Underground Hip Hop

  All About The Underground Hip Hop Scene

"But through it all I weave like The Parkers' hair
And shine underground 'cause it's darkest there"
-Masta Ace


TSOHH's Underground Hip Hop Database
TSOHH's Underground Hip Hop Database has been a long time coming and it's finally here...well, sort of.

If you're a longtime visitor then you'll know that we've been planning on building a database containing information about the underground hip hop scene around the world. If you have not yet submitted your city/state/country you may do so on page two of the Underground Hip Hop section.

Otherwise, feel free to check out a sneak preview of the database which is still currently under construction here. To learn more about the underground hip hop scene in general please read on.

What Is Underground Hip Hop?

Underground hip hop fans are some of the most dedicated and opinionated people there are, so people are going to love to argue about what constitutes “the underground”…

A simple way to define it, though, is that it is a group of artists that are not in the mainstream media, tend to sell less, and/or have a style that deviates greatly from the norm.

“The underground” is a term usually applied to the collective group of artists with mild success but relatively little exposure…Keep in mind, however, that underground hip-hop varies widely from country to country and even region to region…A rapper can fall into “the underground” due to changes in time, social climate, geography, etc…De La Soul may be well respected and relatively successful but if you find any kids listening to them nowadays they’re probably fans of the underground.

In some cases one can be a mainstream and an underground hip hop artist (to an extent). Usually when this happens it’s because an artist fits more into one of the categories but has music that also fits in with the other.

Crooked I, for example, though signed to Deathrow Records is still pretty much "underground hip hop" but did come out with a mainstream record in his collaboration with Ashanti. On the flip side, the Jay-Z or Jadakiss songs that underground heads listen to are not the same ones that high school girls in the suburbs listen to.

The Scene: The underground hip hop scene consists of street corner ciphers, battle tournaments, selling CD’s out of trunks, “mixtapes”, performances at local clubs/schools/fairs, college radio, you name it…

In the last few years The Internet has been bringing tremendous exposure to underground hip hop artists by allowing them to sell more easily and to a wider audience, by giving a forum to fans from around the globe to interact and learn about lesser-known artists from other regions, and perhaps most importantly by allowing eager fans to cultivate an underground that is increasingly separating itself from mainstream hip-hop. The Internet is also a means for hip-hop fans to anonymously practice their rhyme skills and potentially get deeper into the game…thus, jumping into the underground scene and increasing the pool of underground hip hop artists.

Who Is Underground Hip Hop?

For simplicity's sake we've created three (rough) categories for underground hip hop artists. Keep in mind that being classified into one of these categories is not necessarily permanent.

1) Rappers who have found their niche and are satisfied. It is rare to find a rapper who will admit to being “satisfied” with being underground, but many have learned to be just that. Many make a very decent living from their craft and are pretty much content to be where they’re at, not sweating making it big. To be fair, these rappers know that they have achieved a level of success that many aspiring rappers never achieve at all. To these underground artists it is many times more satisfying and even sometimes more profitable, to cut out middle-men and keep a larger percentage of their revenue from sales, albeit from a smaller market.

2) Rappers who want to "blow-up" but don’t want to (or can’t) change their style to adapt to a mainstream audience. A lot of times rappers in this situation want to make it on MTV and the whole 9 yards but want to force their current style onto the mainstream. While a rapper can and should always be true to themselves, artists should have an understanding of the basic things that people who buy their records are looking for (We’ll leave that for another section). Needless to say, these rappers usually get “stuck” in the underground against their will for failure to plan, among other things.

3) Come-ups. These are rappers that have a well thought-out and prepared plan for success which includes coming up through the underground hip-hop scene. Sometimes these are rappers who are signed to a record label and are guided in the process, other times it is done in a more independent fashion. Journalist, for example, is an underground rapper who was signed to Universal Records, had an impressive debut on Canibus’ “2000 B.C.” album…but was unable to break into the mainstream when his own album finally dropped…Cassidy is another example of a rapper who came up battling in the underground hip hop scene before he made it big. Keep in mind that “come-up” rappers are not guaranteed fame.

Note: Mainstream rappers can and do occasionally drop records that appeal more to undergound hip hop fans (sometimes genuinely, sometimes as a promotional stunt). This falls into the gray area between mainstream and underground hip hop. Furthermore, some rappers such as Talib Kweli still have a largely underground fan base and are considered underground while enjoying a fair amount of mainstream success.

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