Underground Hip Hop

Underground hip hop is the sector of hip hop that operates outside the commercial mainstream, defined by independent labels, self-released records and an explicit rejection of radio and chart formulas. Flourishing from the mid-1990s, when major-label rap consolidated around pop crossover, the underground — anchored by New York's #Rawkus Records# and the *Company Flow* and *MF DOOM* generation — favored dense, abstract lyricism, jazz- and soul-derived sampling and do-it-yourself distribution through mixtapes, college radio and, later, the internet. The term describes an economy and an ethos as much as a sound: artistic control and lyrical craft are valued over commercial reach.