underground rap | Musicosity

underground rap

Rakaa

Born Rakaa Taylor in Los Angeles, California, Rakaa (aka Iriscience) is a MC, and one third of the renown west-coast underground crew Dilated Peoples. In 2010 he released his first solo album, Crown Of Thorns. Aside from rapping, Rakaa's passions run deep: stretching from visual arts to training Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to traveling the world as a highly sought after Host and MC, all in his spare time.

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Kool Keith

An original member of New York's pioneers the Ultramagnetic MC's, "Kool" Keith Thornton is best known as a solo rapper. His signature style is stream-of-consciousness lyrical flow and complex vocals, two skills that earn him a perennial nod from the underground community. The average Kool Keith album is peppered with bizarre, disjointed, even delusional or disassociated themes, concepts, and references. Nearly all of his albums incorporate a satirical dislike for more commercialized strains of hip-hop, as well as major record labels.

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Norman

There are at least four bands and one dj with the name Norman: Norman is a band defined by its surroundings: the green, lush, and often soggy landscapes of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. An aesthetic layered with fields and farms, trees and hills, the valley is sandwiched between two mountain ranges and extends North to Portland, Oregon. Norman’s sophomore full-length, Hay, Hay, Make a Wish and Turn Away conjures images of a flatbed pickup rambling down a dusty country road on a warm Summer evening.

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Poison Pen

Rhyming is an art form. Just like painting, dancing and hustling. If you don't know the techniques of the genre you can easily be swept off your feet. Enter Hip Hop staple, Poison Pen, a battle MC turned street prophet. The Brooklynite started in 1996 at the first online radio station 88HipHop.com, before tearing through the streets as the undefeated champ of the NYC MC battle circuit. After participating in the Blaze Battle...

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Icon the Mic King

iCON the Mic King - Catalyst of a Renaissance iCON the Mic King is not a movement. No one man is. Instead, he is the catalyst for a crusade much bigger than himself. A Renaissance is approaching. It’s a Renaissance linked to a culture that spans over a quarter century’s time. A generational art form, that rose to prominence in a well-documented creative surge in the late 80’s. A culture that achieved economic importance in the trend-minded upswing of hip hop’s popularity in the mid to late 90’s.

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Freestyle

There is more than one artist with the name Freestyle: 1. One of the most prolific and influential of the '80s electro artists, Miami-based producer Tony Butler recorded a string of popular club tracks on Power/Jam Packed and his own Music Specialist label in the mid-'80s, helping build the electro legacy that would give birth to Miami-style bass music and freestyle (named after Butler's primary pseudonym), as well as influence '90s post-techno artists such as Autechre and Biochip C.

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