During the 2000s, alternative hip-hop reattained its place within the mainstream due to the declining commercial viability of gangsta rap as well as the crossover success of artists such as Outkast and Kanye West.
The most prominent alternative hip-hop acts include A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Hieroglyphics, the Pharcyde, Digable Planets and Black Sheep.
[2] Originating in the late 1980s, in midst of the golden age of hip-hop, alternative hip-hop was headed primarily by East Coast groups such as De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Brand Nubian, and Digable Planets in subsidiary conjunction by West Coast acts such as the Pharcyde, Digital Underground, Souls of Mischief, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Freestyle Fellowship as well as certain Southern acts such as Arrested Development, Goodie Mob, and Outkast.
[6] Albums such as Straight Outta Compton (1989), The Chronic (1992) and Doggystyle (1993) redefined the direction of hip-hop, which resulted in lyricism concerning the gangsta lifestyle becoming the driving force of sales figures.
[7] The situation changed around the mid-'90s with the emergence and mainstream popularity of East Coast hardcore rap artists such as Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., and Mobb Deep.
[17] Since the mid-1990s, independent record labels such as Rawkus Records, Rhymesayers Entertainment, Anticon, Stones Throw, Definitive Jux and QN5 have experienced lesser mainstream success with alternative rap acts such as CunninLynguists, Jurassic 5, Little Brother, Talib Kweli, MF Doom, Atmosphere, Antipop Consortium, Mos Def, Doomtree, Pharoahe Monch, El-P, Quasimoto, Living Legends, Cyne, Blue Scholars, and Aesop Rock.
In the 2000s, alternative hip-hop reattained its place within the mainstream, due in part to the declining commercial viability of gangsta rap as well as the crossover success of artists such as Outkast, Kanye West, and Gnarls Barkley.
Kanye led a wave of new artists—Kid Cudi, Wale, Lupe Fiasco, Kidz in the Hall, Drake, Nicki Minaj—who lacked the interest or ability to create narratives about any past gunplay or drug-dealing.
[30] According to Nielsen SoundScan, contemporary hip-hop acts who increasingly receive domestic airplay on alt-radio include Run the Jewels, Childish Gambino, Logic, Brockhampton, L.I.F.T.
[3] Alternative hip-hop is the recipient of consistent critical acclaim but is generally shunned by American mainstream media and widely regarded as commercially unappealing.
[33] Q-Tip, frontman of the highly influential alternative rap group A Tribe Called Quest, had his sophomore solo effort, Kamaal the Abstract, shelved for nearly a decade after his record label deemed the genre-bending album as sounding uncommercial.
[35]Similarly, BET refused to play "Lovin' It", the lead single of duo Little Brother's socio-politically charged concept album The Minstrel Show (2005), which provided a tongue-in-cheek critique of African-American pop culture, on the grounds that the group's music was "too intelligent" for their target audience.
[36][37] The network was subsequently satirized by the animated series The Boondocks – which regularly features underground/alternative rap as background music – in the banned episode "The Hunger Strike".
The episode, which portrayed BET as an evil organization dedicated to the self-genocidal mission of eradicating black people through violent, overtly sexual programming, was banned by Cartoon Network and has yet to be aired in the United States.
[42] Today, due in part to the increasing use of social networking as well as online distribution, many alternative rap artists are finding acceptance by far-reaching audiences.