples, madlib and slum village in the Midwest and their whole sound and affiliates. Little brother etc. These were dope indie acts that followed in the roots of the good parts of the underground movement that preceded from cats like Mos def and Talib, pharoahe... The other side of it was shyt like company flow, Aesop rock etc was utter trash to me.

West coast has always had some good indie hip-hop acts like Freestyle Fellowship, The Living Legends (from which Slug of Atmosphere and Murs repped, also including the Grouch), Mystik Journeymen, Hieroglyphics, The Shapeshifters, People Under The Stairs, LA Symphony, Blackalicious, Jurassic 5 etc...



I discovered this from a skate video back in the day, might of been Bluetorch TV or Logic Video Mag

 

[Unknown Poster]

Def Jux had some dope shyt in that time period i thought - Murs and 9th, Mr Lif, The Perceptionists, Aesop (none shall pass) and el p

Brother Ali and the odd Atmosphere joint on Rhymesayers i liked, not checked much else though,

Don't even know who was on Anticon. I agree though ughh elitist Stanleys are the worst.

Masai Bey was cool...had some El-P produced material/.



Slept on...I had this 12".

 

[Unknown Poster]

In 1999, the greatest underground Hip Hop album of all time dropped (Soundbombing 2).

I'd argue underground hip-hop peaked in 99-2000. But all of them nerd rappers tainted the image of underground/indie rap throughout the 00s. Rawkus might of been the premier indie hip-hop label then...





Slept on early Eminem feature...

 

[hex]

Masai Bey was cool...had some El-P produced material/.



Slept on...I had this 12".

Just realized this uses the same "Darling Nikki" sample as "Heartz Of Men".

Fred.

 

[Unknown Poster]

theres still plenty of random one offs and loosie tracks from that era that are still hella dope. maybe i will start a thread dedicated to just that.

I feel that...especially since I'm going down memory lane with this thread now...

Here's some of my favorites.

 

[blizzard man]

press play on this and tell me this beat aint still flaaame

 

[y que]

most of that shyt was white backpack trash spawned from internet and chatroom nerds

el-p whole abstract production was overrated shyt too back then

only thing still relevant is rjd2 album

still stands today

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

El p gets a lot of love but he unfortunately pioneered majority of that offbeat, elitist nerd sound. I never fukked w. His music aside from a few joints and felt he was extremely overrated. Anticon ran with that style if I remember right and were wack af. It was a strange Era but died before u knew it. JMT style rappers kind of took over that underground void imo.

 

[TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?]

Don't remind me

 

[thatmbagrind]

I always thought Yak Ballz was nice, his producer Mondee had some fire. WTF happened to him and Cage? I was a fiend for underground back then, checking sandboxautomatic.com weekly for the new releases to find on MP3. But listening back now, so much of it was basura. I always thought Natural Elements were really nice, but they were around back in 95 so maybe that's not a part of this conversation.

 

[blizzard man]

El p gets a lot of love but he unfortunately pioneered majority of that offbeat, elitist nerd sound. I never fukked w. His music aside from a few joints and felt he was extremely overrated. Anticon ran with that style if I remember right and were wack af. It was a strange Era but died before u knew it. JMT style rappers kind of took over that underground void imo.

it aint el-p's fault a buncha off beat cacs thought they could do it too

but i feel you.

you heard that oxycontin pt 2 beat tho? el was using them down south high hats and drums back in 2004 when the rest of the indie nerd scene was making cross fingers and hissing at down south music like offbeat nerdy vampires

 

[SirBiatch]

El p gets a lot of love but he unfortunately pioneered majority of that offbeat, elitist nerd sound. I never fukked w. His music aside from a few joints and felt he was extremely overrated. Anticon ran with that style if I remember right and were wack af. It was a strange Era but died before u knew it. JMT style rappers kind of took over that underground void imo.

El-P =

 

[Unknown Poster]

El p gets a lot of love but he unfortunately pioneered majority of that offbeat, elitist nerd sound. I never fukked w. His music aside from a few joints and felt he was extremely overrated. Anticon ran with that style if I remember right and were wack af. It was a strange Era but died before u knew it. JMT style rappers kind of took over that underground void imo.

Jedi Mind Tricks managed to survive that whole era...but they were actually dope and still are. Violent By Design is still dope, and I still fukks with Army of the Pharoahs. But I agree with you on EL-P, he did unfortunately fuel the fire of that whole movement.

Back to Jedi Mind Tricks though...


still flames.

 

[Unknown Poster]

There was some interesting stuff going on in the indie hip-hop world from 1998-2002...I'd say up until 2004. Much of it gets slept on now, but there were some interesting movements and labels coming out from that whole thang...

Stones Throw & Lootpack/Madlib

I had this album in high school

Wordsound (they put out the MC Paul Barman album in 2000)

Sensational was the best rapper on that whole roster...


then you had the whole hip-hop meets electronic/abstract/experimental movement cause alot of those heads that were into that were the same people that fukked with Squarepusher, Autechre, Aphex Twin, stuff like that...




Then you had stuff on Ninja Tune


Then you had that whole little turntablist scratching dj music movement





Yeah, very interesting period in retrospect in hip-hop considering that transition from the 90s into the 2000s and more so hip-hop going into the 21st century/

 

[Unknown Poster]

Some more indie hip-hop gems from the late 90s early 00s...