Underground Hip Hop: A Critical Consideration of Subgenre and Scene(s)

The term “underground” is often associated with hip hop in its early and/or most authentic forms. Yet a distinct subgenre known as “underground hip hop” appeared during the second half of the 1990s, largely in response to the corporatization and commercialization of rap music in the US context. In this chapter, I outline the terms and distinct stakes surrounding underground hip hop’s late-1990s emergence and early-twenty-first-century diffusion/dissipation. Following an overview of the term “underground” and the meanings associated with it, I recount reasons for underground hip hop’s mid-to-late 1990s development through local, translocal, and virtual music scenes. This includes considering the different ways underground hip hop came to be defined and distinguished—via authenticity claims—from its commercial hip-hop music counterparts. As part of this, I also reflect on how the composition of underground hip-hop communities intersected with important axes of identification—most notably race, class, and gender—and power. The chapter closes by reflecting on the legacy of underground hip hop three decades after its initial appearance.