PEACE. Every year, Hip-Hop Linguistics creates two lists. One list contains the top hip-hop albums from major mainstream, underground and independent record labels. The other list contains the top hip-hop albums from minor independent labels and unsigned hip-hop artists. The first list contains artists you’ve likely heard of, while the second list contains artists you’ve probably not heard of.

This is that second list - our favorite hip-hop albums from cats you’ve probably never heard of. The list below represents the best albums underground hip-hop had to offer in the year 2007 from what we consider minor independent record labels and unsigned artists. We highly recommend checking them all out! (more…)

Take a walk down Broadway or swing past New York City’s Fat Beats Record Store on any given day, and you’re likely to see Creature outside selling CDs and passing out fliers. Later that night, go to any hip-hop show in the city, big or small, and you’ll probably run into him again.

Creature is the epitome of a DIY (Do It Yourself) hip-hop artist. After selling more than 12,000 copies of his debut album, “Never Say Die,” directly to fans in less than a year, Creature wrote a book about his experience in order to teach the art of independent entrepreneurship in hip-hop. (more…)

  Rating:
  Review Date: August 31, 2007
  Website: Creature Website
  Label: Coffee Grind Media

Creature “Hustle To Be Free” Album Review
If you were to look up the word “grind” in the dictionary ten years from now, you just might see a picture of Creature – chillin’ outside Fat Beats NYC, talking to a lovely young lady who he charmingly coerced from the sidewalk; with a CD or a book in one hand, a flier for some upcoming performance in another, and a pack strapped to his back with hundreds more inside. When you acknowledge that this is Creature’s daily routine, it becomes clear that this MC is the perfect example of a hip-hop grinder. (more…)

  Rating:
  Review Date: July 15, 2007
  Websites: Creature, Dax-Devlon Ross
  Publisher: Outside The Box Publishing

Creature “The Underdog’s Manifesto” Book Review
If you turn on the radio or sit down in front of the television, you normally experience a certain perception of hip-hop: Big time rappers and major labels. So it comes as no surprise that most emcees see signing a major deal as the only way to make it as an artist. They don’t want to settle for anything less than being that famous rapper on MTV - nothing less than being a star. But in reality, major deals are few and far between. And in many cases, major label artists are still broke and struggling. (more…)