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Feb 16, 2023 · Here’s our list of the best underground rappers you should keep an eye on because they are bound to have a big year. We were right about the best underground artists in 2020, and we'll be right about them again in 2023. 1. Kota The Friend.
Mar 22, 2022 · Underground Hip Hop is often characterized by socially conscious, positive, or anti-commercial lyrics.] In this piece, you will find 100 underground Hip Hop albums – no compilations, no mixtapes, no instrumental albums, no EPs – we consider to be essential, not ranked but presented in release year order. No major label albums on this list ...
- Busdriver – Temporary Forever. The Project Blowed member’s debut was full of the most humorous and mind numbing free-associative rhymes one will ever hear.
- Quasimoto – The Unseen. Madness is the pleasure of the unseen, and Madlib’s pig-nosed hippo with the brick is everyone’s unseen. The lost thoughts of a rambling stairwell dweller, or the undine styled under-thoughts of a producer living in a basement studio, Lord Quas was our one and only pleasure of pure id.
- Little Brother – The Listening. For many, The Listening could be considered one of the most groundbreaking underground Hip Hop records of the modern era.
- Brother Ali – Shadows On The Sun. Mr. Ali Newman really hit his stride on his sophomore album Shadows On The Sun. Besides Brother Ali’s way better than average beat selection, the album proved how lyrically far the Rhymesayers Entertainment emcee.
- Madvillain – Madvillainy (2004) Sprawling, ambitious, dense, funny, and consistently refreshing, MF Doom and Madlib’s 2004 collaboration Madvillainy represented the crescendo of an amorphous movement, capturing the inventive spirit of the American underground through a set of uncompromisingly weird and adventurous sounds.
- Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein (2001) Though released in months prior to 9/11, Cannibal Ox’s seminal Cold Vein may as well have sonically predicted the disastrous days ahead.
- Aesop Rock – Labor Days (2001) Shouldering high expectations after his touted signing to Def Jux, Long Island wordsmith Aesop Rock delivered a career defining statement in Labor Days, an album that expanded on his trademark abstraction while dipping further into his favorite themes (modern labor, the effects of city living on the psyche, artistic creation) and a kind of lucidity nonexistent on previous releases.
- Company Flow – Funcrusher Plus (1997) Before El-P took the reins of Def Jux and assaulted listeners as a solo artist, he and cohorts Bigg Jus and Mr. Len crafted one of independent Hip-Hop’s most aggressive and indelible statements, an anti-mainstream screed that expressed its dissatisfaction in every ounce of its being.
- Madvillain “Madvillainy” (2004) WOW!!!!! This was the first word that went through my head by the end of the album. This immediately put you back into the mindstate after you finished with De La Soul Is Dead or Aquemini, which was there’s something immensely special about this album… but what exactly is it?
- Leak Bros. "Waterworld" (2004) Almost unanimously captured was a look of awe and glee when it was announced that Cage and Tame One of Artifacts were coming together as the Leak Brothers.
- MF Doom "Operation Doomsday" (1999) Welcome to the unorthodox world of MF DOOM. The emcee formerly known as Zev Love X from KMD re-emerged as a metal faced villain with penchant for quirky, yet strangely dope, lyrics.
- Company Flow "Funcrusher Plus" (1997) Man oh man!! Talk about a breakthrough release. This landmark release shattered everything in its path in ’97, and was hardly ever mentioned among the year’s best.
Dec 9, 2021 · On this list, you will find 25 excellent underground Hip Hop albums released this year, taken from our lists with The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2021 and Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2021, The Honorable Mentions – January – June & July – December.
Rankings. The Top 50 Best Underground Hip Hop Albums of All Time. Home Rankings. MC WordWeaver. October 22, 2023. Underground hip-hop has long served as the lifeblood of the rap game, a hidden realm where innovation and unbridled creativity thrive.
