Alternative hip hop

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Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a genre that is defined in greatly varying ways. All Music Guide defines it as follows:

Alternative Rap refers to Hip-Hop groups that refuse to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such as gangsta, bass, hardcore, and party rap. Instead, they blur genres, drawing equally from funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul and reggae. ^[1]

Stephen Rodrick^[2] cites Arrested Development, Basehead, and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy as examples of such "alternative" hip-hop. In the mid 90's labels such as Rawkus Records and others had mainstream success with alternative rap acts such as Jurassic 5, Method Man, Brand Nubian, Black Star, Mos Def, Common, Fort Minor, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, The Roots, Cee-Lo Green, De La Soul, Talib Kweli, Pete Rock, Outkast, DMX, Dead Prez, Nas, Funkdoobiest, Immortal Technique, Skee-Lo, and Pharoahe Monch.

Rodrick writes that alternative hip-hop has "drawn little more than barely concealed yawns from other rappers and urban audiences".^[2] Heywood and Drake^[3] counter that "making rap music that appeals to mass audiences isn't simply about selling out", stating that alternative hip-hop is an attempt to counter the association that much of the mass market has between (mainstream) hip-hop music and violence, giving as an example the "Smokin' Grooves Tour" of 1996 (featuring Cypress Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, Nas, Ziggy Marley, and Busta Rhymes—all of whom, with the exception of reggae singer Marley, are hip-hop performers who "don't fit the mold of gangsta rap"). Alternative acts have also begun in Latin America, with the rise of Cuban hip-hop group, the Orishas and Puerto Rican hip-hop duo Calle 13.

The Damon Albarn-led Gorillaz project has brought alternative hip hop to worldwide attention, working with producers Dan the Automator and Danger Mouse, and featuring De La Soul, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, and MF Doom.

[edit] References

1. ^ allmusic: alternative rap
2. ^ ^{a b} Rodrick, Stephen (1995). "Hip-Hop Flop: The Failure of Liberal Rap", in Adam Sexton: Rap on Rap: Straight-up Talk on Hip-Hop Culture. New York: Delta, 115–116. 
3. ^ Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake (1997). "Hip-Hop matters", Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism. University of Minnesota Press, 243. ISBN 0816630054.