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Originally the hip-hop culture centred around the so-called four elements: DJing, graffiti, breaking and MCing (and optionally, beatboxing). A lot of independent and underground hip-hop laments the digression from these concepts and the focus on gangsta rap and negativity. I'm going to take this chance to expose some artists that I think exemplify the diversity of topics, styles and focii that aren't found in great quantity in the mainstream. Before we start though, I'd like to point out that I'm no NME fanboy who shuns anything that becomes popular - it's gotta be popular for a reason, right?
You ain't a DJ until you can scratch
Most of the time, the role of DJs is simply to provide looped backing tracks for MCs to rap over. But the DJs can equally well play the leading role, some make an artform of scratching and mixing. Turntablist, DJ Shadow's album Endtroducing was a major commercial hit and a world record breaker; the first record consisting entirely of samples with no original work other than the mixing, scratching and talent of the DJ. Some albums focus explicitly on and experiment with the very technical skills of mixing and scratching - Endtroducing by DJ Shadow and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome by Kid Koala for example. Others are more about creating great songs whilst focusing on the DJ's efforts (Cut Chemist, DJ Food, DJ Format & Madlib to name but a few). Jazz and funk fans are bound to find something appealing to their aural senses here.
One area of the underground that continues to carry the beacon once held by the likes of Public Enemy and KRS-ONE is conscious hip-hop. Artists like Mr Lif, Blackalicious, Immortal Technique, Non Phixion, The Coup and Sage Francis rap about more serious subject matter than generally found in the mainstream - spirituality, (mainly left-wing) politics, social policy and economics. The songs they produce are not only fun and catchy but if you listen to the lyrics also very deep and present well thought-out and knowledgeable information on the state of the world today, although some less-so than others.
If politics isn't your bag and you just wanna be entertained there's quite a lot of work that aside from sounding great, is damn funny. DJ Yoda is a perfect example of an underground artist who doesn't exactly take himself seriously. Whereas the semi-schizophrenic ramblings and eclectic references of MF DOOM and Quasimoto use humour to occasionally tackle serious subjects. And of course there's plenty of hilarious smacktalking, claiming that other MCs are inferior etc. which is a product of rap battles - a way in which underground MCs often compete and compare skills.
Of course it's not just the Americas that can spawn great DJs and MCs - Mike Skinner's hardly an exemplary representative for UK rappers. There's a lot more to be found in the underground with skills comparable and exceeding those of their American counterparts.Yungun is one of my favourite UK MCs. What I didn't expect when I looked at his biography, was that he's an ex-Eton pupil and currently training as a solicitor but listening to his tracks alone, you'd never suspect that for a second. Some UK artists like Braintax and Mark B & Blade were even instrumental in shaping the modern underground scene. I also find there's also something quite endearing about the incredibly low budgets and familiar accents in UK hip-hop.
There's a lot of experimentation and fusion going on in underground scene as new ideas are constantly being tried and many embraced by the fans. For example, Deltron 3030 is a supergroup that produced a self-titled concept album that tells of a disturbing futuristic world and a fight against the huge corporations that run the universe. Edan's album Beauty and the Beat used many eclectic samples and attempted to fuse 60s psychedelic rock and funk with modern day hip-hop. This is of course just the tip of the iceberg, there are many projects fusing different genres, experimenting with the old, digging up bizarre samples from the past and pushing production in new, exciting directions.
For me, having the patience to look beyond the surface of commercial hip-hop revealed more exciting new music for me to explore with each artist and album doing something new. I've grown tired of the endless stream of indie clones, where most bands simply want to copy the previous mainstream success, and I hope that my tips will help you to discover more about the varied world of hip-hop.
Don't miss the YouTube links in the article! ; )
Oh, and I really should have mentioned Ozomatli somewhere - kind of a new obsession for me! World music meets hip-hop.
For me this article really hits the nail on the head in some respects. The author clearly loves his underground Hip-Hop and Rap. However, his introduction to the world of all thing Hip-Hop really doesn't do it justice. If your a Justice loving electro kid or a person with a cursory interest in music a lot of these acts are pretty inaccessible and hard to find. And believe me I know, I have spent many hours fruitlessly looking for hard to find tracks.
If I can recommend anything for anyone with an ecletic taste in music i'd go for acts like Wale, Lupe Fiasco, for clever electronic Hip-Hop. If you want to dig a bit of the heavier side of things, there is curently a massive fusion of house/electro and Hip Hop coming out of Chicago. Acts like The Cool Kids, Kid Sister are bringing out great new music, invariably produced by Million Dollar Mano.
As an alternative if you want some classic albums to start your education with the magnus opus of American Hip-Hop is still Nas's Illmatic, closely followed by Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt and Biggie's Ready to Die.
On the UK side all Hip-Hop that tended to be produced in the 90's looked like a poor mans imitation of the American scence, however post garage and grime artists like Klashnekoff and Skepta are worth looking at.
Whats exciting at the moment is the strong movement between genres, your seeing a burgeoning dubstep scene (which is in no way related to drum n bass) with acts like Cotti really putting out quality music that a person of any musical persusion can appreciate
Yeah there's a lot of stuff, some of which you mentioned that I ended up cutting from the article to keep it trim and try not to make it just seem like a list of artists.
There's a lot of hype around grime and dubstep at the moment - musically speaking it's great to see such complex rhythms and contrapunction outside of more traditional genres and of course many of the MCs are exceptional both in recorded works and while freestyling (as are a lot of drum n bass MCs).
It's true that a lot of 90s UK hip-hop was pretty aweful, but then so was a lot of the stuff from the land that gave us MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice and Flava Flave - we're getting the hang of it eventually though 
I'm constantly finding new artists and being recommended acts that I've never heard of before and I'm definitely going to look up some of those guys you just mentioned Sam, cheers! 
comment deleted by a moderator Great article Mitch; anything that tries to get people listening to shadow, format, blackalicious, braintax etc instead of fiddy&co is doing a great public service!
Are there any decent hip-hop nights in york? Or I guess more realistically, how about leeds?
And sench, illmatic? Spot on, still an absolutely incredible album 15 odd years later.
Good work Mitch. Nice to see you writing an article on the Yorker...well overdue if you ask me!
You only get the odd gig now and then in York, Leeds is better.
Check the event calendar at http://www.leedshiphop.co.uk/
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