Primary Stylistic Influences:
- Old-School Hip-Hop, Alternative Rock
Secondary Stylistic Influences:
- Soul, Funk, Jazz, occasional Punk Rock, Blues, Country Music and Folk Music influences on some artists
Alternative hip-hop (also known as alternative rap) is a Sub-Genre of hip-hop music that is defined in greatly varying ways. Allmusic defines it as a form of hip- that refuses to conform to any of the traditional genres of rap, such as gangsta, bass, hardcore, and party rap. Instead, alternative hip-hop artists push the boundaries of the medium by blurring genres—drawing from other musical traditions like funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul, alternative rock, punk, reggae, and even folk (though many acts, particularly older ones, do still adhere to a traditional boom bap framework); and focusing on lyrical themes, concepts, and subject matter that mainstream hip-hop tends to ignore. In some circles, the sub-genre is also known as "backpack rap" or "hipster hip-hop", due to its perceived greater appeal to fans of genres like Alternative Rock and Indie.
Closely related to Conscious Hip Hop.
Notable Artists:
- 3rd Bass
- Aesop Rock
- Die Antwoord
- Arrested Development
- A$AP Rocky
- Backxwash
- Balming Tiger
- Basehead
- Beastie Boys (beginning with Paul's Boutique)
- 1989 - Paul's Boutique
- Beck (among many others)
- 1994 - Mellow Gold
- 1996 - Odelay
- 2005 - Guero
- blackbear
- The Black Eyed Peas (until their Genre Shift to Glam Rap/Pop during the recording of Elephunk, but eventually went back to full-blown alternative hip hop in Masters of the Sun Vol. 1)
- Black Sheep
- Big KRIT
- Brand Nubian
- BROCKHAMPTON
- The Correspondents
- Danny Brown
- Busta Rhymes
- Buttress
- Camp Lo
- Cannibal Ox
- Caparezza
- Champtown
- Chance the Rapper
- Neneh Cherry (along with Contemporary R&B, Jazz and Trip Hop)
- Childish Gambino
- clipping.
- cLOUDDEAD
- Company Flow
- Common (also Conscious Hip Hop)
- Consolidated (also Alternative Dance, with pronounced Industrial influences)
- Cool Kids
- The Coup (also Conscious Hip Hop)
- Cunninlynguists
- Cypress Hill
- 1993 - Black Sunday
- Da Bush Babees
- Dälek
- Das Racist
- De La Soul (Ur-Example)
- Lana Del Rey
- 2012 - Born to Die
- 2019 - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- Del tha Funkee Homosapien (Trope Codifier)
- Dessa
- Death Grips
- Diafrix
- Digable Planets
- Digital Underground
- Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy (combined with Industrial Music, bizarrely enough)
- Doctor Steel
- Doomtree
- Earl Sweatshirt (possibly on Doris, definitely on I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside and Some Rap Songs)
- 2018 - Some Rap Songs
- El-P
- Epik High
- Eyedea
- Flobots
- Flying Lotus, including Captain Murphy
- Fort Minor
- 2005 - The Rising Tied
- The Fugees
- 1996 - The Score
- G-Eazy
- Gang Starr
- Goodie Mob
- grandson
- Hieroglyphics (Trope Codifier)
- Lauryn Hill
- The Historian Himself
- Hobo Johnson (mixed with Pop Punk, slam poetry, and who knows what else)
- Hopsin
- J. Cole
- J Dilla
- 2006 - Donuts
- JPEGMafia
- Jungle Brothers
- Jurassic 5
- K. Flay
- K.I.Z
- Kid Cudi
- Kids See Ghosts
- Kilo Kish
- Kitty Pryde
- Kendrick Lamar
- 2012 - good kid, m.A.A.d city
- 2015 - To Pimp a Butterfly
- Leaders Of The New School
- Lil Ugly Mane
- Little Big
- Little Brother
- Little Shannon Dudley
- Lizzo
- Lupe Fiasco
- Luscious Jackson (mixed with Alternative Rock)
- M.I.A.
- MF Doom
- Madvillainy [As Madvillain with Madlib] (2004)
- Mac Miller
- MOD SUN (early work)
- Mos Def And Talib Kweli Are Black Star
- M¥SS KETA
- Myzery
- Rico Nasty (also Rap Rock and Trap Music)
- OFWGKTA
- Oliver Tree
- OutKast (started to overlap with Neo Soul circa Aquemini)
- The Pharcyde
- Plan B
- PM Dawn
- P.O.S.
- Public Enemy (although more Political Rap, they helped codify this genre and they're often lumped into this category by modern hip hop fans)
- Q-Tip
- Queen Latifah (relatively early in her career, at least)
- Regal Pinion
- Rizzle Kicks
- The Roots (potential Ur-Example along with De La Soul, though the latter was releasing material years before they were)
- 1993 - Organix
- 2006 - Game Theory
- 2011 - undun
- Run the Jewels
- Sadistik
- Sage Francis
- Santigold
- Self-Insert passionately fuses hip-hop into mechanical and deconstructive contexts by using extreme digital voice modification and loud, aggressive electronic instruments.
- Shabazz Palaces
- Jaden Smith
- Soul Coughing
- Souls Of Mischief (Trope Codifier, also see Hieroglyphics)
- Space
- 1996 - Spiders
- Spearhead
- Spose
- Straight Outta Oz
- The Streets (combined with UK Garage)
- Stereo MC's
- Stetsasonic
- Swollen Members
- TD Cruze
- That Handsome Devil
- THEE Satisfaction
- Tinie Tempah definitely has some shades of this.
- Torae when he isn't straight old school.
- Travis Barker's collaborative works with rappers usually land here, combining hip-hop with Alternative Rock and Pop Punk.
- A Tribe Called Quest (Trope Codifier)
- 1991 - The Low End Theory
- 1996 - Beats, Rhymes and Life
- Twenty One Pilots
- Tyler, the Creator
- 2019 - Igor
- Us3
- Watsky
- Chris Webby
- Kanye West: One of the most unique examples, combining alternative hip hop with Glam Rap to create his own individual style with a desire to push the envelope production wise on each album he creates, also well known for the Taylor Swift incident.
- 2004 - The College Dropout
- 2010 - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- 2013 - Yeezus
- 2016 - The Life of Pablo
- Why? (alt hip-hop is apart of this band's Genre Roulette, along with indie rock and acoustic folk)
- Saul Williams
