Alternative Hip Hop
Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a sub-genre of hip hop music that is defined in greatly varying ways. Allmusic defines it as Hip Hop groups that refuse to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such as gangsta, bass, hardcore, and party rap. Instead, they blur genres—drawing equally from funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul, alternative rock, punk, reggae, and even folk. In some circles known as "backpack rap", "hipster hip-hop".
Closely related to Conscious Hip Hop
Notable Artists
- Aesop Rock
- Arrested Development
- Basehead
- Beastie Boys (beginning with Paul's Boutique)
- Black Eyed Peas (until their Genre Shift to Glam Rap/Pop during the recording of Elephunk)
- Cage
- Caparezza
- Champtown
- Childish Gambino
- Company Flow
- Cool Kids
- Cypress Hill
- De La Soul
- Death Grips
- Digable Planets
- Digital Underground
- Doctor Steel
- El-P
- The Fugees
- Goodie Mob
- Jungle Brothers
- Kanye West
- Kid Cudi
- Little Brother
- Lupe Fiasco
- MF DOOM
- New Kingdom
- OFWGKTA
- OutKast
- The Pharcyde
- Plan B
- P.M. Dawn
- P.O.S.
- Public Enemy (although more Hardcore hip hop, they helped codify this genre and they're often lumped into this category by modern hip hop fans)
- Q-Tip
- The Roots
- Sage Francis
- The Streets
- Stereo MC's
- Tech N 9 ne
- A Tribe Called Quest
- Tinie Tempah definitely has some shades of this.
- Torae when he isn't straight old school.
- Us3
- Why? (alt hip-hop is apart of this band's Genre Roulette, along with indie rock and acoustic folk)