Alternative hip hop or Underground rap is a style of hip hop music distinguished by beats, samples, and lyrics that differ from the general template of popular commercial hip hop. Positive lyrics are often a hallmark of alternative hip hop. Although some listeners may associate live instrumentation with alternative hip hop, this distinction is invalid because popular rap acts like J-Kwon use live instruments as well. Alternative hip hop artists generally have not achieved much or any mainstream success, although they are often ...

Including:

• Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s
• Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s
• Alternative hip hop - The Underground Emerges
• Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop
• Alternative hip hop - Neo soul
• Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s
• Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop
• Alternative hip hop - Sound samples

Read more here: » Alternative hip hop: Encyclopedia - Alternative hip hop

Alternative hip hop is usually said to have begun with De La Soul's landmark 3 Feet High and Rising (1989, 1989 in music). The trio's distinctive style, mixing unique sampling sources (such as The Turtles and Johnny Cash) with spacey, hippie-ish lyrics and a sense of humor, made the album a commercial and critical success. With its inclusion of pre-recorded bits from outlandish sources, such as a French language instruction tape, the release foreshadowed the self-referential sampling kaleidoscope that ...

See also:

Alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s, Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s, Alternative hip hop - The Underground Emerges, Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Neo soul, Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s, Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Sound samples

Read more here: » Alternative hip hop: Encyclopedia II - Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s

In spite of neo soul gaining mainstream acceptance, gangsta hip hop artists like Jay-Z (Reasonable Doubt, 1996) and DMX (...And Then There Was X, 1999) still dominated the charts as the end of the millennium neared. Critics and listeners regarded alternative hip hop as going through a lull, as even mainstays like A Tribe Called Quest (Beats, Rhymes and Life, 1996) released lackluster albums. Many observers feel that Dr. Octagon's seminal 1996 album Dr. Octagonecologyst revitalized hip hop's underground; Com ...

See also:

Alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s, Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s, Alternative hip hop - The Underground Emerges, Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Neo soul, Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s, Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Sound samples

Read more here: » Alternative hip hop: Encyclopedia II - Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s

After the turn of the millennium, as the United States (still by far the world capital of hip hop) found itself confronted by the War on Terror, lyrics grew increasingly anti-mainstream, with some advocating radical actions on the behalf of various anarchist and socialist ideas. The cover for the album Party Music (2001) by the openly marxist band, The Coup proved controversial after the September 11, 2001 attacks due to its depiction of the duo holding a stick of dynamite and a detonator, ready to blow up the World Trade Center (thou ...

See also:

Alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s, Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s, Alternative hip hop - The Underground Emerges, Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Neo soul, Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s, Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Sound samples

Read more here: » Alternative hip hop: Encyclopedia II - Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop

In spite of neo soul and rapcore gaining mainstream acceptance, gangsta hip hop artists like Jay-Z (Reasonable Doubt, 1996) and DMX (...And Then There Was X, 1999) still dominated the charts as the end of the millennium neared. Critics and listeners regarded alternative hip hop as going through a lull, as even mainstays like A Tribe Called Quest (Beats, Rhymes and Life, 1996) released lackluster albums. Many observers feel that Dr. Octagon's seminal 1996 album Dr. Octagonecologyst revitalized hip hop's unde ...

See also:

Alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s, Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s, Alternative hip hop - The Underground Emerges, Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Neo soul, Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s, Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Sound samples

Read more here: » Alternative hip hop: Encyclopedia II - Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s

During the early 1990s, mainstream hip hop was dominated by the West Coast G-Funk (like Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg). Other artists found success difficult to achieve, though some East Coast acts, such as Puff Daddy's empire of East Coast hip hop artists (Bad Boy Records) gained chart success (Mary J. Blige' 1992 What's the 411?) as well as critical success (Nas' 1994 Illmatic), though rarely both at the same time. Al ...

See also:

Alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s, Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s, Alternative hip hop - The Underground Emerges, Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Neo soul, Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s, Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Sound samples

Read more here: » Alternative hip hop: Encyclopedia II - Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s

Alternative hip hop generally refers to a specific style of hip hop that is opposed to the mainstream sounds of gangsta rap. However, certain other hip hop fusion genres are closely related to this genre, including a mixture of 1970s-style soul music and hip hop called neo soul. Alternative hip hop - Neo soul. Hip hop also influenced R&B music in the 1990s. By the time hip hop began to enter the mainstream, R&B was rapidly losing its most legendary artists. While Michael Jackson, Prince, Tin ...

See also:

Alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - The late 1980s, Alternative hip hop - Early 1990s, Alternative hip hop - The Underground Emerges, Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Neo soul, Alternative hip hop - The end of the 1990s, Alternative hip hop - Post-2000 alternative hip hop, Alternative hip hop - Sound samples

Read more here: » Alternative hip hop: Encyclopedia II - Alternative hip hop - Genres related to alternative hip hop