20 Best Alternative Hip Hop Artists

What Is Alternative Hip Hop?

It seems in every genre of music, there is a type that is not mainstream and yet isn't underground. Maybe it's fringe, but at any rate, it defies most categories. In rock, it seems, grunge fits into this class: It's not exactly hardcore metal and definitely not commercialized pop; it covers subject matter untouched by both the hardcore and radio-marketed tunes. The sound is different and innovative, not run-of-the-mill.

There is a class of music in hip hop that is not hardcore gangsta rap with its obsession with violence and crime, nor is it poppy dance jams; rather, it covers a spectrum of subjects, from deep emotions to relevant politics, and is infused with jazz and funk, even punk and hard rock, in addition to some very street hip hop sounds.

This music is outside the mainstream and outside the average underground production of gangster beats and obscene lyrics. Truly unique and culturally relevant, offering something for those who've never been inside the box, let alone outside the box, it is what we might call "alternative hip hop."

De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest

The beginnings of it were found in the late '80s and early '90s groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, groups seemingly hippy influenced, but mainly they had the aura of mellow kids that might be experimenting with alternatives to the doldrums and ho-hum.

However, if we go back far enough to the old, old school, we see artists like Rammellzee breaking through boundaries, venturing into unique hip hop art, and defying categories and assumptions. So, here I provide a list of some of the most prominent alternative hip hop artists to grace the scene.

20. Lyrics Born

Straight from California's Bay Area, Berkeley, to be exact, home of the '60s Free Speech Movement, anti-war protest, the Black Panthers, and Haight-Ashbury hippies; Lyrics Born's music is a reflection of this sophisticated and diverse home of his as well he himself is a reflection of sophistication and diversity, being of Jewish-Italian and Japanese descent.

He is a very unique artist; his music sounds like a funk band gone hip hop, with his smooth and deep-voiced delivery and politically and emotionally laced material. Definitely way far outside the box.

19. Macklemore

From Seattle, birthplace of much alternative music, and home to a flourishing hip hop alternative community, he's the Irish Jackie Chan of the mic. He has no standard meter, doesn't rhyme every bar, but his delivery is fine-tuned and relaxed, effortless. The range of his subject matter runs the gamut, from pure party to charged political. He covers a subject not so much ideologically but the way a political protester might expose corruption and social fallacy. Unique, to say the least.

18. Mac Dre

Obscene and unmatched, Mac Dre could have gone anywhere and stuck out like a sore thumb or blended and flowed with anyone from the countryside to the city. His execution sounds like someone kicking back at the party jabbering stuff off the top of his head, and he did it well.

His subject matter covered everything from the pressures of extreme poverty and crime to heavy drug use and spontaneous fun in the street or underground club. Fun and frenetic, Mac Dre is in a class of his own and is everything all at once.

17. Das Racist

This crew of Latino and East Indian hip hop jokers took their name from a phrase which they use in a humorous fashion to lighten the load of seeking racial issues under rocks and behind curtains; the point is to lessen the sting all around.

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With unique and strangely catchy samples, ranging from soap opera theme songs to Billy Joel classics, and with a lackadaisical tone and execution, these guys make head bobbing hits across the Internet. Out of this world and entertaining, definitely outside of the normal parameters of hip hop.

16. Blue Scholars

Geologic (AKA Prometheus Brown) and Sabzi make up the Blue Scholars, whose name is a play on words referencing the term "blue collar." Geologic is the MC (Rapper), and Sabzi brings DJ and production skills to the group. Geologic is the son of immigrants from the Philippines and spends decent time addressing issues of colonialism and labor exploitation relevant to his heritage.

Sabzi is a trained musician and creates mellow, smooth, groovy sounds that compliment Geo's smooth and charged lyrical delivery. Definitely pioneers, covering material never covered before in a way never done before. It's good to see them on the scene. What they reveal with social commentary shows a depth of understanding of humanity's condition, lambasting the overarching influence of corporate America on the psyche.

15. Common Market

Common Market is Sabzi as producer and DJ and Ra Scion, who is Everyman, thrashing desperately, whole-heartedly at a social system that degrades mind and body; and he encourages you to do so too.

14. Busta Rhymes

Originally from the old school crew, Leaders of the New School, Busta has an air of the perpetual fistfight. Or the potential for one. Wild and out of control, he seems like he's always going to tear something apart. And he is able to come up with unique and inspiring lyrical rhythms. He might have broken into the mainstream, but his spirit is pure innovative underground.

13. Beastie Boys

Ad Rock is the comical Jerry Lewis of hip hop, with nasal screams and absurd metaphors; MCA was rough and rugged, always looked like he just got out of a bar fight; Mike D is the smooth player, slinking up to you with that Hollywood voice and B-boy body language. The music is funk and punk and rock; the show is original and entertaining and intentionally cheesy good.

The Beasties are also known for their political activism and association with Tibetan Buddhism. Truly, they have always been unique artists of hip hop, both musically and in their activities outside of musical production.

12. Arrested Development

One of the first Hip Hop acts to hail from the countryside, Arrested Development is naturalistic and socially and politically conscious; they delve into spiritual matters, cultural matters, issues of poverty and social class, and even explore relationships and family issues. Diverse in subject matter and unique in appearance, approach, and presentation, this group definitely belongs on this list of Top Alternative Hip Hop Artists.

11. Nappy Roots

Another group straight from the country, but grittier, rougher around the edges, covering the subject of extreme poverty and the degradation and desperation of it, with a depth of feeling that is unusual and alluring; Nappy Roots gets to the heart of the matter and draws you into a world of debilitating deprivation. This unique crew delivers the goods, and the goods are reality.

10. Dilated Peoples

Outside the norm, Evidence (Rapper) comes up with smooth, exquisite rhymes with surprises and innuendo; Rakaa is political, a warrior, dropping science smoothly in a deep tone, with precision and grace; Dj Babu provides turntable skills and finesse, part of the league of world-famous Filipino DJs that have made their mark on the hip hop scene, with galactic cuts and scratches on the ones and twos (turntables), producing funky, hardcore hip hop beats to boot: This is the expansion team known as Dilated Peoples.

9. Gnarls Barkley

Unusual and unique, Gnarls Barkley is a Zen meditation of hip hop, taking the witness on a trip through traps and escapes of the mind and on to release from bondage to the point you might think you're crazy.

8. Black Sheep

As the name implies, this outcast crew is outside social and musical confines. Aggressive lyrical punches to the sternum from that misfit corner; that would be Black Sheep.

7. Das EFX

Frantic, aggressive, cool jibber-jabber style is what we call Das EFX.

6. Digable Planets

Jazzy horns, jazz drums, jazzy baseline: Did I say jazz? That's Digable Planets. Speaking their own language, like natives sitting around the campfire, relaxed and unfettered, they are definitely cool Hip Hop.

5. Pharcyde

Pharcyde are kids, guys, dudes, nerds and what they go through; easy to relate to, sometimes crazy, always not normal type of misfits: They are extraordinarily ordinary and uncommonly skilled at the expression of what's common.

4. Hieroglyphics

Another group from California's Bay Area, another reflection of the consciousness of their geography. Laid back, smooth, versatile, and diverse, Hieroglyphics lyrics, style, and sound are culturally relevant with a depth of meaning and lay a heavy message on their audience.

3. De La Soul

Pioneers of alternative hip hop, back in the day they were called hippies, though they defied the label. They were also called different, and there's no doubt they are; with unusual metaphors and an unusual look, they seem to express what is the psychological battle and responsibility of being unique.

2. A Tribe Called Quest

Always on a journey to find smooth beats and rhymes, the Tribe finds what we are looking for. Also pioneers of alternative hip hop, they were there at the beginnings of it in the late 1980s. Whether pining for a girl or getting lost on a joy ride, these were carefree characters on a perpetual quest.

1. Eminem

Probably an incredibly controversial selection for this list, a man who cannot escape controversy anyhow, Eminem is maniacal, troubled, and seems to be perpetually speaking to the psychiatrist through the microphone; he addresses debilitating poverty and abuse, family chaos, and social illness.

His delivery is more than clever; it is a combination of words that rhyme but shouldn't rhyme with vocal manipulations of rhythm unheard of before his time. He is not a gangster, not purely political, but he might be seen as psychotic. He is definitely way far outside the norm, outside of any parameters set by society or music, executing a style never done before and addressing mostly untouched issues buried deep down in America's denial vaults. Eminem is a mirror to America's face.