Education on indie Hip Hop

The post I just made on a different thread made me want to create this one, because I see there are still far too many people out there that are completely oblivious to quality hip hop.

I'd appreciate all of you true hip hop heads on the forum to post here and hopefully educate these kids a little bit, so they can learn that there is a HUGE difference between the talentless club rap that dominates clear channel radio (FUCK CLEAR CHANNEL!), MTV, and most other forms of mainstream media & real, intelligent, independent hip hop. I am slightly irritated at the moment, so I am not going to repeat the rants I've made in other threades, but I will copy and paste a list of artists I'm into that I think deserve some attention and respect.

Everyone else feel free to post up artists, history, information on the scene, and anything else you'd like people to know.

Here's my list.

Aesop Rock; Sage Francis; Sole; Cannibal Ox; A Tribe Called Quest; De La Soul; Little Brother; Copywrite; The Roots; Brother Ali; Dan The Automator; Del Tha Funkee Homosapien; RJD2; Zion I; Amp-Live; Lyrics Born; Gift of Gab; Blackalicious; Chali 2na; Why; Mos Def; Jedi Mind Tricks; Jurassic 5; Big Daddy Kane; Cut Chemist; DJ Shadow; Molemen; Ant; DJ Revolution; Grouch; Murs; Eligh; The Living Legends; Kid Koala; Soul Position; Swollen Members; Madlib; Quasimoto; Qwel; Maker; Typical Cats; Aceyalone; Denizen Kane; Atmosphere; Shape Shifters; M.F. Doom; Alias; Gorillaz; Eyedea; Kanye West; Common; Talib Kweli; Handsome Boy Modeling School; Danger Mouse; Dilated Peoples; Saul Williams; Red Tide; Immortal Technique; Hieroglyphics; Casual; Pep Love; Opio; C Ray Walz; Time Capsule; The Crest; Prefuse 73; The Books; Scott Herren; Hi-Tek; Dead Prez; Rhymesayers; Anticon; Spitkicker; Nature Sounds; Ra The Rugged Man; Glue; Masta Killa; Raekwon; Black Market Militia; Pharcyde; Cage; Bush Babies; Killah Priest; Rah Digga; Gangstarr; M.O.P.; Ghostface; Pharoahe Monch;

Down with false hip hop and close minded surban kids listening to whatever is fed to them. This includes all you trendy nu-metal fucks that think you're "dark." It's nothing but teenage angst, and that shit is just as simplistic as club rap. Just because these guys play their instruments does not mean they play them well. Grow up and acquire some taste.


THE BELOW POSTS PROVIDE MUCH MORE INFORMATION

 

Good information:

HISTORY AND ORIGINS:

Alternative hip hop or Underground rap is a style of hip hop music distinguished by artists who are not recognized by major record labels, or who choose to express their talent in an "underground" atmosphere. Often, positive lyrics are often a hallmark of alternative hip hop, which detract from the materialistic and sexually fueled lyrics of mainstream hip hop. Although some listeners may associate live instrumentation with alternative hip hop, this distinction is invalid because popular rap acts such as J-Kwon use live instruments as well. Alternative hip hop artists generally have not achieved the same level of mainstream success that commercial rap and other forms of the genre have seen, although they are often critically acclaimed. Interestingly, alternative hip hop has developed differently from virtually every other musical genre, with its originators (De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest) being more popular than later innovators (Guru, Mos Def, Common). This is why some consider alternative hip hop more a trend than a rigid genre within hip hop.
The term "alternative hip hop", coined by music scholars, can be considered something of a misnomer: artists labeled as "alternative hip hop" musicians usually record and perform in styles that are more closely related to the original concepts and styles of hip hop music and hip hop culture, as opposed to their more popular commercial counterparts. DJ Kool Herc, the inventor of hip hop music, once said in an essay about hip hop, that "it's not about keeping it real. It's about keeping it right." In this sense, many would argue that alternative hip hop might not be so much an alternative as much as it is a continuation of the original concepts and ideals of hip hop.


The late 1980s

<table align="right"> <tbody><tr> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Alternative hip hop is usually said to have begun with De La Soul's landmark 3 Feet High and Rising (1989, 1989 in music). The trio's distinctive style, mixing unique sampling sources (such as The Turtles and Johnny Cash) with spacey, hippie-ish lyrics and a sense of humor, made the album a commercial and critical success. With its inclusion of pre-recorded bits from outlandish sources, such as a French language instruction tape, the release foreshadowed the self-referential sampling kaleidoscope that would soon envelop hip hop (and pop music in general).
In addition to 3 Feet High and Rising, influential singles were released one year previously, in 1988 (see 1988 in music), by Gang Starr ("Words I Manifest") and Stetsasonic ("Talkin' All That Jazz"); these two singles fused hip hop with jazz in a way never done before, and helped lead to the development of jazz rap.


Early 1990s

During the early 1990s, mainstream hip hop was dominated by the West Coast G-Funk (like Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg). Other artists found success difficult to achieve, though some East Coast acts, such as Puff Daddy's empire of East Coast hip hop artists (Bad Boy Records) gained chart success (Mary J. Blige's 1992 What's the 411?) as well as critical success (Nas's 1994 Illmatic), though rarely both at the same time.


The Underground Emerges

<table align="left"> <tbody><tr> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> While gangsta rap dominated the charts, the East Coast alternative sound began to lose its luster. Strangely enough, underground hip hop, as we know it today, was born on the streets of South Central Los Angeles, best represented by the seminal Freestyle Fellowship. Consisting of members Aceyalone, Mikah 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter, the Freestyle Fellowship married conscious lyrics with spectacular, jazz-like rhyme cadences. Their "To Whom It May Concern" and "Innercity Griots" albums remain as the most influential albums in the history of underground hip hop. Furthermore, the DIY ethic of selling tapes and CDs "out of the trunk" to record stores and directly to fans would soon be adopted by the underground rappers around the world.
Spurred by the Freestyle Fellowship, other West Coast artists like The Pharcyde (Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, 1992) and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury, 1992) also rose to prominence in the field. Despite the popularity of Bay Area Booty Rapper Too Short, Oakland gave birth to underground artists Del tha Funkee Homosapien (cousin to Gangsta Rapper Ice Cube) and Souls of Mischief with their seminal album ("93 'til Infinity"). Alongside these West Coast groups were generally more popular East Coast groups like A Tribe Called Quest (People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, 1990) and Gang Starr (Step in the Arena, 1991). International groups, like Britain's The Brand New Heavies (Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1, 1992) and Massive Attack (Blue Lines, 1991) helped combine hip hop with R&B and electronica, respectively.
A Tribe Called Quest's 1991 album The Low-End Theory is regarded as one of the most influential recordings in alternative hip hop, especially with its timely indictment of the perceived commercializing and demoralizing effects of the music industry, then tearing hip hop apart into multiple competing genres, all rushing to sell out for mainstream success; the album also tackles subjects like date rape and rap feuds. The Low End Theory includes the legendary upright bassist Ron Carter and the Leaders of the New School (which included future superstar Busta Rhymes).
While A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul are considered jazz-rappers, the pioneer of an actual fusion between the two genres is unquestionably the Freestyle Fellowship. Their collaborations with live jazz bands, including the likes of Horace Tapscott, date back to 1990. This inspired other artist s like Guru, whose 1993 Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 was a critically acclaimed solo debut with live jazz backing. A jazz band including Lonnie Liston Smith, Roy Ayers, Branford Marsalis and Donald Byrd solos in the background while Guru (and guests like the Senegalese-French MC Solaar) raps.
Stubbornly insisting on sticking to their themes and ideas, alternative hip hop artists were able to incorporate elements of virtually every form of music around at the time.
<table align="right"> <tbody><tr> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Meanwhile, Christian hip hop group and pioneering Southern rap crew Arrested Development scored big with 1992's 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of..., which put Southern hip hop on the map. The album was particularly successful with non-hip hop fans, listeners who were turned off by the macho posturing of many other groups, and who wanted a safer alternative. Arrested Development's focus on peace and love and groovy beats made them relatively accessible, though their devout Christianity (reflected in the lyrics) also made them unattractive to some audiences.








INDIE HIP HOP OF TODAY:


The end of the 1990s

In spite of neo soul gaining mainstream acceptance, gangsta hip hop artists like Jay-Z (Reasonable Doubt, 1996) and DMX (...And Then There Was X, 1999) still dominated the charts as the end of the millennium neared. Critics and listeners regarded alternative hip hop as going through a lull, as even mainstays like A Tribe Called Quest (Beats, Rhymes and Life, 1996) released lackluster albums.

Many observers feel that Dr. Octagon's seminal 1996 album Dr. Octagonecologyst revitalized hip hop's underground; Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus is another album cited as redefining the genre. Del tha Funkee Homosapien paired with Kool Keith's (aka Dr. Octagon) producer Dan the Automator to make Deltron 3030, who pushed the boundaries of hip hop to other universes and times. Alternative hip hop soon began to lose its recent stylings for a return to Native Tongues-style old school with hardcore and jazz elements mixed in. The hip hop band, The Roots were among the leaders of the second alternative hip hop wave, dropping several critically acclaimed albums in the mid to late 90s, including Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995), Illadelph Halflife (1996), and the breakthrough, Things Fall Apart in 1999. On the West Coast, Ozomatli's self titled 1998 release fused latin and funky beats with hip hop in a groundbreaking way.
Mos Def and Talib Kweli's 1998 Black Star also contributed greatly to this evolution, with its return to Native Tongues-style old school hip hop. Mos Def's solo debut, Black on Both Sides (1999), quickly established him as a darling of alternative media for its incendiary politics, while Kweli's solo career took some time to get off the ground; as he didn't appear until 2000's Reflection Eternal, with partner Hi-Tek. Pharaoh Monch's Internal Affairs, his 1999 solo debut after leaving Organized Konfusion, also added more gangsta and hardcore hip hop elements to the mix.
Following in the footsteps of the Freestyle Fellowship were Jurassic 5 (Jurassic 5 EP) and Dilated Peoples (The Platform), who continued mixing funk and hip hop music to critical acclaim and popular rejection. The Bay area gave birth to highly experimental artists like Blackalicious with Nia, as well as Lyrics Born, Lateef the Truth Speaker, and the Hieroglyphics Crew.
This period was also the high point for Hip Hop's DJ scene. The Invisibl Skratch Piklz and artists such as Cut Chemist, Dan the Automator, DJ Shadow, Mix Master Mike, DJ Qbert, and many others put a lasting stamp on turntablism and its emerging genre.


Post-2000 alternative hip hop

After the turn of the millennium, as the United States (still by far the world capital of hip hop) found itself confronted by the War on Terror, lyrics grew increasingly anti-mainstream, with some advocating radical actions on the behalf of various anarchist and socialist ideas. The cover for the album Party Music (2001) by the openly marxist band, The Coup, proved controversial after the September 11, 2001 attacks due to its depiction of the duo holding a stick of dynamite and a detonator, ready to blow up the World Trade Center (though the band itself had been well known in alternative hip hop circles since the early 1990s); other groups like Dead Prez (Let's Get Free, 2000), Mr. Lif with his EP, Emergency Rations, and Emcee Lynx (The Black Dog EP, 2003, and The UnAmerican LP, 2004) similarly raised controversy with militant and confrontational lyrics.
In 2001 and 2002, several popular albums were released. These included:

• AWOL One & Daddy Kev - Souldoubt
• Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow
• Busdriver - Temporary Forever
• Common - Electric Circus.
• The Coup - Steal This Double Album
• Daddy Kev - Lost Angels EP
• Hi-Tek - Hi-Teknology
• Jurassic 5 - Power in Numbers
• Living Legends - Almost Famous
• The Roots - Phrenology
• Talib Kweli - Quality
• Aesop Rock - Labor Days
• Mr. Lif - I Phantom

Though most of these bands could be considered "political hip hop" for their lyrical focus, the early 2000s also saw futuristic or apocalyptic rappers like Cannibal Ox, El-P, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and Aesop Rock.
In the new millennium a new "sub-genre" arose from the West Coast, spearheaded by underground rap producer Daddy Kev (famed for his work with the Freestyle Fellowship). With artists like Busdriver, AWOL One, The Shape Shifters, cLOUDDEAD, and Themselves, the music became known as avant-hop, prog-hop or indie-hop. These MCs and DJs blend their rhymes and beats with an electronica, post-rock or indie crossover. Additionally, artists such as the Bay Area's Zion I have incorporated Trip Hop sounds while continuing to identify their music as underground hip hop, and Oregon band PO2 define their music as "synth-hop".

 

I'm putting this here, because they deserve a spot for their originality, whether the hip hop heads with big egos like them or not.

The controversial anticon records:

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<table class="infobox" style="width: 20em; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" cellspacing="4"> <tbody><tr align="center"> <th colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"><big>anticon</big></th> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">
</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <th>Origin</th> <td>California, USA</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <th>Years active</th> <td>1997 –</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <th>Genre(s)</th> <td>Hip-Hop</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <th>Label(s)</th> <td>Anticon</td> </tr> <tr> <th align="center">Members</th> <td align="center">Brendan Whitney
Adam Drucker
Jeff Logan
David Madson
David Bryant
James Brandon Best
Tim Holland
Yoni Wolf
Matt Meldon
Josiah Wolf
Doug McDiarmid</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> anticon is a collective of musicians, based in Oakland, California as well as an independent record label owned equally among seven founding artists and one manager, and releases material created by its members, affiliates, and extended musical family. anticon cohered originally within experimental rap circles based on both coasts, the midwest, and Canada, though many of the artists on anticon--Why?, 13 & God, and Dosh, most significantly--are, by now, only tangentially related to hip-hop. They are known for frequent collaboration within and without their own collective and have, over time, evolved into a group of separate artists that, despite exploring various different styles of music including electronica and rock, all share a similar progressive, and often challenging, indie quality. The artists within the collective have been known to perform and release music in solo and group form.
[edit]

Members

Formally, anticon consists of the following eight members: (listed with pseudonym first, real name in parenthesis)

• Alias (Brendan Whitney)
• Doseone (Adam Drucker)
• Jel (Jeff Logan)
• Odd Nosdam (David Madson)
• Passage (David Bryant)
• Pedestrian (James Brandon Best)
• Sole (Tim Holland)
• Why? (Yoni Wolf, Matt Meldon, Josiah Wolf, and Doug McDiarmid)

However, several other artists, including Buck 65, Sage Francis, Slug (member of Minneapolis based Atmosphere), Dibbs, Dj Signify, Ant (member of Minneapolis based Atmosphere,) Eyedea, DJ Abilities, J.Rawls, Dj Mayonnaise, Moodwing9, Circus, Controller7, Boom Bip, JD Walker, Josh Marinez, Sixtoo, Matth, Fog (Andrew Broder), Hood, Hrvatski, Electric Birds, John Herndon (Grapedope/Tortoise), Stefanie Bohm (Ms. John Soda), Jessica Bailiff, Tarsier, Mike Patton, and Boards of Canada are or have been closely associated with anticon in the past, and have collaborated with anticon.
Some notable projects of anticon include cLOUDDEAD (Why?, Doseone, and Odd Nosdam), Deep Puddle Dynamics (Sole, Slug, Doseone, and Alias), Restiform Bodies (Passage, Telephone Jim Jesus, The Bomarr Monk), Themselves (Dose One, Jel and when performing live, Dax Pierson), 13 & God (Dose One, Jel, and Dax of Themselves, with Markus Acher, Micha Acher and Martin Gretschmann of The Notwist), Greenthink (Dose One & Why?), Subtle (Dose One, Jel, Dax Pierson, Jordan Dalrymple, Alexander Kort and Marty Dowers) and Hymie's Basement (Why? and Fog).

 

All about one of my personal favorites, Aesop Rock:

Aesop Rock (born Ian Matthias Bavitz, 1976) is a jewish hip hop musician (rapper and producer) whose albums have been critically acclaimed for their originality and depth. Aesop's style blends a varying tone and delivery with subject matter that focuses on intricate sequences of widely varying imagery, metaphors and pop culture references, while including the occasional touchstones of traditional hip hop storytelling and self-promotion. As a result of this unorthodox style, Aesop has become a controversial topic among hip hop enthusiasts.

Music

A New York City-based MC, Aesop initially did records for the Mush record label while working as a waiter in the city. Aesop released his first major album, Float with guest appearances from Cannibal Ox, Slug and Dose One. Production was done by Blockhead and Aesop himself. Shortly after releasing Float, Aesop Rock signed to Definitive Jux (usually called Def Jux), where he released Labor Days, an album dedicated to the discussion of labor in American society and the concept of "wage slaves". This album was most known for its single, "Daylight" with an unmistakable chorus: "All I ever wanted was to pick apart the day, put the pieces back together my way". Because of its popularity, Daylight was re-released in 2002 as a 7-track EP, including an entirely new version of the song, "Night Light," the lyrics of which stand in stark opposition to the original's.
Labor Days was followed up by Bazooka Tooth in 2003. This time around, production was mostly done by Aesop and El-P, fellow hip-hop artist and head of Definitive Jux. Guest appearances include Party Fun Action Committee, El-P, Mr. Lif (all Definitive Jux labelmates) and Camp Lo. With this release Aesop hit a higher level of recognition, releasing a single and music video ("No Jumper Cables") and then another shortly after ("Freeze").
While the album has a more mainstream sound, shown by songs such as "Limelighters", it retains Aesop's intense and inventive lyrics. Examples from "Freeze": "you should have shot yourself in the foot while it was in your mouth" and "before you kick your feet up, I married and divorced Mother Nature after sweet-talking that old hag out of a pre-nup". At another point, Aesop interrupts the song "11:35" with a sudden minute-long rap, performed almost a cappella over a minimal beat: "I got one - Jack for Jill, Jill won't, Jack will. Jill didn't, then did, Jack fell" Bazooka Tooth was criticized by fans of Labor Days and Float that Aesop seems to have lost his compassion found in his first two albums and has replaced it with a more confrontational and traditional style.

In February of 2005, Aesop Rock released his new EP, Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives. The first pressing of the EP includes an 88 page booklet with lyrics from every release from Float until this EP (the lyric booklet is titled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow); further pressings of the album come without the booklet. In addition, a limited number of albums were available direct from his label with Aesop Rock's graffiti tag on them. Aesop Rock has a gnarly voice. In response to demands from his fans, Aesop did less producing on the EP. The EP has three songs produced by Blockhead, three produced by Aesop, and one produced by Rob Sonic. As of Summer 2005, he is on tour.
Although no longer available except as bootlegs, Aesop's two independent releases are widely sought after in the underground scene, and are considered some of his best work by some. On Music for Earthworms, Aesop features the legendary Percee P on two tracks.

 

That's enough information from me. Now, hopefully a few others will post up some things.

 

Word... I was just making this hoping a few of the kids that go around saying "rap sucks. they have no talent... blah blah blah" would realize they know very little about it and maybe give some real hip hop a chance.

 

Nice. I'll look some of those up and post back later what I liked.