Alternative hip hop

Alternative hip hop
Stylistic origins	Hip hop alternative rock funk jazz soul reggae folk pop rock
Cultural origins	Late 1980s, United States
Typical instruments	Vocals turntables drum machine drums keyboard sampler bass guitar guitar synthesizer
Subgenres
Jazz rap
Other topics
Instrumental hip hop political hip hop progressive rap rap rock turntablism underground hip hop

Alternative hip hop(also known asalternative rapandexperimental hip hop) is a subgenre ofhip hop musicthat encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream.AllMusicdefines it as comprising "hip hopgroups that refuse to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such asgangsta,bass,hardcore,and party rap. Instead, they blur genres drawing equally fromfunkandpop/rock,as well asjazz,soul,reggae,and evenfolk."

Alternative hip hop developed in the late 1980s and experienced a degree ofmainstreamrecognition during the early to mid-1990s. While some groups such asArrested DevelopmentandThe Fugeesachieved commercial success before breaking up, many alternative rap acts tend to be embraced byalternative rocklisteners rather than hip-hop orpopaudiences.The commercial and cultural momentum was impeded by the simultaneous emergence of significantly harder-edged West Coastgangsta rap.A resurgence came about in the late 1990s and early 2000s at the dawn of thedigital erawith a rejuvenated interest inindependent musicby the general public.

During the 2000s, alternative hip hop reattained its place within the mainstream due to the declining commercial viability of gangsta rap as well as thecrossoversuccess of artists such asOutkastandKanye West.The alternative hip hop movement has expanded beyond the United States to include theSomali-Canadian poetK'naanand the British artistM.I.A.Alternative hip hop acts have attained much critical acclaim, but receive relatively little exposure through radio and other media outlets. The most prominent alternative hip hop acts includeA Tribe Called Quest,De La Soul,Hieroglyphics,The Pharcyde,Digable PlanetsandBlack Sheep.

History

Origin

Originating in the late 1980s, in midst of thegolden age of hip hop,alternative hip hop was headed primarily byEast Coastgroups such asDe La Soul,Jungle Brothers,A Tribe Called Quest,Pete Rock & CL Smooth,Brand Nubian,andDigable Planetsin subsidiary conjunction byWest Coastacts such asThe Pharcyde,Digital Underground,Souls of Mischief,Del the Funky Homosapien,andFreestyle Fellowshipas well as certainSouthernacts such as Arrested Development,Goodie Mob,andOutkast.Similar to thealternative rockmovement, alternative hip hop segued into the mainstream at the dawn of the 1990s.Arrested Development,along withThe Fugees,stand as some of the first few alternative rap to be recognized by mainstream audiences.The classic debut albums3 Feet High and Rising,People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm,andBizarre Ride II the Pharcydeachieved minor commercial success as they garnered immense acclaim from music critics, who described the records as ambitiously innovative but playful masterpieces, hailing the artists as the future ofhip hop musicas a whole.

Mid–late 1990s: Mainstream decline

Contrary toalternative rock,which went on to become a mainstay in mainstream music and replaced theglam metalof the previous generation as the most popular form of rock music, alternative hip hop's commercial momentum was impeded by the then also newly emerging, significantly harder-edged West Coastgangsta rap.With its aggressive tone, nihilistic tendencies, and violent imagery, gangsta rap was considered to be the more entertaining, more lucrative subgenre as signified by the high chart placings, radio success andmultiplatinum-selling records of gangsta rappers such asSnoop Dogg,Warren GandN.W.A,who were widely embraced bymajor record labelsand produced a legion of imitators.Albums such asStraight Outta Compton,The ChronicandDoggystyleredefined the direction of hip hop, which resulted in lyricism concerning the gangsta lifestyle becoming the driving force of sales figures.The situation changed around the mid-'90s with the emergence and mainstream popularity of East Coasthardcore rapartists such asWu-Tang Clan,Nas,The Notorious B.I.G.,andMobb Deep.Following this development, many alternative rap acts eventually either disbanded or faded into obscurity.

In his 1995 book on the current state ofhip hop culture,music critic Stephen Rodrick wrote that, at that time, alternative hip-hop had "drawn little more than barely concealed yawns from other rappers andurbanaudiences "and concluded that the subgenre was a failure.

Late '90s–2010s: Revival

However, a commercial breakthrough came about in the late 1990s with the rejuvenated interest inindie musicby the general public due to the mainstream success of acts likeThe FugeesandArrested Development,while acts such asSlum Village,Common,andthe Rootswere rising to prominence.

The Fugees saw huge critical and commercial success with the release of their second album,The Score,in 1996.The album peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart,and briefly became the best-selling album of all time.That same year,A Tribe Called Questreached their commercial peak with the release of their albumBeats, Rhymes and Life,which reached number one on the USBillboard200 and became their best-selling release,while acts such asOutKastandDe La Soulreleased some of their most definitive albums withAtliensandStakes Is High.

Since the mid-1990s,independent record labelssuch asRawkus Records,Rhymesayers,Anticon,Stones ThrowandDefinitive Juxhave experienced lesser mainstream success with alternative rap acts such asJurassic 5,Little Brother,Talib Kweli,MF DOOM,Atmosphere,Antipop Consortium,Mos Def,Doomtree,Pharoahe Monch,El-P,Quasimoto,Living Legends,CYNE,Blue Scholars,andAesop Rock.In the 2000s, alternative hip hop reattained its place within the mainstream, due in part to the declining commercial viability of gangsta rap as well as the crossover success of artists such as Outkast,Kanye West,andGnarls Barkley.

Not only did Outkast's fifth studio album,Speakerboxxx/The Love Below(2003), receive universal acclaim from music critics and appeal to listeners of all ages spanning numerous musical genres but also spawned two number-one hit singles. The album eventually won aGrammy AwardforAlbum of the Year—making it only the second hip-hop album to win the award (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hillbeing the first) and has beencertifieddiamondby selling 11 timesplatinumby theRecording Industry Association of America(RIAA).

MF DOOMhad also been on the come up in the alternative/underground scene after releasing his debut studio album,Operation: Doomsday.He would come back to the hip-hop scene after the dissolving of hip-hop groupKMD.Later, he andMadlib's 2004 projectMadvillainywould be released in this time period under the illustrious hip-hop duoMadvillain.This album was praised by music critics and would forever inspire many upcoming artists, such asAminéandJoey Badass.

Gnarls Barkley experienced a surprise hit with their debut single, "Crazy".Due to high download sales, it reached number one in the single charts in several countries, including the United Kingdom, where it became the best-selling single of 2006.The song was named the best song of 2006 by bothRolling Stoneand theVillage Voice'sannualPazz & Jopcritics poll.Rolling Stonelater ranked "Crazy" as the number-one song of the entire decade. The song has since been certifieddouble platinumby RIAA.The duo were the recipient of multiple accolades; at the49th Grammy Awards,they won the awards forBest Urban/Alternative PerformanceandBest Alternative Music Album.

Industry observers view the 2007sales competitionbetween Kanye West'sGraduationand50 Cent'sCurtisas a turning point for hip hop. West emerged the victor, selling nearly a million copies in the first week alone. Ben Detrick ofXXLcredited the outcome of the sales competition with altering the direction of hip hop and paving the way for new rappers who did not follow thehardcore-gangstermold, writing, "If there was ever awatershedmoment to indicate hip hop's changing direction, it may have come when 50 Cent competed with Kanye in 2007 to see whose album would claim superior sales. 50 lost handily, and it was made clear that excellent song crafting trumped a street-life experience. Kanye led a wave of new artists—Kid Cudi,Wale,Lupe Fiasco,Kidz in the Hall,Drake,Nicki Minaj—who lacked the interest or ability to create narratives about any past gunplay ordrug-dealing."Similarly, in a retrospective article, Rosie Swash ofThe Guardianviewed the album's sales competition with 50 Cent'sCurtisas a historical moment in hip hop, writing that it "highlighted the diverging facets of hip-hop in the last decade; the former was gangsta rap for the noughties, while West was the thinking man's alternative."

Several burgeoning artists and groups acknowledge being directly influenced by their 1990s predecessors in addition to alternative rock groups while their music has been noted by critics as expressing eclectic sounds, life experiences and emotions rarely seen in mainstream hip hop.As traditional rock music continually becomes less synonymous withpop music,more left-of-center artists who are not fully embraced by hip-hop radio have increasingly found inclusion onalternative radio.According toNielsen SoundScan,contemporary hip-hop acts who increasingly receive domestic airplay on alt-radio includeRun the Jewels,Childish Gambino,Logic,Brockhampton,L.I.F.T.andnothing, nowhere.Regarding audiences, according to Jeff Regan, senior director of music programming for theAlt Nationchannel onSirius XM Radio,"This generation has maybe never even gone to arecord storeor CD store where there was a hip-hop section and arocksection—it has all been in front of them on a screen. "Thus recording artists and groups traditionally perceived as rappers are included on his predominantlyrock-oriented playlists. He said, "Whether it'sLil Peepor Brockhampton orPost Malone,we have tried records from all those artists.... We need some depth perception in the music we're presenting. Whether it's done on a laptop or on anampand a guitar, I just want to find something new—that's what alternative is supposed to be. "

Reception and legacy

While some groups achieved commercial success, most alternative rap acts tended to be embraced largely byalternative rocklisteners andindie musicfans rather than hip-hop orpopaudiences.Artists receive limited exposure throughcommercial radioand other media outlets and primarily rely oncampus radioand variousindependent mediachannels.Alternative hip hop is the recipient of consistent critical acclaim but is generally shunned by Americanmainstream mediaand widely regarded as commercially unappealing.New York radio personality andspoken wordartistImhotep Gary Byrd's single "The Crown" was rejected by American radio stations for being "too Black and too positive."However, the song was very well received and become a hit in Europe.It reached number 6 on theUK Singles Chart,becoming the longest record ever to reach the top 10 in the history of the British Charts.Over the years, multiple organizations representing African Americans such as the National Black Leadership Alliance and theNational Congress of Black Womenhave released statements criticizing howurbanradio stations refuse to play rap music that does not demean and degrade black women, shunning alternative hip-hop artists such asArrested DevelopmentandDead Prez.Q-Tip,frontman of the highly influential alternative rap groupA Tribe Called Quest,had his sophomore solo effort,Kamaal the Abstract,shelved for nearly a decade after his record label deemed the genre-bending album as sounding uncommercial.Q-Tipsaid:

I am really disappointed thatKamaalwasn't released.LA Reiddidn't know what to do with it; then, three years later, they releaseOutkast.What Outkast is doing now, those are the kinds of sounds that are onKamaal the Abstract.Maybe even a little more out.Kamaalwas just me, guerrilla.

Similarly,BETinfamously refused to play "Lovin' It", thelead singleofNorth Carolina-based alt-rap duoLittle Brother's socio-politically chargedconcept albumThe Minstrel Show,which provided a tongue-in-cheek critique of African American pop culture, on the grounds that the group's music was "too intelligent" for their target audience.The network was subsequently satirized by the animated seriesThe Boondocks– which regularly features underground/alternative rap asbackground music– in the banned episode "The Hunger Strike".The episode, which portrayed BET as an evil organization dedicated to the self-genocidal mission of eradicating black people through violent, overtly sexual programming, was banned byCartoon Networkand has yet to be aired in the United States.

The alternative hip hop movement is not limited solely to the United States, as genre-defying rappers such asSomali-Canadian poetK'naanand especially British artistM.I.A.have achieved considerable worldwide recognition. K'naan's 2009 single "Wavin' Flag"reached number two on theCanadian Hot 100while its various remixes topped the charts in several countries. Shing02 was chosen for rapping "Battlecry", the theme song of the hithip-hop-influencedchanbaraanimeSamurai Champloo,which was produced by Japanesejazz rapDJNujabes.Timemagazine placed M.I.A in theTime100list of "World's Most Influential people" for having "global influence across many genres."Groups like the British virtual bandGorillazalso experienced mainstream popularity during this time, selling over 20 million albums total between the albumsGorillazandDemon Days.Today, due in part to the increasing use ofsocial networkingas well asonline distribution,many alternative rap artists are finding acceptance by far-reaching audiences.

See also

• List of alternative hip hop artists

Further reading

• Christgau, Robert(March 2, 1993)."Between a Rock and a Hard Place".The Village Voice.

Bibliography

• Asante Jr., M. K.(September 16, 2008).It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation.St. Martin's Press.ISBN978-0312373269.
• Rodrick, Stephen(March 1, 1995). "Hip-Hop Flop: The Failure of Liberal Rap". In Adam Sexton (ed.).Rap on Rap: Straight-up Talk on Hip-Hop Culture.Delta.ISBN0385312474.