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Was There Ever An Era When Underground>>>Mainstream?

5

5 Grand

Old School Godfather
Hip Hop as a whole was pretty underground until the mid 80s until they started making movies like Beat Street and Krush Groove.

In 1988 Yo MTV Raps came out. Since then the Hip Hop industry has been able to reach everybody, even if you live in Nebraska or Poland.

Since 1988, can you say there was ever a artist or album that wasn't recognized by the popular media (magazines, video shows, etc) that was as good as or better than what was popular?

The only thing I can think of is the mixtapes on 125th st (DJ Clue, Doo Wop, S&S, etc)

The reason I ask is because you hear people complain about mainstream/commercial Hip Hop and how you have to "seek" the real Hip Hop. But it would seem to me that the DJs would play what people like and if something was Poppin in the underground, eventually it will be marketed to the masses (e.g 50 Cent before he blew up, or Griselda)

Was there ever a time after 1988 (When MTV and The Source came out) when the biggest selling, most popular rappers weren't as good as the underground rappers?
 
The early to mid 2000s with old Lupe mixtapes, Wale mixtapes, Wayne mixtapes and shit like Jedi Mind Tricks, Blu, Joe Budden, MF DOOM, JDilla, Madlib, Slum Village and others.

But that was because the mainstream was so bad.
 
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Had to be the golden era….when hip hop became too commercialized that’s when rappers started to do anything for any deal

The underground spoke for itself
 
Every era was like that. Ever since media was invented, the more talented participants of said media were stifled for the sake of the selected few. Hip hop started as subculture, so naturally the safe haven for the overlooked talent was preserved when it went commercial. You look at all the best emcees in any era and more than likely their best work was underground shit. Right now battle rap is the best and purest form of hip hop, and the biggest stars of that genre can barely crack a couple million views per battle.
 
Duwop said:
Pretty much any era depending on what you listened to
Click to expand...

Yeah this... Its also quite a complicated question to answer really with some variables...

I guess apart of it depends on when you actually classify hip hop becoming mainstream too, because mainstream songs like 'Rappers Delight' and 'The Message' were still also underground too but kinda found their way into the mainstream... Same goes for Run DMC, 'Walk This Way' was probably their main crossover mainstream song but they still had loads of 'underground' tunes too...

Also I feel alot of 90s mainstream hip hop was also underground to an extent as hip hop hadnt been completely eaten by the corporate world aside from the likes of Will Smith etc (who I still thought was dope) Hammer and a few manufactured artists like Vanilla Ice etc... It had loads of sub genres too and even within those sub genres artists like ATGQ, Souls, Pharcyde, Wu, Gang Starr, Luniz, Lost Boyz, Snoop, Dre, Coolio (rip) even Bad Boy etc all had foot in both the underground and mainstream markets...

There were still tons of artists with dope 12" records and albums that stayed underground in the 90s but the music was still similar to some of the artists that blew up commercially...

OGC claimed Biggie sold out didnt they??? so it goes to show how still connected underground and mainstream hip hop was back then... I guess because you had to be underground BEFORE you became commercial back then, now you can become mainstream and skip paying your dues in the underground and make a commercial hit with your first song without leaving your bedroom...

Personally early to mid 00's underground was GOAT for me, as it was completely underground and had a totally different sound to what was out in the mainstream...
 
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About 2008 - 2013.

The blog era that cultivated Cole, Drake, Kendrick, Wale, Sean, Wiz, Krit, Curren$y, Odd Future, Pro Era and the lot of them. Then you had the lesser known gems like Sir Michael Rocks, Fly.Union, Dom Kennedy, Casey Veggies, Pac Div and Skeme.
 
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