![]() “Arrested Development took the light, funky sound of the Native Tongues school of hip-hop, blended in the folk-blues instrumentation of their native South (harmonica, acoustic guitars), added uplifting, gospel-tinged lyrics, and became one of the most successful crossover acts in rap.” ![]() “A Tribe Called Quest blazed alternative rap trails with a laid-back, witty, progressive style as well as innovative beats and enlightened lyrics that paved the way for the “jazz rap” of Digable Planets, Jungle Brothers, Us3 and other outside-the-box hip-hop artists.” ģ) Arrested Development – Tennessee (1992) ![]() With its middle-class suburban Long Island roots, light rhythms, laid-back raps, thoughtfully irreverent lyrics, esoteric sampling, and quasi-hippie attitude, De La Soul paved the way for a steady stream of adventurous “alternative” rap groups.” Ģ) A Tribe Called Quest – Can I Kick It (1991) “De La Soul made rap history as one of the first groups to go against the hip-hop grain of macho braggadocio, hectoring social comment and mammoth beats, all while winning respect and acclaim from inside and outside of the hip-hop community. Since then, there are many more prominent artists that have emerged that have been described as having an alternative sound, such as Common, Beastie Boys, The Roots, Gnarls Barkley, Lupe Fiasco, Kid Cudi, B.o.B, and many, many more. Smooth, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, Digable Planets, The Pharcyde, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Digital Underground, Freestyle Fellowship, Jurassic 5, Arrested Development, Goodie Mob, and OutKast. Some of the first alternative hip hop artists included: De La Soul, Pete Rock & C.L. Since then, alternative hip hop has spread across the globe, becoming more diverse, reaching larger audiences, and becoming more and more popular. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, as the public’s interest in indie music saw a rise, alternative hip hop once again had a revival. In the beginning of the 1990s, alternative hip hop began to enter into the mainstream, however, with the emergence of the more popular gangsta rap in the mid 1990’s, alternative hip hop saw a decline back to the underground. existing outside the establishment.” refers to alternative hip hop as a genre that “refuses to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such as gangsta, funk, bass, hardcore, and party rap” and that, instead, it “blurs genres, drawing equally from funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul, reggae, and even folk.” Last.Fm states that that alternative hip hop “ refers to all hip-hop groups, past and present, that refused to conform to the demands of the international record companies and consumers of commercial, disposable music in all of its forms.” While these definitions seems to help clarify our understanding of alternative hip hop, Pigeons and Planes states that it may not be that simple, elaborating, “a lternative sounds in hip-hop are becoming the norm, and outliers in modern rap are branching out further and further from the traditional boom-bap of the ’80s and the gritty styles of the ’90s.” Īccording to Wikipedia, alternative hip hop emerged during the late 1980’s, during the “golden age of hip hop,” with artists from the East Coast, West Coast, and South all contributing to it’s growth and evolution. To help shed some light on the definition of “alternative hip hop”, we can first look at the definition of the word “alternative’, which is: “ employing or following nontraditional or unconventional ideas, methods, etc. With that said, there seems to be some level of consensus on the definition, history, and top artists in the alternative hip hop genre, which we present below. Some even argue that hip hop is such a diverse genre itself, that to label any type of hip hop “alternative” is inaccurate. What exactly is alternative hip hop? There seems to be varying opinions on what defines a hip hop song or artist as “alternative”.
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