| Alternative hip hop | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Hip hop, jazz, funk, reggae, alternative rock, electronic music, psychedelia |
| Cultural origins | Late 1980s in the United States |
| Typical instruments | Vocals–turntable-drum machine-keyboards- sampler-synthesizer |
| Mainstream popularity | High during the early–mid 1990s; low but existent late 1990s to mid 2000s; high since then. |
| Derivative forms | Underground hip hop – trip hop – neo-soul |
| Subgenres | |
| Jazz rap | |
Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a sub-genre of hip hop music. Allmusic defines it as follows:
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Originating in the late-80s, in midst of the Golden age of hip hop, alternative hip hop was headed primarily by East Coast rappers such as De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, and Digable Planets in subsidiary conjunction by West Coast acts such as The Pharcyde, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Digital Underground, Freestyle Fellowship and Jurassic 5 as well as certain Southern acts such as Arrested Development, Goodie Mob, and OutKast. Similar to the alternative rock movement, alternative hip hop segued into the mainstream at the dawn of the 1990s. Arrested Development along with The Fugees, stand as the some of the first few alternative rap groups to be recognized by mainstream audiences.[1] The classic debut albums 3 Feet High and Rising, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, and Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde achieved minor commercial success as they garnered immense acclaim from music critics, who described the records as managing to be both ambitiously innovative but playful masterpieces, hailing the artists as the future of hip hop music as a whole.[2] Christened as "The Sgt. Pepper of hip hop", De La Soul's debut album 3 Feet High and Rising was considered the forefront of the sub-genre. As music critic Jon Bush wrote in retrospect:
The most inventive, assured, and playful debut in hip-hop history, 3 Feet High and Rising not only proved that rappers didn't have to talk about the streets to succeed, but also expanded the palette of sampling material with a kaleidoscope of sounds and references culled from pop, soul, disco, and even country music. Weaving clever wordplay and deft rhymes across two dozen tracks loosely organized around a game-show theme, De La Soul broke down boundaries all over the LP, moving easily from the groovy my-philosophy intro "The Magic Number" to an intelligent, caring inner-city vignette named "Ghetto Thang" to the freewheeling end-of-innocence tale "Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)." Rappers Posdnuos and Trugoy the Dove talked about anything they wanted (up to and including body odor), playing fast and loose on the mic like Biz Markie. Thinly disguised under a layer of humor, their lyrical themes ranged from true love ("Eye Know") to the destructive power of drugs ("Say No Go") to Daisy Age philosophy ("Tread Water") to sex ("Buddy"). Prince Paul (from Stetsasonic) and DJ Pasemaster Mase led the way on the production end, with dozens of samples from all sorts of left-field artists -- including Johnny Cash, the Mad Lads, Steely Dan, Public Enemy, Hall & Oates, and the Turtles. The pair didn't just use those samples as hooks or drumbreaks -- like most hip-hop producers had in the past -- but as split-second fills and in-jokes that made some tracks sound more like DJ records. Even "Potholes on My Lawn," which samples a mouth harp and yodeling (for the chorus, no less), became a big R&B hit. If it was easy to believe the revolution was here from listening to the rapping and production on Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, with De La Soul the Daisy Age seemed to promise a new era of positivity in hip-hop.[3]—Jon Bush
Contrary to alternative rock, which went on to become a mainstay in mainstream music and replaced the glam metal of the previous generation as the most popular form of rock music, alternative hip hop's commercial momentum was impeded by the then also newly emerging, significantly harder-edged West Coast Gangsta rap.[2] With its aggressive tone, nihilistic tendencies, and violent imagery, gangsta rap was considered to be the more entertaining, more lucrative sub-genre as signified by the high chart placings, radio success and multiplatinum-selling records of gangsta rappers such as Snoop Dogg, Warren G and N.W.A., who were widely embraced by major record labels and produced a legion of imitators.[2] Albums such asStraight Outta Compton, The Chronic and Doggystyle redefined the direction of hip hop, which resulted in lyricism concerning the gangsta lifestyle becoming the driving force of sales figures.[4] The situation broke way around the mid-90s with the emergence and mainstream popularity of East Coast hardcore rap artists such as Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and Mobb Deep. Both West Coast gangsta rap and East Coast hardcore and their many derivatives subsequently became more prominent in popular music, whereas alt-rap became largely relegated to the underground scene. Following this development, many alternative rap acts eventually either disbanded or faded into obscurity.
In his 1995 book on the current state of hip hop culture, music critic Stephen Rodrick wrote that, at that time, alternative hip-hop had "drawn little more than barely concealed yawns from other rappers and urban audiences" and came to the conclusion that the sub-genre was a complete failure.[5]
However, a resurgence came about in the late 1990s, and early-2000s with the rejuvenated interest in indie music by the general public. Since the mid-90's, independent record labels such as Rawkus Records, Rhymesayers, anticon., Stones Throw and Definitive Jux have experienced lesser mainstream success with alternative rap acts such as DOOM, Atmosphere, Black Star, Pharoahe Monch, El-P, and Aesop Rock. It was in the 2000s that alternative hip hop reattained its place within the mainstream, due in part to the declining commercial viability of gangsta rap as well as the crossover success of artists such as OutKast, Kanye West, and Gnarls Barkley.[6]
Not only did OutKast's fifth studio album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below receive universal acclaim from music critics and manage to appeal listeners of all ages spanning numerous musical genres but also spawned two number-one hit singles. The album eventually went on to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year—making it only the second hip hop album to win the award—and has been certified diamond by selling 11 times platinum by the RIAA for shipping more than 11 million units, becoming one of the best selling albums of all time.[7]
Gnarls Barkley experienced a surprise hit with their debut single "Crazy". Due to high download sales, it reached number-one of the single charts in several countries, including the United Kingdom, where it became the best selling single of 2006.[8] The song was named the best song of 2006 by both Rolling Stone and the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.[9][10] Rolling Stone later ranked "Crazy" as the number-one song of the entire decade. The song has since sold over two million copies in the United States alone and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[11] The duo were the recipient of multiple accolades, winning at the 49th Grammy Awards a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance and Best Alternative Music Album.[12]
Industry observers view the 2007 sales competition between Kanye West's Graduation and 50 Cent's Curtis as a turning point for hip hop. West emerged the victor, selling nearly a million copies in the first week alone. Ben Detrick of XXL cited the outcome of the sales competition as being responsible for altering the direction of hip hop and paving the way for new rappers who didn't follow the hardcore-gangster mold, writing, "If there was ever a watershed moment to indicate hip hop's changing direction, it may have come when 50 Cent competed with Kanye in 2007 to see whose album would claim superior sales. 50 lost handily, and it was made clear that excellent songcrafting trumped a lack of street-life experience. Kanye led a wave of new artists—Kid Cudi, Wale, Lupe Fiasco, Kidz in the Hall, Drake—who lacked the interest or ability to create narratives about any past gunplay or drug-dealing.[13] Similarly, in a retrospective article, Rosie Swash of The Guardian viewed the album's sales competition with 50 Cent's Curtis as a historical moment in hip hop, writing that it "highlighted the diverging facets of hip-hop in the last decade; the former was gangsta rap for the noughties, while West was the thinking man's alternative."[14]
Although he designed it as a melancholic pop rather than rap, Kanye's following 808s & Heartbreak also had a significant effect on hip hop music. While his decision to sing about love, loneliness, and heartache for the entirety of the album was at first heavily criticized by music audiences and the album predicted to be a flop, its subsequent critical acclaim and commercial success encouraged other mainstream rappers to take greater creative risks with their music.[15][16]
The alternative hip hop movement is not limited solely to the United States, as genre-defying rappers such as Somali-Canadian poet K'naan, Japanese rapper Shing02, and especially British artist M.I.A. have achieved considerable worldwide recognition. K'naan's 2009 single Wavin' Flag reached number two on the Canadian Hot 100 while it's various remixes topped the charts in several countries. Shing02 was chosen for rapping "Battlecry", the theme song of the hit hip-hop-influenced chanbara anime Samurai Champloo, which was produced by Japanese jazz rap DJ Nujabes.[17] Time magazine placed M.I.A in the Time 100 list of "World's Most Influential people" for having "global influence across many genres."[18][19] Bands like the English musical project Gorillaz also experienced mainstream popularization during this period of time, selling over 20 million albums total between the albums Gorillaz and Demon Days. Today, due in part to the increasing use of music distribution through the internet, many alternative rap artists are able to find acceptance by far-reaching audiences. Several burgeoning artists and groups such as Lupe Fiasco, Kid Cudi, Wale, The Cool Kids, Charles Hamilton, Asher Roth, N.E.R.D., OFWGKTA, and Blu openly acknowledge being directly influenced by their '90s alt-rap predecessors in addition to alt-rock groups while their music has been noted by critics as expressing eclectic sounds, life experiences and emotions rarely seen in mainstream hip hop.[20]
Due to its emphasis on abstracted artistry, experimental sonancy, and subversive lyricism, alternative hip hop is frequently the recipient of critical acclaim but is generally shunned by media outlets and viewed as a financial liability.[2] Rapper-singer Q-Tip, frontman of the highly influential alternative rap group A Tribe Called Quest, had his sophomore solo effort Kamaal/The Abstract shelved for nearly a decade after his record label deemed the genre-bending album as sounding uncommercial.[21] Q-Tip was quoted as saying:
| “ | I am really disappointed that Kamaal wasn't released. LA Reid didn't know what to do with it; then, three years later, they release OutKast. What OutKast is doing now, those are the kinds of sounds that are on Kamaal the Abstract. Maybe even a little more out. Kamaal was just me, guerrilla.[22] | ” |
Similarly, Black Entertainment Television infamously refused to play "Lovin' It", the lead single of North Carolina-based alt-rap duo Little Brother's socio-politically charged concept album The Minstrel Show, which provided a tongue-in-cheek critique of African-American pop culture, on the grounds that the group's music was "too intelligent" for their target audience.[23][24] The network was subsequently satirized by the animated series The Boondocks–which regularly features underground/alternative rap as background music–in the banned episode The Hunger Strike. The episode, which humorously portrayed BET as an evil organization dedicated to the self-genocidal mission of eradicating black people through violent, overtly sexual programming, was banned by Cartoon Network and has yet to be aired in the United States.[25] As a result of these complications and more, most alternative rap groups tended to be embraced primarily by alternative rock and indie music fans, rather than hip-hop or pop audiences.[1]