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Underground hip-hop

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Underground hip hop (also known as underground rap) is a style of hip-hop music that is defined as being countercultural in nature, existing outside of and in contrast to the sounds, style and aesthetics of mainstream hip-hop. Despite this, underground artists have often reached widespread success and popularity through internet virality, critical acclaim, or appearances on the Billboard charts.[1]

Originally associated with conscious, experimental and progressive rap, the term later shifted to refer to several trap-descendant internet rap scenes and music that emerged during the late 2000s and 2010s.[2]

History

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1980s-2000s

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Origins

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MF DOOM portrait illustration from a poster promoting his 2011 Born Like This tour of the UK.

Although hip-hop originally emerged from New York's underground music scene during the early 1970s, by the end of the decade, the genre began to gain wider mainstream attention, which prompted early underground artists to explore more experimental approaches to their work. In 1983, Rammellzee and K-Rob released the single "Beat Bop", which was produced and arranged by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Though it remained largely underground, the track was later described as a blueprint for the "apocalyptic, witty, and experimental" style of later experimental hip-hop artists such as Antipop Consortium and El-P.[3][4]

By the late 1980s, as hip hop became more prominent, young artists began to create and release music independently, as many were unable to obtain record deals. The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show, a radio show that was broadcast on WKCR (and later WQHT), which ran from 1990-1999, became well known for welcoming unsigned artists on to the show to freestyle a verse, which resulted in wider publicity and possibly even a record deal for that artist. [5]Subsequently, underground hip-hop artists such as Jedi Mind Tricks, Kool Keith, B. Dolan, Diabolic, Immortal Technique, Insane Clown Posse, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Hieroglyphics later emerged, incorporating lo-fi production techniques and conscious lyricism. By the late 1990s, progressive rap acts such as Black Star and Juggaknots became notable in the scene,[6] alongside traditional underground hip-hop artists like Aesop Rock, Artifacts, People Under the Stairs[7],CunninLynguists,[8] and Rob Sonic.[9]

By the early 2000s, artists such as MF Doom, Edan,[10] Clouddead, Dälek and Madlib,[11] gained wider notoriety, which brought the underground scene to wider audiences as well as contributed to the wider proliferation of the sound, style and aesthetics that would become associated with underground hip-hop.

Late 2000s-2020s

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Digital Age

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Lil B credited as "the godfather of internet rap".
See also: Internet rap

During the late 2000s, young artists began leveraging the internet to promote their independently released music through using online social media platforms like Myspace[12] and the music distribution website DatPiff.[13][14] Through these channels, California-based rapper Lil B, and producer Clams Casino have been credited with pioneering the trap-based subgenre of cloud rap (a term coined by Lil B),[15][16] which became a staple and major influence of what will later be defined as "internet rap", a categorization of hip hop artists with sounds and communities that were developed from and alongside internet culture. As internet rap began to gain more traction, specifically due to the increasing popularity of audio streaming service SoundCloud, which allowed users to upload and post their own music for free, underground hip hop began to shift away from conscious lyricism and understated instrumentals and more towards trap subgenres and the heavy use of distortion.

Despite this shift, artists such as Zelooperz, Mach-Hommy, Billy Woods, Ka, Elucid, Earl Sweatshirt, the Alchemist and collective Armand Hammer continued releasing music with the traditional underground sound,[17] building on traditional hip-hop production and an emphasis on conscious or abstract lyricism. Contemporaneous developments in online underground rap during this period, included experimental and industrial hip-hop artists such as Death Grips, JPEGMAFIA, Clipping and Injury Reserve.

In 2012, Black Kray's Goth Money alongside Wicca Phase's GothBoiClique and cloud rap pioneer Bones,[18] would later draw influences from witch house, subsequently leading to the development of emo rap.[19][20][21] Additionally, Kray's early collaborations with Working on Dying contributed to the development of tread music.[22] By 2013, Swedish cloud rap artist Yung Lean's track Ginseng Strip 2002 went viral online, influencing a new generation of underground internet rappers.[23][24][25] The Swedish online rap collective Drain Gang, consisting of Bladee, Ecco2K, Thaiboy Digital, and Whitearmor, further influenced the development of underground online rap music.[26][27]

The shift of underground hip hop towards its online-based sound continued throughout the mid-2010s with the outgrowth of mumble rap, a style pioneered by artists such as Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, who brought the new underground sound to the forefront of hip hop and internet culture.[28][29] Playboi Carti's success in the late 2010s led to him founding Opium, an Atlanta-based record label and collective, resulting in the subsequent emergence of artists such as Ken Carson and Destroy Lonely, who both reached wider popularity in the early 2020s.[30] Due to Opium's popularity, influence and online cult following, the underground rap scene pioneered a punk-inspired fashion style colloquially known as "opiumcore",[31][32] [33] which has been noted as being influential to later high fashion and streetwear trends.[34][35][36][37][38]

Throughout the early 2020s, underground hip hop continued developing its sound by expanding on subgenres of trap, primarily plugg and rage[2] and keeping its culture aligned with that of the internet, with Rolling Stone describing the 2020s underground rap scene as "extremely online".[39] From plugg emerged the pluggnb microgenre and artists such as Summrs, Kankan, and Autumn!,[40] as well as rage influenced artists such as Yeat, Osamason, and Che, many of whom later reached widespread success. The influence of hyperpop led to subsequent trap-based microgenres that emerged or primarily developed during the early 2020s, such as sigilkore, jerk, rage, hexd, digicore and krushclub.[41][42] The traditional underground sound has maintained relevance as well, due to continued releases from the Alchemist, and the increasing popularity of artists such as Mike, Mavi, and Redveil.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Dazed (2025-02-28). "9 underground artists leading the UK's rap revolution". Dazed. Retrieved 2025-07-25.
  2. ^ a b "THE FACE's guide to the American rap underground". The Face. 30 April 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  3. ^ "The Rammellzee: Bi-Conicals of the Rammellzee, PopMatters". PopMatters. May 14, 2004. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  4. ^ "100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2017-06-02. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  5. ^ Scott, Dana (August 22, 2016). "Stretch and Bobbito Speak on the Greatest Hip Hop Radio Show Ever. Their Own". HipHopDX. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  6. ^ Gill, Jon Ivan (2019). "Multi/race/less/ness as underground hip-hop identity in process". Underground Rap as Religion: A Theopoetic Examination of a Process Aesthetic Religion. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781351391320.
  7. ^ How to Rap, p. 326.
  8. ^ Chilton, Adam; Jiang, Kevin; Posner, Eric (12 June 2014). "Rappers v. Scotus". Slate.
  9. ^ How to Rap, p. 322.
  10. ^ Macia, Peter. "Edan: Beauty and the Beat". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2025-07-27.
  11. ^ Chick, Stevie (2021-01-01). "MF Doom: a hip-hop genius who built his own universe of poetry". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  12. ^ "MySpace Played a Big Role in Hip-Hop History; Now Much of That Record Is Gone". CBC Radio. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  13. ^ Michael Humphrey (August 4, 2011). "Datpiff: How Love For Mixtapes Grew To Lil Wayne Levels". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  14. ^ Meaghan Garvey (December 16, 2014). "The Minds Behind Music's Biggest Tech Advances in the Last 10 Years". Complex. Archived from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  15. ^ Kramer, Kyle (2016-06-03). "Collect This Rare Clams Casino and Lil B Interview About the New Clams Casino Album '32 Levels'". VICE. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  16. ^ "Cloud rap", Wikipedia, 2025-07-24, retrieved 2025-07-29
  17. ^ "Danny Brown (US)". www.primaverasound.com. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  18. ^ Rampertab, Bonnibel Lilith (2024-11-04). "BONES, the self-proclaimed 'Graveyard Prince,' mourns life with 'CADAVER'". The Daily Campus. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  19. ^ Pierre, Alphonse (2024-05-10). "Underground Rap Wouldn't Be the Same Without Black Kray". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  20. ^ Rampertab, Bonnibel Lilith (2024-11-04). "BONES, the self-proclaimed 'Graveyard Prince,' mourns life with 'CADAVER'". The Daily Campus. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  21. ^ Brace, Ryan (2021-04-06). "Underground legend BONES adds to his repertoire with 'PushingUpDaisies'". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved 2025-07-29.
  22. ^ Jackson, Reed (2015-11-02). "Meet Goth Money, the Most Positive Crew of Trillionaires on the Internet". VICE. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  23. ^ "Yung Lean Doer Is the Weirdest 16-Year-Old White Swedish Rapper You'll Hear This Week". VICE. 2013-04-23. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  24. ^ Pierre, Alphonse (2024-05-10). "Underground Rap Wouldn't Be the Same Without Black Kray". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  25. ^ "Sniffers". www.sniffers.co.nz. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
  26. ^ "Drain gang: the Next step in the evolution of modern music?". The OSA Telegraph. Retrieved 2025-07-01.
  27. ^ Dazed (2022-11-22). "Drain is officially a genre: here are five Drain Gang albums to stream now". Dazed. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
  28. ^ Turner, David (2017-06-01). "Look At Me!: The Noisy, Blown-Out SoundCloud Revolution Redefining Rap". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
  29. ^ Aroesti, Rachel (2018-11-21). "Lil Pump review – mindless, parent-resistant mumble rap". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-06-01.
  30. ^ Caramanica, Jon (2025-04-17). "Playboi Carti and His Offspring Ponder Life After Rage-Rap". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-25.
  31. ^ Ng, Vanessa (2023-11-23). "Meet the Opiumcore Boys of KL". Men's Folio. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  32. ^ "Opiumcore Has Taken Over The Streetwear Agenda For 2024 | Grazia India". www.grazia.co.in. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  33. ^ "Whole Lotta Looks: The New Punk Style of Playboi Carti". Highsnobiety. 2021-03-24. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  34. ^ Karjala, Anssi. "THE LIST | Discover | Underground Rap and It's Influence in Modern High Fashion". thelist.app. Retrieved 2025-07-06.
  35. ^ Allen, Kealy (2022-03-19). "PLAYBOI CARTI: EQUAL RAPPER AND STYLE GOD". CULTED. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  36. ^ "Lil Uzi Vert Is Redefining Men's Fashion". Essence. 12 March 2021. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  37. ^ "The Style Evolution Of Playboi Carti (2011-2021) | Fashionversity". 2021-09-26. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  38. ^ "Get Ready for the Summer of Ken Car$on". Highsnobiety. 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2022-11-07.
  39. ^ Press-Reynolds, Kieran. "Yeat: Lyfë". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2025-06-01.
  40. ^ Mario Sundaresan; Alphonso Pierre (December 7, 2021). "eoy_2021: The year plugg took over". Sparky. No Bells. Archived from the original on July 1, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  41. ^ "THE FACE's guide to the American rap underground". The Face. 2024-04-30. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
  42. ^ Dazed (2023-02-20). "5 artists defining New York's indie sleaze revival". Dazed. Retrieved 2025-07-24.

Further reading

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