Alternative rap
| Alternative hip hop | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1980s, United States |
| Typical instruments | |
| Other topics | |
Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a subgenre of hip hop music that encompasses the wide range of styles of hip hop that have not become identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as follows: "Alternative rap refers to hip hop groups that tend not to conform to any of the traditional forms of rap, such as gangsta, bass, hardcore, pop, and party rap. Instead, they blur genres drawing equally from funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul, reggae, and even folk"
Alternative hip hop developed in the late 1980s. Its commercial momentum was impeded by the then also newly emerging, significantly harder-edged West Coast gangsta rap. A resurgence came about in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the rejuvenated interest in indie music by the general public. In the 2000s 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 and Kanye West. The alternative hip hop movement expanded beyond the US to include the Somali-Canadian poet K'naan, Japanese rapper Shing02, and British artist MIA. Alternative hip hop acts have attained much critical acclaim, but receive relatively little exposure through radio and other media outlets.
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, Beastie Boys, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, 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 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 some of the first few alternative rap to be recognized by mainstream audiences. 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. 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 subgenre. As music critic Jon Bush wrote in retrospect:
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