Top 20 Underground Hip Hop Albums: In Case You Didn’t Know
Apr 04 '08 (Updated May 20 '10)
The Bottom Line The Best Kept Secret: Hip Hop’s Hidden Treasures
Underground is a term that refers to various subcultures that purposely stray and stay away from mainstream. In hip hop, alternative rap is a genre that refuses to conform to the stereotypes of the established musical cues to be video and radio-friendly and feed the well-oiled music industry machine, reinforcing the formulaic mechanism.
Like almost everything else, the lines are never as clear as they may seem and there is an eternal blurring, mixing and crossing of the ‘established’ boundaries. As such, we may also hope that a good underground album may achieve commercial success on its own merit and not because it was solely commercially-minded to begin with.
“The tale-tale sign of an artist that’s signed
I’m telling, no yelling
With no pre-washed, without Shout: selling out is blasphemy; I write for me
Like I need awards or praise, I raise my eyebrow slightly…
No one to hype me, but like rappers that are but rats in a maze
I’m not trying to get the cheese, so sit back and be amazed”
-Crazy-C
This list is thus a representation of the best of this self-proclaimed underground movement and an alternative to a list of what might be on everyone’s ready-made answers in terms of best albums. My mere wish is that my familiarity and awareness in the matter will perhaps serve to broaden your musical horizon.
Dig up a few of these underground masterpieces before they turn to forgotten fossils.
20. Edan – The Beauty and the Beat (2005)
Edan pens and produces the audio and lyrical landscape of this impressive impressionistic painting. A caveat to this convoluted canvas: this is not a painting easy on the eyes (ears) with easy brushstrokes and plush pastels, but rather a post-modern post mortem display of a strategically mutilated masterpiece in pieces. Once you get used to the knife perforating the picturesque backdrop and the pallet mixing colors that normally don’t go well together, you’re in for a therapeutic, tangential, genial performance.
One song: Beauty
One quote: “I work with the aesthetic of a brain medic
Cutting up the reels with crystal shards to make the tape edit”
19. Binary Star – Masters of the Universe (2000)
Keep this one on your radar, or should I say telescope? The rhymes are dope like an FBI drug bust. A solid seventy plus minutes of hearty hip hop. Check up New Hip Hop for rhymes like “My haikus increasingly broaden your IQs” and then go back to old school storytelling tracks with a modern feel.
One song: Masters of the Universe
One quote: “Challenging us is like playing opossum with a carcass; you could never win
Hoping your DJ specialize in medicine”
18. Viktor Vaughn – Vaudeville Villain (2003)
MF Doom's imagination is more vivid than Heather Hunter. No wonder the villain is Frankenstienien; this time, he created a monster. The album is very coherent... in a scatter-brained kinda way! The music is mild, melodramatic to minimalist and suits the whim of our whimsical and witty antagonistic protagonist. Futuristic Hip Hop on a clock that's going counterclockwise... something, something, c**k size...
One song: Lickupon
One quote: “He did his thing, spoke in a jig slang
And translate Einstein's theory of the Big Bang”
17. One Be Lo – S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. (2005)
Behold OneBeLo who seems to tackle this project like an important school assignment and give that extra effort to get a few more marks. Formerly known as OneManArmy, Nashid Sulaiman shows us much creativity and passion on this album that live up to its acronym: Sounds Of Nahshid Originate Good Rhymes And Music. There are many concept songs that are original and witty. The rhymes are strong and the music is underground with dark beats and precise scratches, but also has some more upbeat songs and jazzy cuts. Very cohesive and constructive.
One song: The Ghetto
One quote: “Somebody gotta help preserve this art form, myself preferred
Check the verse, it's like a magic spell with words”
16. Killah Priest – The Offering (2007)
Priest offers another classic with his prophetic, religious antics. Based on Christian mythology (even if he refers to his brain as a replica of Mecca), he tackles the mic with methodology and mastery. Using imagery and imagination, his microphone wizardry and accomplished accolades that come to his aid make for a fine feast at the hip hop underground banquet.
One song: Priesthood
One quote: “I'm the poet blindfolded; my queen's palms cover my ears
So when I wrote this, intuition was there”
15. One Man Army – Project: F.E.T.U.S. (2002)
Re-released in 2003 and then again in 2007, as a 2CD re-issue, there is no issue that this underground jewel should have wider distribution than its original 1000 copies print. The lyricism is complex with witty wordplay and multi-level references and meanings. The songs are raw and captivating with a few creative tracks like the “The Grinch that Stole Christmas." Put this on your next Christmas list.
One song: Alphabet Soup
One quote: “MC's better heed the words of Tina
Cause we don't need another Hiro-shima”
14. Talib Kweli – Eardrum (2007)
Kweli, which means truth in swahili, speaks the truth on this one. From Black Star (with Mos Def) & Reflection Eternal (with Hi-Tek) fame, Kweli grew to be an essential voice in Hip Hop. The album stays true to its vision, even with the impressive list of big name collaborators. From up- to down-tempo like elevators, this elevates your mind if you are so inclined. Maybe not groundbreaking, but definitely ground-shaking. With his musical earthquake, Talib remains grounded and ubiquitously underground.
One song: Stay Around
One quote: “My people suffering, slave to another chain
This voyage is maiden, like my mother other name.”
For the full review, please see: Talib Kweli - Eardrum (2007)
13. Talib Kweli – Beautiful Struggle (2004)
With conscious-raising lyricism, easy on the ear instrumentals and guest appearances that add to the collage by signing or rapping, this album is indeed beautiful. We enjoy the struggle, the strength and solicitude. Kweli’s attitude is exemplary and manages to convey a picture perfect page in Hip Hop history. Kweli makes it look easy and is a rapper that every one should look up to. He is inspirational and insightful.
One song: Beautiful Struggle
One quote: “I got a nine in my mind that you can’t metal detect”
12. Immortal Technique – Revolutionary Vol. 1 (2001)
After spending a stint in jail, Felipe Coronel had a Malcom X-like awakening, a burning passion and determination to change things. He writes “It took me most of my young life to begin understanding and learning the extremely long and painful history behind the concept of race. That it was built around the necessity to justify slavery and religious superiority for something beyond the visible goals mentioned. It was created to enforce economic and political domination. When I acknowledged that, it shone a light on a great many things.” He chose Hip Hop to instigate that change and created this critically-acclaimed incendiary album with no record label that initially sold 3000 copies in the streets. Look what you can do without a Dr. Dre beat.
One song: Dance with the Devil
One quote: “Your mind is empty and spacious
Like the part of the brain the appreciates culture in a racist”
For the full review, please see: Immortal Technique - Revolutionary Vol. 1 (2001)
11. J-Live – The Hear After (2005)
This album is a beautiful balancing act that tries to show the whole spectrum and that is spectacular upon further inspection. J-Live’s topics are relevant as he raps about art and its influence, parenthood and work, education and its barriers, etc. He also shows and tells us how you can be hip hop without being ghetto.
One song: Listening
One quote: “But if there's 8 million stories and a handful of rappers
We can't all be pimps, players, and gun clappers
It sounds sexy coming out your stereo, right?
But then you wonder why we still getting stereotyped”
10. Killah Priest – Heavy Mental (1998)
This is bar none one of the most poetic rap albums ever released. Priest’s words create gripping images that examines our condition, hope, dreams and fears. Like an intuitive photographer that immortalizes the essence of a moment, he is able to describe the subtleties of our existence with his perceptive poetry and wide-eyed look at the world. Expand your mind.
One song: Heavy Mental
One quote: “Knowledge is the key to the mind which is a mysterious doorway
through a long dark hallway”
9. Gang Starr – Moment of Truth (1998)
Slightly uneven, this album has so much to offer that one quickly excuses its few flaws. Guru grips the mic tight and Premier sculpts and scratches the beat like claws. You’ll find many underground classics that are bouncy enough to play in clubs, but that have level-headed lyrics and intricacies for the critics.
One song: You Know My Steez
One quote: “I'm ready to lose my mind but instead I use my mind
I put down the knife, and take the bullets out my nine
My only crime is that I'm too damn kind”
8. Canibus – For Whom the Beats Toll (2007)
What can be said of Poet Laureate Infinity? Brilliant, ambitious, groundbreaking, earth-shattering, intricate and intriguing? The two versions found here are undoubtedly the two pillars of Canibus’ tenth offering, yet with multiple listening, we ultimately see the art and ingeniousness of the rest of the album as well. Witness a mature poet with lots to say and an impactful way to say it.
One song: Poet Laureate Infinity v003 & v004
One quote: “Take my beloved rap music, erase the beat
Consumers act like they're afraid of intelligent speech”
7. Common – Finding Forever (2007)
Common has a field day with some of Kanye’s best beats and gets right to it after Derrick Hodge’s compelling intro. A collage of carefully crafted songs that bring you places in search of finding our forever. Common appeals to the mitigated morality and imaginary immortality within us. Small and grandiose, from a Grammy night to a street corner overdose, this touches the human in you. A voyage to a place that may never be true… except in our collective unconscious. Musically transporting like a heroin trip in Trainspotting.
One song: Misunderstood
One quote: “Visions realize, music affecting lives
A gift from the skies, to be recognized
I'm keeping my eyes on the people, that's the prize”
6. Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein (2001)
Scream Phoenix! This album rises from the ashes of a Hip Hop Armageddon where one-dimensional emcees vanish in a spell of spontaneous combustion. Constant lyrical wit from the warped minds of these warped times. A welcomed awareness and balance in the chaos of art, individuality, relationship, society, science and abstract thoughts.
One song: Painkillers
One quote: “And they say productivity is up this month but I've lost my passion
Sick of waiting in line for my weekly chocolate ration”
5. Immortal Technique – Revolutionary Vol. 2 (2003)
Even with wider distribution, the self-produced and self-proclaimed Immortal Technique cannot get much more underground than this. He is passionate, articulate and creative. He wants to change the world and we can only wish him luck or join him in his plight. This is a mythical mélange of a wild bull and a bird in mid-flight.
One song: The Point of No Return
One quote: “My soliloquies speak to a gun
Pain is slow motion like trees that reach for the sun”
For the full review, please see: Immortal Technique – Revolutionary Vol. 2
4. The Roots – Things Fall Apart (1999)
This rhythmic, rugged and raw sound is as infectious as tuberculosis; a dose of hip hop hypnosis with a deadly diagnosis. The Roots’ emcees and the guest spots are hot and, to paraphrase Wu-Tang’s Triumph, take relentless attacks at the track and spare none. You feel that almost everyone is in the zone like Wilt Chamberlain scoring his 100 points game.
One song: 100% Dundee
One quote: “You theatrical as a Broadway play, this ain't Rent
One hundred percent, straight out the Basement”
3. Common – Resurrection (1994)
No I.D. almost single-handedly produced this underground classic which gave flight to underground music mostly by being extremely easy on the ears. Common’s elevated consciousness and eloquence do the rest while his amusing cleverness sprinkles the album throughout the musical journey, leaving second-rate rappers on a gurney. The jazzy samples and scratches enthrall and enchant the listener, as Common’s entertaining and empathic essence complete the magic spell this album had on underground rap. As common loves Hip Hop and even writes a cornerstone song about it, we also love Common and are easily enamored with this melodious album.
One song: I used to love her
One quote: “I switch styles like a channel with controls that are remote
Engage in a page, and with words I elope”
2. Canibus – Rip the Jacker (2003)
Canibus’s Requiem in the form of a poem (accompanied by music.) The poet exhibits frailty as he tries to piece together the fragmented part of his life, emotions, thoughts and career and exhibit more wisdom in each few lines than most artist hope to aspire in a whole album, if not discography.
One song: Poet Laureate II
One quote: “The article is substantially impressive, more than a message
A working thesis from several different perspectives”
1. Canibus – MicClub: The Curriculum (2002)
The transitional album between the hard-nosed angry MC and the more “zen” poet who has accepted his fate and is somewhat beyond, yet ironically beginning, trying to be great, finds the right balance in being able to captivate, cultivate & elevate. This precise mix of maturity and unblemished youthful zel finds the listener completely compelled and propelled to heights never before reached.
One song: Master Thesis
One quote: “You can't rhyme forever, there's always somebody with better sh*t”
…
Very true, but well, not yet, so keep on rhyming…
This humbleness and perspective of one’s time and place is what I call Hip Hop redefining.
And with that I wish long life to the hip hop underground and to the underground spirit within all of us. Don’t be complacent in your comforts. Don’t blindly conform and don’t be afraid to go against the norm.
“A resilient underground movement like earthquake…”
-Crazy-C
Six feet under
For more Hip Hop and R&B Reviews by the same author:
Top 10 Rappers of All-Time: A Case Study (Part 1: 10-6)
Top 10 Rappers of All-Time: A Case Study (Part 2: 5-1)
Top 20 Rap Albums of All-Time: A Closer Look
Top 20 R&B Albums of All Time: Case Closed
Top 20 Contemporary R&B Artists Thus Far: In Closing (part 1: 20-11)
Top 20 Contemporary R&B Artists Thus Far: In Closing (part 2: 10-1)
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Special Mentions (DEF)
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Best DJ Hip Hop Album
DJ Revolution – In 12s We Trust (1997)
Best EP Hip Hop Album
Jurassic 5 – Jurassic 5 EP (1997)
Best Freestyle Hip Hop Album
Sway & King Tech – Wake Up Show Freestyles Vol. 5 (1999)
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