Home » Music » Hip-Hop Music » Defining Underground Hip Hop

Defining Underground Hip Hop

© Steve Scarbriel

A friend and I got into a discussion on the definition of underground hip hop. A lot of crews consider themselves underground but underground has become a mainstream term like "hip hop" before it and as a result some people use "underground" to describe any and everything. But really, what is underground hip hop and what makes an artist underground? To answer these questions my friend and I brainstormed on the pros and cons of litmus' tests associated with underground hip hop. 

My friend suggested we separate acts by income. For instance if a crew makes more than $100,000 per year, they can no longer be considered underground. My only question was, was that per group or per group member. If it's per crew, and you have a 5 man crew, each cat is only getting $20,000 per year, that's barely minimum wage, so for the sake of this discussion, I decided to up the ante to $100,000 per group member.

Think about it. Labels control how much artists make. If we used income as the litmus test, any group making below $100,000 would be considered underground. I'll use TLC (the most popular girl group of all time), a non-hip hop group to make my point. A couple of years ago TLC filed bankrupcy to get out of a bad contract. At that time each member made only $75,000 per year and that was at the height of TLC's popularity: mad radio play, television appearances, tours, etc.
TLC definately wasn't "underground" even though they made less that $100,000 per year. I used TLC as an example because as a group, they had better deals and received more success than most hip hop artists. If TLC was making a measly $75,000 per year, you can bet hip hop artists make a lot less than that. With this senario any hip hop artist out there could be considered underground as long as they didn't make six figures or more per year. Kinda gives labels more incentive for exploiting their artists. What are ya crying about. We're helping you keep it real. You're the Kings of the Underground = Sell more albums, get less money.

Does not having album make a artist underground? Let's say there's a tight up and coming mc and he doesn't release a single, instead he does mad guest appearances on other artists' albums. Let's use Mos Def for this example...would you have considered

The copyright of the article Defining Underground Hip Hop in Hip-Hop Music is owned by Steve Scarbriel. Permission to republish Defining Underground Hip Hop in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.