Everyone starts somewhere in their career, but if you’re pursuing a career in Hip Hip chances are you started in the Underground. Although the term “Underground rap” has taken different forms throughout the years, the mentality that started it all is still alive.
Hip Hop’s origins stem from the tough streets of one of New York’s toughest burrows, Bronx. Clive Campbell a.k.a DJ Kool Herc is credited to be the founding father of Hip Hop after he famously spun two records at the same time, while repeating percussion beats from popular songs. This later became known as “cutting a record”. Whether Campbell realized it or not that one amateur move lead to birthing some of the worlds greatest musical talents. Each wanting to add their own unique touch to this new thing called Hip Hop.
It’s clear that Hip Hop has evolved from the basement Campbell’s parent’s house, but the distinction between what became known as the “industry” and the “underground” is based mostly upon the capitalization of Hip Hop. After Kurtis Blow became the first rapper signed to a major record (Mercury Records), Hip Hop became less about being unique and more about what would sell.
As the years went on and the internet became more immersed into Hip Hop and independent artist began to gain control over the things that separated their music from the general masses such as distribution. The ideology that artists should separate themselves from anything mainstream used to be considered “Underground Hip Hop”, but as the barriers of distribution in Hip Hop began to dwindle, in a way so did the barriers amongst artists in Hip Hop.
According to the MIDiA, in 2020 independent labels and artist “strongly over-performed” in the streaming market, by collectively growing 27%. Major labels saw odds a slight 1.5% decrease, but was continuous of an ongoing trend.
I asked up and coming manager in the underground Hip-Hip scene, Hakim Henderson what the biggest difference was in his opinion between the Hip Hop “industry” and the underground. Although his original answer was simple, it still held weight, “work”. Henderson later on went to explain how major labels have the resources to be able to distribute tasks needed for artists to sell records.
This can range from marketing, touring, studio time, and other critical aspects of an artists promotion and development. This creates a have and the have nots case between artists who are signed to Major record labels like Universal Music and independent artists, or those signed to smaller know label.
The evolution of platforms like Tidal, SoundExchange, and TikTok have been crucial to continuing the trend of giving artists complete control over their content. Tidal pays their artists 3x the amount as Spotify, at $9.27 per 1000 streams. SounndExchange pays their Artist 45% of the earning from their music, while also paying 5% to the featured artist on the song. Although the current Underground Hip Hop scene isn’t what it used to be, it continues to be produce the generations next great poets and musical minds.
Comments