Underground Hip Hop

I've basically grown up listening to Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eminem. While they have some good tracks here and there, I've come to realize that most of their stuff is trash. I'm tired of the slick mainstream style they all employ nowadays, and I've been more drawn to underground hip hop now. I've started listening to mostly Pharoahe Monch, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Star, and Mobb Deep.

So basically I was just wondering if you guys could introduce me to some underground rappers and/or tracks that you like.

Immortal Technique. Atmosphere. Mos Def.

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Originally Posted by WakingNomad

Immortal Technique. Atmosphere. Mos Def.

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^I second those picks.

Also: Talib Kweli (the second half of Black Star, along side Mos Def), Dilated Peoples, Black Thought, Common, Jurassic 5, Heltah Skeltah, Wu-Tang Clan, Gravediggaz, KRS-1, Brand Nubian, Jedi Mind Tricks, The Last Emperor, Loot Pack, Craig Mack, Akrobatic, MOP, Dead Prez, EPMD, Hieroglyphics (specifically Del the Funky Homo-sapien and Pep Love), J-Live...and I can't stress Immortal Technique enough.

O's list is top-notch, I'll just add a few of my favorites.

Doom is great,



as is Quasimoto (madlib)



The Coup are really good as well, but their politics can turn a lot of people off.



You listed A Tribe Called Quest, do you listen to any of Q-Tip's solo stuff?



Also, try to get your hands on Deltron 3030, it was a collab album of Del the Funky Homosapien, Kid Koala, and Dan the Automator.

I don't listen to much rap at all, when I do it's usually early-mid 90's or immortal techinique.

blackalicious (broken arrow), alkaholiks, beatnuts, organized konfusion (you know....the group Pharoahe was in) Thurston Howell the third, RJD2 (he's a DJ, but has done a some tracks with rappers and his style is worth listening to no matter what a persons taste is in music) Wordsworth, Punchline (look for the original lyricist lounge LP) Also the Sound bombing Soundtracks were good too....older the better. Oh yeah...Cannibus, and the Roots (Do you want more?, and illadelph halflife stand out, but just about anything is solid from them) Also if you never listened to it, Fugees, the score is a really good solid LP. Oh and the older Funmaster Flex stuff is decient (60 minutes of funk, volume 1, and 2) OH.....and Keith Murray, and Remans Old stuff (there is a darkside, muddy waters) And Methodman (Tical that's the only really good solo joint he had)