1980s–2000s: Origins portrait illustration from a poster promoting his 2011
Born Like This tour of the UK Although
hip-hop originally emerged from New York's
underground music scene during the early 1970s, by the end of the decade, the genre began to gain wider commercial success and mainstream attention through the prominence of
disco-rap, which prompted early underground artists to explore more experimental approaches to their work. In 1983,
Rammellzee and
K-Rob released the single "
Beat Bop", which was produced and arranged by
Jean-Michel Basquiat. Though it remained largely underground, the track was later described as a blueprint for the "apocalyptic, witty, and experimental" style of later
experimental hip-hop artists such as
Antipop Consortium and
El-P. By the late 1980s, as hip-hop became more prominent, young artists began to create and release music independently, as many were unable to obtain record deals.
The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show, a
radio show that was broadcast on
WKCR (and later
WQHT), which ran from 1990 to 1999, became well known for welcoming unsigned artists on to the show to
freestyle a verse, which resulted in wider publicity and possibly even a record deal for that artist. Across the United States, several regional underground hip-hop scenes emerged, most notably on the
East and
West Coasts, as well as in the
South, which included the
Houston,
Atlanta and
Memphis rap scenes. This era saw the emergence styles such as
horrorcore and
nerdcore. Subsequently, underground hip-hop artists such as
Jedi Mind Tricks,
Kool Keith,
B. Dolan,
Diabolic,
Immortal Technique,
Insane Clown Posse,
Del the Funky Homosapien, and
Hieroglyphics later emerged, incorporating
lo-fi production techniques and
conscious lyricism. By the late 1990s,
progressive rap acts such as
Black Star and
Juggaknots became notable in the scene, alongside traditional underground hip-hop artists like
Aesop Rock,
Artifacts,
People Under the Stairs,
CunninLynguists, and
Rob Sonic. By the early 2000s, artists such as
MF Doom,
Edan,
Clouddead,
Dälek and
Madlib, gained wider notoriety, which brought the underground scene to wider audiences as well as contributed to the wider proliferation of the sound, style and aesthetics that would become associated with underground hip-hop.
Late 2000s–2010s: Digital Age credited as "the godfather of internet rap"During the late 2000s, young artists began leveraging the
internet to promote their independently released music through online social media platforms like
Myspace and the music distribution website
DatPiff. Through these channels, California-based rapper
Lil B, and producer
Clams Casino have been credited with pioneering the trap-based subgenre
cloud rap, which became a staple and major influence of what will later be defined as "
internet rap", a categorization of hip-hop artists with sounds and communities that were developed from and alongside
internet culture. As internet rap began to gain more traction, specifically due to the increasing popularity of audio streaming service
SoundCloud, underground hip-hop began to shift away from conscious lyricism and traditional hip-hop instrumentals and more towards trap subgenres. Despite this shift, artists such as
Zelooperz,
Mach-Hommy,
Billy Woods,
Ka,
Elucid,
Earl Sweatshirt,
the Alchemist and collective
Armand Hammer continued releasing music with the traditional underground sound, building on traditional hip-hop production and an emphasis on conscious or abstract lyricism. Contemporaneous non-trap based developments in online
underground rap during this period, included
experimental and
industrial hip-hop artists such as
Death Grips,
JPEGMAFIA,
Clipping and
Injury Reserve. In 2012,
Black Kray's Goth Money alongside
Wicca Phase's
GothBoiClique and cloud rap pioneer
Bones, would later draw influences from
witch house, subsequently leading to the development of
emo rap. Additionally, Kray's early collaborations with
Working on Dying contributed to the development of tread music. By 2013, Swedish
cloud rap artist
Yung Lean's track
Ginseng Strip 2002 went viral online, influencing a new generation of underground internet rappers. The Swedish online rap collective
Drain Gang, consisting of
Bladee,
Ecco2k,
Thaiboy Digital, and
Whitearmor, further influenced the development of underground online rap music. The shift of underground hip-hop towards its online-based sound continued throughout the mid-2010s with the outgrowth of
mumble rap, a style pioneered by artists such as
Playboi Carti and
Lil Uzi Vert, who brought the new underground sound to the forefront of hip-hop and internet culture. Playboi Carti's success in the late 2010s led to him founding
Opium, an Atlanta-based record label and collective, resulting in the subsequent emergence of artists such as
Ken Carson and
Destroy Lonely, who both reached wider popularity in the early 2020s. Due to Opium's popularity, influence and online
cult following, the underground rap scene pioneered a
punk-inspired fashion style colloquially known as "opiumcore", which has been noted as being influential to later
high fashion and
streetwear trends.
2020s Throughout the early 2020s, underground hip-hop continued developing its sound by expanding on subgenres of
trap, primarily
plugg and
rage From plugg emerged the
pluggnb microgenre and artists such as
Summrs,
Tana,
Kankan,
Iayze and
Autumn!, as well as rage influenced artists such as
Yeat,
OsamaSon,
Yung Fazo,
Prettifun, and
Che, many of whom later reached widespread success. Writing for
Pitchfork, music critic
Kieran Press-Reynolds stated that the underground scene in the early 2020s was "splintering every which way, from wailing
digicore to
bitcrushed hexD." He credited
Reptilian Club Boyz as being alongside other groups in "the nexus for a new vanguard". Notable artists in these scenes include
Luci4,
Xaviersobased,
Nettspend,
Yabujin,
Yhapojj,
Jane Remover,
Lucy Bedroque and
Rich Amiri. Online collectives such as
Novagang,
Jewelxxet, and Surf Gang were considered influential. The traditional underground sound has maintained relevance as well, due to
continued releases from the Alchemist, and the increasing popularity of artists such as
Billy Woods,
Mike,
Mavi, and
Redveil. == Regional scenes ==