Underground Hip-Hop is Dead
Yea, I said it.
It’s an empty genre and an even emptier phrase. For those of you who know me, you probably think I’m crazy at this point. I swear by this “genre”, bump it constantly, and have even DJ’ed it on the radio. Yet, I have my reasons.
The internet has changed the world in infinite ways. You can literally search anything in Google or Wikipedia and find out everything you wanted to know about it and more in seconds. Thats basically where my argument begins and ends.
With the internet, it is absurdly easy to be in touch with what is happening in the music world at all levels and genres. Seriously. When I go through my daily rotation of blogs and websites I use to find new music, it is just as easy to find a leaked track from Brother Ali as Fabolous. The internet, especially in the music world, is the great equalizer.
For the past 2 months, I have been living in Cuba, which has given me perspective on a lot of the things I love in my life. My family (I miss them), friends (are family), school (greatest opportunity ever), country (God Bless America), and basic day to day habits (like shitting). But more specifically it has made me think about how underground hip hop functions in a country that is more or less isolated from the rest of the world. I met this guy the other day at a party some American students threw named Francis. My boy Andy started a conversation with him about hip hop and got me in on the cypher. The guy is OBSESSED with MF DOOM (all caps baby). Hip hop runs so deeply in his veins that ever since he was 12 he couldn’t listen to anything else. The guy doesn’t even dance salsa, which is truly an identity crisis in this country. He is studying English right now and lives off a 2 dollar a month stipend from the government. I gave him 3 bucks one night to buy four DVD’s so I could give him some music. His face lit up like a little kid with Santa’s credit card as I browsed through my I-tunes and dragged and dropped 18 GB’s of music. And still, he was able to give me three MF DOOM and two Jurassic 5 albums off his memory stick I didn’t have.
For people like Francis, finding new music is a mission. The only way he can do it is too meet foreigners and hope they can help him out. Most of the music he had before was from a kid from Switzerland. For those of us in the U.S., we don’t have to depend on anyone but ourselves.
Take the site last.fm for example. For me, this site is the ultimate cheat sheet for becoming a music connoisseur. First, type in an artist you have heard of but are not entirely familiar with. Lets use Slaughterhouse as an example. When you go to their music page, you will see a bio, group of similar artists, and their top tracks as played by the entire last.fm community (join this, btw). Now, I know exactly what their most popular tracks are so I can check those out first, and if I like them, keep exploring everything else. As far as similar aritsts go, Slaughterhouse has the individual members listed alongside J. Cole, Raekwon, and Marco Polo & Torae. I have never heard of Marco Polo and Torae, so I can immediately click on their profile, check out their top tracks, and see more similar artists. Rinse and repeat.
The music is there, right under our noses. There is nothing underground about it. The internet has transformed the way the radio and record labels function, and this is exactly why. Although they still serve an important purpose, the internet was the reason an ex-actor turned mixtape artist named Drake turned into a national celebrity. His free mixtape passed hands until it got the support of radio DJ’s and the industry which allowed him to crossover into the limelight. I quote Wikipedia (heh…):
“So Far Gone is an EP by Drake, released on September 15, 2009. It was originally released as a mixtape on February 13, 2009. However due to the success of the mixtape’s two singles, “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful”, it was decided that it should be released as an album available for purchase with only 5 of the 18 songs from the mixtape, with “Fear” and “I’m Going In” being new tracks.”
Only 5 of the original 18 songs? Are these people retarded? Why the hell has this album sold 200,000 copies? You can download the mixtape for free and it has 18 Drake songs, not just 7. Three of my favorite Drake songs, “November 18th”, “Brand New”, and “Unstoppable (Remix)”, among other solid songs, aren’t even on the album. I haven’t downloaded anything with “Fear”, but “I’m Going In” is on the Friends With Money Mixtape. That leaves one song worth 7 bucks. Jesus.
But I digress. Drake is only one case study in the phenomenon of how the internet has changed the way artists blow up. But more importantly, it is changing the way fans find their music and what they have access to. Like I said: the great equalizer.
But, maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe the internet is exactly what is going to keep the underground alive and banging.
T3 of Slum Village
Miguel Jontel
Aloe Blacc
Yelawolf
Guilty Simpson
Homeboy Sandman
Questlove
Sage Francis and B. Dolan
Treklife
Element
DJ Webstar
Moonsatellite
I don’t think underground rap is dead or even dying, i just think the ceiling is made of glass now.
What kind of celing are you talking about? Popularity? Money? Exposure? Respect?
Exposure mah dude. First off I’d like to define underground; to me underground=real, they’re not talking about how many bitches they got in the whip or how much moneys in the bank; theyre talking about their lives, expressing their identitys through the poetry that is hip-hop. Just because there is more opportunity for underground hip-hop to be realized by the general public doesnt mean its not underground anymore. You make some interesting arguments and I’m right with you on the whole “flattening world” argument, but in my opinion the internet is going to mean great things for underground artists. Sure everyone has access to underground rap because of the internet, but the general public doesnt have the time nor the will to research all these underground artists. Instead kids like me, who absolutely love hip-hop but haven’t really seen who else is out there other than the big names, now have the opportunity to hear these artists. I would have never known about artists like J.cole, XV, Slaughterhouse had it not been for this site. You guys have truely opened my eyes to what underground hip-hop is. Does the fact that I used this site to find it mean that it isn’t “underground” anymore? The answer to that question from my stand point is absolutely not. I’ve just gotten an opportunity to see what is going on in the underground community. It’s still there and I’m not a part of it on a physical standpoint, but i’ve gotten the chance to see what goes on and maybe it will inspire someone like me to get involved in it, whether it be making a web-site like this or making an ill mixtape myself like mike posner. I apologize if I come off ignorant, but you dudes over at Benz and a Backpack have really shown me what i’ve been missing all this time. As long as theirs kids spitting rhymes about their struggles their will always be an underground, those kids just have a chance for everyone to hear them now.
@FilaFiend first of all, thanks for your continued support, we really appreciate it. To me, the underground is anything that is not commercial. I think there is some commercial rap that is very real but because of commercial marketing and promotion it can be in no way be considered underground. On the flipside, there is certainly underground rap that is unreal. and there are some underground rappers (see: The Grouch from the Living Legends) who talk about bitches and money. In this way, the internet is the life force behind underground hip hop; it gives people who can spend the time (even just a few minutes to check a site like ours) the opportunity to circumvent corporate record labels and find really good music. For artists too, being able to disseminate your music across a nation(s) without a major record deal is a thing only the internet could have afforded. The internet lends underground hip hop a medium through which we, as connoisseurs of underground hip hop, can spread knowledge.
Building off what dizzy just said, I don’t think that the collection of artists who make up “the underground” or their music is dead. My point is that the word “underground” is becoming a less and less relevant term as the internet continues changing the way people find their music. Maybe I’m being too idealistic and think everyone cares as much about me as finding the best hip hop out there, but as long as you do care you have no physical barrier holding you back from making the leap into the underground.
I also think this debate leads directly into the debate of what we define as “underground”. You say that underground = real, but like dizzy said there are some popular real artists and some unpopular “fake” ones. Slaughterhouse doesn’t necessarily rap about their struggles as much as drugs, girls, and skills, yet in my opinion they are a great group.
I think the real challenge is to think of the right terms to distinguish the different types of hip hop we listen to, and for me whether or not the song is popular or not should not be a factor. Conscience? Backpack? Pretty-boy? Gangsta? Hardcore? Authentic? Who knows, because most artists can be called at least 2 or 3 of these names depending on what song you listen to.
im on my break at work so ima type this up real quick, please excuse all the misspellings and all that shit
i would like to address FilaFiend first, before i go in i wanna also thank you for following the blog, reading what u said liturally inspired me to put more work in on this site, I dont think its fair to say that underground rap = real. Infact thats a fails statement, because if u classify great MC’s like drake and J. cole as underground, then thats hippocritical cuz they rap about bitches and money. CD’s like Reasonable Doubt, Get RIch or Die Trying, even solja boys first CD, are real. Jay z was still involved with illegal and street activities durring the time he recorded reasonable doubt, and even though he talks about bitches money and murder, it was real to him at the time, even on the Blueprint 3 he keeps it 100% by talking about what hes experiencing. This applies to 50 cent as well.
Solja boy kept it real on his cd by making party records and talking about cranking a nut in girls faces lol.
I just wanted to make it clear that underground doesnt equal real and that u can be the most finacially succesful rapper and still be real.
As for underground, in all reality, underground means not mainstream. that simple. MF DOOM wouldnt be the big man of the underground if he was on MTV with million dollar videos and a huge budget for promotion.
In fact, one of the biggest elements of the underground sene is battling, and for the past few years battle rapping has been rejuvinated by the internet. honestly i already know that not to many people who will read this will know about the battle sene right now, but i suggest everyone start looking into it cuz its crazy, and theres a ridiculous amount of talent in so many of these guys.
steven, you should look at it like this, your saying that the underground rap sene is dead, and u put blame on the internet. i dont agree. the internet has made the rap sene like a free for all, like in the dave chappell skit “what if the internet was a place u can go” imagen that mall but with only rappers, thats wat the game is kinda like now lol. but at the same time think about this, to truly get notice now, as a rapper u have no choice but to be on ur A game all the time, so ppl who are trying to get in the game are forced to have some level of talent to get noticed.
the internet fucked up madd shit, the magazines industry, the newspaper industry and the music industry are just a few examples. and i want all you college student who are readying this to know…. if u wanna do something in the music industry and u wanna make money, think of where the music industry is gonna go. its only a matter of time until CD’s disappear, honestly i give CD’s less then 10 years. think of the future! lol and when u tell people about this, make sure u tell them u read it on http://www.Benzandabackpack.com BITCHES and if they wanna read more about the rap game to hit up the blog!
I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong, keep it real dudes. Thanks for the enlightenment.
@FilaFiend Nope, thank you for reading and commenting!
respect man, keep these think pieces commin dudes, my new favorite part of the site.
I enjoyed reading this. Dope article. How’s Cuba my dude?
oh and steven, one more hting, the reason people bought the so far gone EP was for support, and htis is something i highly suggest to everyone, if u like someones much and trully enjoy it, then u should go and support the artist so they can stay afloat. i bought the drake EP and never listened to it lol, i did it out of support
Great piece…quick tipping excuse the misspellings too…
I somewhat agree with you…I believe the internet + hiphop mix got everyones head still spinning, it’s moving too fast and people are still making they’re mind either on how to grasp it or what to think of it.
The Drake case i believe it’s going to be the odd case that happens very rarely…I see it like the internet boom from a few years back, where companies like YouTube Google etc. they had the right product at the right time….Drake is that, on this new digital era of hiphop….he has talent & knew what buttons to press and without a doubt, he was in the right place at the right time.
But I believe that the underground is now more alive than ever…and there’s genuine talent bubbling up, MC’s & peoducers with conscious minds and full of respect for the elders, just like 15/20 years ago, people are starting to see that gangsta rap although cool is not the only thing out there…
Artist like Fashawn, J. J. Brown, Brother Ali, to name a few….
I think the internet has the potential now more than ever to catapult real talent in to the Limelight in a few months instead of a few years (just like Drake)… unfortunately it also has the potential to do the opposite, which is what is been happening for the past few years….it’s up to the DJ’s and Music TV stations to filter this in a balanced way….
I’ve created a blog that exemplifies everything i mentioned above supports talented underground artists…. J’s Music Inc. (www.joselopes.net)….if you could have a look and let me know what you think It would be appreciated.
Please keep in touch
Jose