20 Classic Underground Albums of the Platinum Age of Hip Hop

Summary of the classic and popular underground albums from the third era of Hip Hop from 1996 to 2005

 

 

Jay Z – Reasonable Doubt (1996)

Reasonable Doubt is the debut album from Jay-Z.  The success of Jay-Z’s street-level marketing led to a deal with Payday Records, but left to form his own independent label, Roc-A-Fella Records, with Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke.  He worked with a variety of producers to create a Boom Bap sound with a Mafioso theme.   

Lyrics were characterized by a gritty realism.  Previous rappers had rapped about hustling before but Jay-Z dove into the toll it took on his mind and his search for inner peace, even describing the studio as a psychiatrist’s couch for him.  His description of the lifestyle came across much more honest.  At the same time, he could be arrogant, playful, witty, and maintains a chill demeanor despite speaking on heavy subjects.  Outside of the introspective content, the verses are filled with many advanced rhyme patterns, wordplay, and clever lines that really bring out Jay-Z’s personality.

The album was not an immediate success, failing to go gold in the first year of it’s release.  Many of the singles did not chart.  However, over the years, Jay-Z’s popularity grew leading to Reasonable Doubt being certified Platinum in 2002.  Til this day it remains as Jay-Z’s lowest charting album but is often argued as being his best work. 

 

Twista – Adrenaline Rush (1997)

Adrenaline Rush is the third studio album by rapper Twista, and his second album nationally released, after his previous effort Resurrection was shelved outside of Chicago.  

All tracks were produced by the Legendary Traxster.  His style of production consisted of slow, dark, bass-heavy grooves, wild drums, and running hi hats that were meant for the double and triple time rhyme patterns found in midwest patterns.  Although most noted for his ability to rap incredibly fast the album hits some different topics and styles.  It includes songs that include a mobster theme, raw spitting, and R&B blended tracks.  The combination of slow tempo beats with Twista’s fast rapping allows him plenty of words to work with in each line to get his point across and Twista uses it well. 

The single “Get It Wet” charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 96. Although very popular in Chicago, it had very little airplay or radio play outside the midwest.  Despite being an underground release, the album grew over the years and was certified platinum in 2019.

 

Company Flow – Funcrusher (1997)

Before El-P took the reins of Def Jux and assaulted listeners as a solo artist, he and cohorts Bigg Jus and Mr. Len crafted one of independent Hip-Hop’s most aggressive and indelible statements, an anti-mainstream screed that expressed its dissatisfaction in every ounce of its being.  Released by Rawkus, Funcrusher featured cacophonous, lo-fi beats, to its dense, heavily codified rhymes, to its packaging, Funcrusher represented a complete and utter rejection of contemporary rap, a call back to a bygone era that still manages to feel ahead of its time some sixteen years later. Its seldom a fun listen, but it is crucial to contributing any sense of history to the majority of the selections on this list.

 

Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998)

As Rawkus rode a series of singles to indie prominence, an intrepid duo of young Brooklynite emcees united to record an album that set the table for alternative rap that followed years later. With jazzy production reminiscent of their progenitors the Native Tongues and rhymes fully grounded in the present, Mos Def and Talib Kweli crafted an album that is often as beautiful and poignant as it is head nod inducing.

There is a strong message about preserving Hip Hop backed by an insane level of rhyming rarely heard at the time or since.  Also, the back and forth dynamic from the duo keeps the songs fresh.  You get the two perspectives each song and hear the two emcees do their absolute best not to be outdone by the other.  Also, having half the time forces the two artists to pack more into each verse and make their points faster. 

Mos and Talib sound focused and brutally lucid.  Black Star never preaches, never overstays its welcome, and delivers a concentrated mission statement for two developing artists and an entire segment of Hip-Hop.

 

Mos Def – Black on Both Sides (1999)

Black on Both Sides is the debut studio album by American rapper Mos Def, released in 1999 by Rawkus and Priority Records.  Following Black Star, there was high expectations for Mos’ solo effort and he didn’t disappoint. 

Black on Both Sides features a mix between established and rising producers with boom bap production and an emphasis on live instrumentation.  The lyrics are mainly socially conscious but Mos shows some variety with tracks about love and fat booties as well.  Although maintaining the underground aesthetic and boom bap production, the album was certified Gold with sales in excess of 500,000 copies.

 

MF Doom – Operation Doomsday (1999)

Operation Doomsday is debut album from MF Doom leading him to take the crown in the world of unorthodox Hip Hop.  The emcee formerly known as Zev Love X from KMD re-emerged as a metal faced villain with penchant for quirky, yet strangely dope, lyrics.  

The production included a collection of quirky cartoon sampling, ’80s jazz-funk bangers that laid the foundation for his wholly unique brand of mush mouthed philosophizing.  This official debut had him rhyming some other-worldly Hip Hop vernacular, yet totally engulfing you with his rhyme style and voice to match.

The aura of Doom began with this release, where you’ll either be more confused or more in tuned with how much talent this emcee has.  It is not cohesive and certainly not for anyone that is looking for infectious hooks and radio banging production.  This is for the ones who want something different and clever, something slightly bizarre and brilliant.  This debut marked the birth of a character and a style that stands out in the overpopulated world of rappers. 

 

Binary Star – Masters of the Universe (2000)

The sound of the bitter, intelligent underground. On Masters of the Universe, Michigan emcees One Be Lo and Senim Silla embodied the name of their record label, Subterraneous, crafting a record that fully captured what it meant to be an “underground” rapper in 2000, in the best senses. Sharply written, expertly delivered rhymes, and dizzying multisyllabic displays were spread across 24 tracks that of no-frills, jazz inflected beats. The album’s topical scope and depth set high standards for future emcees looking to craft “smart” Hip-Hop.

 

Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030 (2000)

One of the most creative and prodigious albums of modern times was created when producer Dan The Automater linked up with west coast underground hero Del The Funkee Homosapien to become Deltron 3030.  As a solo artist and as a part of the storied Hieroglyphics crew, Del the Funky Homosapien had developed a name and a strong following for himself throughout the first decade of his career. As the ’90s drew to a close, however, he reached his creative peak by teaming with perennially underrated producer Dan the Automator to create Deltron 3030, a concept album about a rogue mech soldier battling evil intergalactic forces.  The concept has us all living in a world where technology and robots take over mankind and finds a way to blend science fiction with Hip Hop. 

Through this central conceit and an occasionally less than slavish devotion to being a mech soldier, Del paints a picture of a dystopian future that’s more impactful than anything he’d written previously, made all the more powerful by Automator’s epic soundscapes, combining his penchant for booming drums and orchestral samples.

 

Masta Ace – Disposable Arts (2001)

Within his tenure in the Juice Crew, Masta Ace was considered as an underdog of sorts due to how prolific his counterparts were in the group.  After a six-year hiatus he provided a conceptual album that has him being released from prison and enrolling in “The School of Disposable Arts”, while trying to adjust to life as a free man.  

 

Immortal Technique – Revolutionary Vol. 1 (2001)

Honing his rapping skills in jail, and unable to find decent wage-paying employment after his release, Immortal Technique began selling his music on the streets of New York and battling with other MCs.  This, coupled with his victories in numerous freestyle rap competitions of the New York underground hip hop scene such as Rocksteady Anniversary and Braggin Rites, led to his reputation as a ferocious Battle MC.

For his debut album Technique showed that he was much more than a Battle MC by tackling the ills of society in his first installment of the Revolutionary series. 

Viewed as the angriest release heard in Hip Hop in the past couple of decades, he’s walking, talking rage while discussing the disenfranchised of various parts of the globe.  He spares no expense sounding off on political ratfaces and Black jiggaboos in this magnificent release.

For only pressing just over 20,000 units, this album made tons of noise in its rhetoric.

 

Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein (2001)

This is a vicious punch to the abdomen as Vast Aire and Vordul Mega gave us a no holds barred look into the dark, cold streets of Harlem, NY. With impeccable production by El-P.

It sports an inventive, cinematic palette of sounds from Def Jux label head El-P, Vein featured the poignant, witty, and often startlingly bleak observations of Harlemite rappers Vordul Mega and Vast Aire. A blend of abstraction, street wisdom, science fiction and harsh reality, Vein is heavy with dense with content.  Ox voiced that traditional concerns of Hip-Hop could be filtered through unused lenses.

 

Aesop Rock – Labor Days (2001)

This Oregon, by way of New York, act burst on the scene with earlier albums but it was his Definitive Jux debut, Labor Days, that officially put Aesop Rock in higher regards.  Along with favored partner in crime Blockhead, Aesop crafted a set of haunting, full beats that often achieve the gargantuan task of matching the rapper’s lyrics in depth and density.

With ethereal production from Blockhead, Rock had a familiar concept album of the everyday 9-5 working class with, at times, indecipherable lyrics, as he was a tremendous wordsmith with an extensive vocabulary. 

The album expanded on his trademark abstraction while dipping further into his favorite themes such as modern labor, the effects of city living on the psyche, artistic creation and a kind of lucidity.  Labor Days drew a daunting line in the sand for aspiring indie emcees wishing to push the boundaries of the English language on record.

 

J-Live – The Best Part (2001)

This was another shelved album that didn’t see the light of day until many moons later, but we’re glad it surfaced.  With production from Premo to 88-Keys to the legendary Prince Paul, this was a Hip Hop purist’s delight in all facets.  The Best Part is stripped down Hip Hop with no gimmicks, no filters, just a fun ol’ school spirited Hip Hop.  

 

El-P – Fantastic Damage (2002)

After the Company Flow projects, El-P made a solo project that became one of the most landmark albums in underground Hip Hop.  This album went into another stratosphere with electro-fused, thumping production the likes of which mutilated your ears.  El-P constructed an explosive release that was filled with angst, conspiracy theories, and paranoia in such a beautifully riotous way.

It features dense, caustic rhymes and bristling, cacophonous production to match, Fantastic Damage articulated a vision of NY old and new, bemoaning the lost morals of a bygone era while succumbing to the paranoia of the new age.  It is an album both intensely political and deeply personal, revealing further layers on each listen.

 

Atmosphere – God Loves Ugly (2002)

God Loves Ugly is a clear turning point for Atmosphere.  

 

Little Brother – The Listening (2003)

Inspired by the Native Tongues collective, Little Brother provided soulful, everyday man Hip Hop.  The North Carolina trio consisted of 9th Wonder, Phonte Coleman, and Rapper Big Pooh in the early 00s with this wonderful and enchanting debut.  

Perhaps one of the most celebrated indie albums of the early 2000s, The Listening netted the trio a major label deal with Atlantic.  An accessible mix of 9th Wonder’s soulful production and everyman concerns slickly outlined by emcees Phonte and Big Pooh, The Listening delivered conscious hip-hop without pretension, a feat that struck a chord with listeners across the country.

 

 

Immortal Technique – Revolutionary Vol. 2 (2003)

This one was slightly more personal, more introspective, but also more conceptual than its predecessor.  He provides insight to pierce you with stinging lines about the state of the nation as a whole.  Also, it contains a personification of the transportation cocaine that is a brilliantly woven-together track.

 

Madvillain – Madvillainy (2004)

This album resulted in MF Doom’s status as an underground legend and also solidified Madlib’s title as Hip Hop production’s leader of being bizarre and brilliant.  

Sprawling, ambitious, dense, funny, and consistently refreshing, Madvillainy represented the crescendo of an amorphous movement, capturing the inventive spirit of the American underground through a set of uncompromisingly weird and adventurous sounds.  Doom’s impenetrable thickets of rhyme whirled over Madlib’s deepest of deep crate funk to create a vision that had the movement and progression of an endlessly enjoyable cult film, introducing characters, sounds, and setpieces with unmatched flare.

 

Leak Bros – Waterworld (2004)

Almost unanimously captured was a look of awe and glee when it was announced that Cage and Tame One of Artifacts were coming together as the Leak Brothers.

This drug-tinged duo presented one of the most acclaimed albums in recent memory over some of the most hypnotic, yet occasionally jarring, production ever brought forth in the east.  The concept of a drug-infested waterpark seems demented enough, but when the “water” in this case is the slang term for PCP, it makes for even more of a disturbing image.  The results, however, were fascinating and instantly made for an experience that makes you feel you’re as drugged up as them.

 

Little Brother – The Minstrel Show (2005)

The Minstrel Show is the second studio album by hip hop trio Little Brother.  The album was highly anticipated and touted as a probable breakthrough for the group, even before its release.  The title is a reference to the minstrel shows that were popular in the United States during the 19th century.

The album has a running concept based on a fictional television network called “UBN” (U Black Niggas Network), which is a satire of stereotypical programs and advertisements for African Americans.  Many of the skits contain tongue-in-cheek references to black pop-culture in the United States.

When the entertainment network BET (Black Entertainment Television) refused to play the group’s video for the single, “Lovin’ It”, allegedly because they deemed it “too intelligent”.