Underground Hip-Hop
Underground hip-hop at Hip-Hop Linguistics. The term underground hip-hop is a sore subject around here. Most websites that rep underground hip-hop don't really cover the underground. Just because you don't hear it on the radio doesn't mean it's underground. To us, underground hip-hop is comprised of emcees without record deals - cats who are on the grind every day trying to get their music heard. Emcees you've never heard of. The list below represents the best of unsigned underground hip-hop artists. We recommend checking them all out.
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Review Date: July 24, 2008
Website: Danny! Website
Label: Badenov Records/1911 Music
Danny! “And I Love H.E.R.” Album Review
“Like them young boys say, let’s keep it real” (credit Eddie Murphy in Life) - the game is overly saturated. Saturated with 60% of wack emcees and producers; 20% lukewarm ones; 15% of those who are “almost there but often overlooked”; and 5% of the hottest, highly promoted the movement has to offer. After listening to Danny!’s “And I Love H.E.R.,” I’m not quite sure where he believes he fits in (not that he should box himself in). But the bottom line is that Danny!’s talent sits at the top 5%, but his name lags behind; and I believe the game is partly at fault. (more…)
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Review Date: July 16, 2008
Website: Core Rhythm Website
Label: Spitmatix Sciences
Core Rhythm “Ronin” Album Review
Back in Japan’s feudal period, samurai warriors who lost their masters were called ronin, a word that literally means “drifting person.” Samurai became ronin upon the death of their feudal lords, or if they escaped their masters. These ronin were often shamed, discriminated against, and left without a means of survival. In earlier times they were even expected to commit “oibara seppuku” – or ritual suicide. Yet many went their own direction, continuing to live the way of the samurai. You often see a similar mind state in the world of underground hip-hop. (more…)
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Review Date: June 17, 2008
Website: Homeboy Sandman Website
Label: Independent
Homeboy Sandman “Nourishment” Album Review
Everybody listening to Homeboy Sandman for the first time will agree on one thing: this guy can rap fast. In one of the tracks from the CD, React, he mocks critics who can’t keep up with him: “Yo sand, yo what’s up with all this fast shit man, slow that shit down man, can’t even understand what the fuck you saying man.” Sandman, though, you can tell, does not take his rapping speed to the limit in this album. (more…)
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Review Date: April 8, 2008
Website: Anti Citizens Website
Label: 2012 Dynasty
Anti Citizens “Tunnel Visionaries” Album Review
When I first saw the name “Anti-Citizens,” I braced myself for another Immortal Technique experience — fiery political harangue and a long enumeration of toxic chemicals that were sure to kill me (no disrespect to Immortal Technique, he just scares the crap out of me sometimes.) What I got instead from their album, though, was stories about ordinary lives and perspectives of ordinary citizens, and none too nihilistic. (more…)
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