Underground Hip Hop

You’ve probably heard many people say “Hip hop is dead” and “Most of the mainstream hip hop coming out is watered down. It’s just too commercial”. You most lightly have two burning questions: Who are the real underground hip hop artists? and Where can I find the best underground rap music?

These’s no doubt that some of the mainstream hip hop being released is pretty good. After all, these artists generally have big budgets behind them. But have you ever wondered why you sometimes hear new songs on the radio and you absolutely hate them? And after a while, those same songs find a way of growing onto you.

Just to give you some background, one study showed that an ad from a new product or service has to be noticed by a prospect a total of nine times before that prospect becomes a customer. Two out of every three times a prospect is exposed to a new product or service, it’s ignored. That means that a customer has to be exposed to a new product an average of 27 times before he or she will buy. So what does that tell you about the music on the radio?

Quite simply, it means you have a personal musical taste that goes beyond the standard mainstream music on the airwaves. That’s why you fall in love with certain songs the instant you hear them. You don’t normally wait for a song to grow onto you, unless you’re forced to hear it again and again. Think about it. If you’re forced to hear a song that you don’t particularly like for an average of 27 times, wouldn’t you start to know some of the lyrics and maybe even sing along with it? You would, and you might even buy it.

Here’s the slap-in-the-face reality: In our experience, the typical hip hop consumer is only exposed to music that makes it onto radio play lists. It’s not necessarily the best music, but since the labels behind it have deep pockets, they can afford to have their material played over and over again, even if it means using payola tactics to get the job done. This obviously doesn’t make life easier for smaller labels since they don’t operate with big budgets. And in the end, the hip hop consumer is the one that ultimately suffers because he or she might never get to hear some of the best underground hip hop available.