Underground hip hop is an umbrella term for hip hop music outside the general commercial canon. It is typically associated with independent artists, signed to independent labels or no label at all.
Underground hip hop is often characterized by socially conscious, positive, or anti-commercial lyrics. However, there is no unifying or universal theme – Allmusic suggests that it "has no sonic signifiers". "The Underground" also refers to the community of musicians, fans and others that support non-commercial, or independent music. Some underground hip hop is also sometimes known as alternative hip hop.
Many artists who are considered "underground" today, were not always so, and may have previously broken the Billboard charts.
Read more about Underground Hip Hop: Style, Mixtapes, Indie Hip Hop
Famous quotes containing the words underground, hip and/or hop:
“Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about....”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“He’s a man who shoots from the hip. And a man who’s hip when he shoots.”
—Jeremy Larner, U.S. screenwriter. Banquet master of ceremonies (Pat Harrington, Jr.)
“I have tried being surreal, but my frogs hop right back into their realistic ponds.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)