The underground hip-hop scene in the early to mid 2000s was primarily ran by the Definitive Jux (now currently on a hiatus) label. Along with other record labels such as Anticon and Rhymesayers, the underground was flooded with a new sense of experimentalism and abstract concepts. unfortunately most of these emcees have been unable to produce quality material again and it has essentially become the end of the era. So let's throw it back to the golden age of underground hip-hop.
Atmosphere is the collaborative duo between long time friends rapper Slug (Sean Daley), and producer Ant (Anthony Davis). The two also co-founded the Rhymesayers record label in 1995 alongside rapper Musab/Sab the Artist and current CEO Brent Sayers. Since their first full release in 1997 Atmosphere have been bringing their very distinctive blend of Boom-Bap and emotive hip-hop together. The song "Fuck You Lucy" off of 2002's God Loves Ugly is essentially both a career high as well as defining of Atmosphere's unique style.
We can come to the conclusion that Slug has faced a lot of shit in his life and the reason his lyrics and delivery seem so authentic is because they are. Lyrics like "I wear my scars like the rings on a pimp" prove especially true; Slug has terrible acne scars on his face. Rather than complain he says scars (literal or metaphoric) aren't something that you should be ashamed of and should wear proudly (like the rings on a pimp).
Earlier this year, Atmosphere released Southsiders. This is the chronologic follow up to 2011's The Family Sign, but is incredibly different stylistically to the rest of Atmosphere's long lived career. Seven's Travels (2003) was a departure for Atmosphere. This was definitely a standout album for Slug where he brought more ferocity on tracks like Trying to Find a Balance and Cats Van Bags than on any other previous release. Southsiders, however, took an incredibly different turn, it was Atmosphere's take on Bob Dylan's going electric; changing the sound to try and appeal to a larger crowd. Both worked out roughly the same way. Southsiders suffers from the hardcore hip-hop influenced being dialed back about 7 (out of a possible 10) notches as well as bing misled by a series of poor vocal hooks on tracks such as Bitter and The World Might Not Live Through the Night.
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MF DOOM has one of the most interesting bios in hip-hop as far as I'm concerned. He began is career in '89 with the hip-hop trio KMD (Kausing Much Damage) alongside his brother DJ Subroc and Jade 1 who would be a frequent DOOM collaborator in the future under the name of Rodan. Comparing KMD to DOOM's later work can be a truly nice treat as it shows DOOM as a rapper before he embraced his monotone buttery smooth which is shown on releases such as Madvillainy. Even though it's not the DOOM most have grown to love it's still neat to hear DOOM rap as if he were in the Beastie Boys.
DOOM has had such a strange career going under different pseudonyms and multiple collaborations, some of which I will include just as DOOM to save space and entries. Most notably the Madlib collaboration dubbed Madvillain; Madvillainy was an album that was literally years in the making. After agreeing on the collaboration, DOOM immersed himself in Madlib's beats and began writing lyrics. This spanned for two years (partly because DOOM's eye for detail when it comes to lyrics) until they finally hit the studio.
DOOM's solo output is also top-tier, however. Operation Doomsday which was released in 1999 (two years prior to KMD's final release.) is a sample heavy based concept album based on a villain hellbent on world conquer. Two years later he released Take Me To Your Leader under the name King Geedorah (his alias for the group Monster Island Czars. This was another sample heavy concept album about the monster King Ghidora from the Godzilla series. It has been made public that DOOM will be collaborating with 17 year old rapper Bishop Nehru which has been in the works for a year and is set for a September release date.
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El-P (Jaime Meline) was one of the most influential hip-hop producers as well as rappers at the turn of the century. Responsible for founding indie rap record label Definitive Jux to help out his rapping friends in 1999. Since then, Def Jux has been put on a hiatus and El-P has proclaimed that he stepped down as artistic director in order to focus on being a full-time musician. In addition to co-founding Ded Jux, in the same time frame also put out two albums with his group
Company Flow, produced the critically acclaimed
The Cold Vein by
Cannibal Ox, as well as releasing first first solo album,
Fantastic Damage.
Little Johnny From the Hospitul (Company Flow),
The Cold Vein, and
Fantastic Damage are all unique insights to El's industrially influenced hardcore hip-hop production techniques that would prove to secure him a spot on the hip-hops great list.
El-P continued to coin this style for much of his career including having Industrial Metal superstar Trent Reznor contribute on a track on his 2007 album
I'll Sleep When You're Dead. El-P has remained a figurehead in the world of production by releasing many instrumental mixtapes. He has seen both critical praise as well as some mainstream success (a remix was featured in an episode of Breaking Bad).
Currently, El seems to be most pre-occupied with his current duo with Atlanta rapper
Killer Mike and their project
Run the Jewels. Run the Jewels which was released digitally for free last year is still a prime example of El-P's muddied and gritty production with a more modern edge. Run the Jewels have gained quite a bit of notoriety as of late and is definitely showing this twosome to be the best hardcore hip-hop duo of late.
Run the Jewels 2 has been announced to be released later this year with El-P saying on twitter in the past few days that the album is almost completely finished being mastered.
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Eyedea & Abilities were a hip-hop duo from Minneapolis, Minnesota signed to the Rhymesayers label. Michael Larson (Eyedea) led the group on vocals and was known in the underground scene for his intense freestyle battles which led him to win many competitions and be on the receiving end of morbid curiosity. Greg Keltgen (DJ Abilities) handled the more technical side of the music with production. DJ Abilities also received much admiration in the underground scene for his talent of scratching. Eyedea and Abilities formed as friends in 1993 and put out their first (unofficial) record when Eyedea was only 14 years old.
The first official album by the duo was 2001's blurry
First Born. There is a heavy use of psychologically influenced lyrics on this album including post traumatic stress disorder in the song 'A Murder of Memories' a story about a veteran who was in the war for two years but ends developing PTSD and never recovering. The Dive is another story told of someone who slowly declines into madness brought on by schizophrenia. Then there are just completely abstract ideas represented metaphorically like on songs such as 'Birth of a Fish' and 'Liquid Sovereignty'. This album was followed up in 2004 by Reintroducing.
Then, in 2009 Eyedea and Abilities took a sharp left turn with the album
By the Throat which was largely consisting of fuzzed out high energy rap rock (think early Nirvana fused with Nas). Tragically, Eyedea passed away the following year from an alleged drug overdose. Since then DJ Abilities has not put out much material but there are current circulating rumours of a collaboration between him and the next rapper on the list.
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Aesop Rock is a currently active emcee now signed to Rhymesayers Entertainment (Def Jux previously). Aesop Rock first entered the scene with a clustered and claustrophobic album
Float in 2000. Production was split between Aesop Rock and frequent collaborator
Blockhead. This album is dark and gritty and shows a more experimental edge on his career. The most notable thing about Aesop Rock is without a doubt his rapping. He throws lyrical cohesiveness out the window and embraces a much more abstract and metaphoric way of writing to essentially show of what one can do with the English language and hip-hop. He writes very technical lyrics consisting of referencing everything from cartoons to math to greek mythology to show of an impressive flow chalked full of strange and unique rhyme structure.
Aesop Rock followed
Float with what is considered to be his best release,
Labor Days in 2001.
Labor Days is a concept album about the futility and repetitive lifestyle of the standard 9-5 mould. Throughout his career Aesop Rock has received much scrutiny for his lyrical style which most brush off as gibberish or just saying things. However, when analyzed (via Rap Genuis, don't try this yourself) it proves that Aesop Rock is just an incredibly dense lyricist. Two years after
Labor Days he dropped
Bazooka Tooth which is possibly one of the most ambitious hip-hop albums of all time. The album's production is so layered and convoluted with so many different influences it's impossible to grasp what is happening even after multiple listens. Because of this it is also quite a difficult album to get into and someone looking to get into his discography should probably start else where.
Last year Aesop Rock surprised everyone with a collaboration with anti-folk artist
Kimya Dawson for a project entitled
The Uncluded. This was an interesting mix as it fully embraced both Aesop's hip-hop edge with Kimya's lo-fi folk aesthetic. Aesop Rock has had a fairly consistent career, and no official confirmation has been given on any upcoming releases by the rapper.
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