A Long List of Rappers You Probably Never Heard Of
 

I found a list I wrote down in my notebook A LONG time ago when I first started exploring hiphop on youtube. I left out a lot of people like Tech, Brother Ali, JMT etc that most of you probably know. I also tried to leave out some old school artists that I didn't know about at the time like Nine and Special Ed, but I may have missed a few and I might have left in a few non raps as well (still trying to refine it). Anyway, enjoy:

Please add your own list if you're feeling ambitious!!

-*Youtube videos to be posted later in thread.*-

Angry Mic
Abstract Rude
Arcee
Artists Over Industry
Artofficial
Benefit
Blame One
Bliss N Eso
Braille
Brawdcast
Classified
Collective Efforts
Common Market
Cookbook and Uno Mas
Cryptic Wisdom
Cyne
Diabolic
Dirty Hank
Demagen
DL Incognito
Dujeous
Dynamic Syncopation
DZK
Edu Leedz
Educated Consumers
El Da Sensei
Emanon
Elite Terrorists
Esh the Monolith
Eulorhythmics
Freddie Bruno
Funkoars
Gabriel Teodros
Ghettosocks
Globetroddas
Godfather Don
Granite State
Grieves
Greydon Square
Gritz
Hermitude
Heron Demarco
Hilltop Hoods
Iame
Icon the Mic King
Illmaculate
Illogic
Inkwell the Biologic
Intricate Minds
Jigmastas
Kanser
Kas Solo
Krumb Snatcha
Kruze
Lecrae
Lifesavas
Looptroop
Mad Child
Mars Ill
Massive King
Mic Boyd
Mood
Move.meant
Mr. Malchau
Mykill Miers
Nosson Zand
Nonprophets
Oddisee
One Man Army
Othello
Oktober
Pegz
Percee P
Pete Philly
Pigeon John
POEMS
Poorly Drawn People
Prolific
Prop Dylan
Psyche Origami
Ra Scion
Rebels To The Grain
REdrama
Rising Sun Quest
Roots Manuva
Sand People
Sareem Poems
Scribbling Idiots
Scribe
Scienz of Life
Silent Knight
Senim Silla
Shabaam Sahdeeq
Socalled
Sophistic
Sound Scientists
Starving Artist Crew
Supernatural
The Ambassador
The Aztext
The Common Element
The Cross Movement
The Four Horsemen
The Good People
The Herd
The Loyalists
The Problemaddicts
The Tongue
Theology 3
Theory Hazit
T-KASH
Tragic Allies
Triple Optix
Type
Ugly Duckling
Unified School District
Unknown
Unknown Prophets
Urthboy
Vents

:pimp:

damn you're so cool

I wish I was as hipster as DwnWthVwls.

F*ck you guys. This is my contribution to the hiphop forums now you can't call me worthless. Should I add a youtube video for every artist?

Bonobo is a rapper now?

Haha, had him written down for the production. Notice the *.

But good catch I'll remove Bonobo, even though the instrumentals are awesome. Should probably remove Slantize and Quantic also. Lemme know if you notice anything else that doesn't fit. This list is from like '04 and I don't constantly listen to every artist I rattled off, so I could have easily added some unintentionally.

:bringit:

What kind of commercialized mainstream-peddling list is this?
I know eight of them and I'm not even that much into Hip-Hop.
Very disappointing.

but can you tell us which pokemon they would be

^

Funkoars actually just sounds like a legit Pokémon name.

Ugly Duckling's is too classic. I got my eye on the gold chain, just a little samba, very creative and dope ****.

People I can say I know are a lot of the more "mainstream underground" (if you can say that) cats like Abstract Rude, Collective Efforts, El Da Sensei, Classified, Percee P, etc.

depending on where you're looking, some of these (maybe half a handful) are pretty popular. classified, hilltop hoods being big in australia, illmaculate being one of the more known battle rappers, dzk being a more notable "netcee". hell, i used to bug icon the mic king on aim back in 2006 with a group of internet pals.

really cool list though, i've never heard of these listed:



anything you'd reccomend from the above, i'd check out.

if you haven't already started one, i think a hip-hop journal from you would be rad. i'd freak out too much trying to concoct a list of obscurities; if i've heard of an artist, i'd assume lots of others are bound to know about them (probably even more about them than i do).

:o:

actually never heard of or listened to collective efforts as far as i know. checked out some songs on youtube and they were all pretty nice

Are most of those rappers "spitters" a la Rittz, Tech N9ne, Crooked I etc., or are they more interesting?

wow gabriel teodros cool

however, a lot of these artists aren't very popular for a reason...

I don't think that's necessarily true Sparky. They may not make it to a list of my favorite MCs but I think that most of them have at least a handful of songs I enjoy. I'm gonna attach a song to each name when I get the chance.

Nah, that's not really my style. Go check em out yo.

Agreed for sure, the "probably never heard of" was aimed more at the MB community than to label the artists as "super underground". I agree depending on location it will definitely influence what you have heard. I'm sure there is TONS of west coast underground I have no clue exists but it's hard to find here in NJ. There a quite a few Aussy rappers on the list, I like what they bring to the table.

PS -I skimmed through your list and you probably know One Man Army (aka One Be Lo) + Senim Silla as the duo group Binary Star. I'd be surprise if you didn't.

I'm not big on the words. I attempted starting one when I first joined and quickly realized I had very little to say beyond "I love this album" or "I hate mainstream".

Yeh there are definitely a lot of mainstream underground artists on the list that the hiphoppers I know from plug will probably know but I included them anyway.

I actually didn't know that Collective Efforts is a popular group. Is it like a downsouth thing? They definitely don't get recognized in the tri-state AFAIK.

The purpose of this thread was to do a mass introduction into the underground instead of me constantly posting recos in the sticky. Some of it represents what I truely love about the underground and some of it are just artists I discovered along my journey. I'm not gonna vouch for every MC on the list but some of you may enjoy it so I included them.

You're right, I never heard of them.

i know binary star for sure. one be lo also, but not enough about him to know his other psueodnyms. i'm not actually sure i ever knew senim silla by name though. i know i've never listened to his solo work at least.

godfather don also sounds familiar too, but i'm not sure if i actually know of him or not

Not sure how exactly how exactly popular Collective Efforts are, just in my IG community a lot of heads mention them is all.

In terms of Binary Star, their debut album is pretty generally recognized as a Hip-Hop classic at this point.

A

B

C

Spoiler tags.

Use your mod powers. Lazy!

D

So hipster

E

Crowd Pleasa is too dope.

I figured I'd throw an oldschool underground joint in here, this track IMO is one of Hip-Hop's greatest cuts ever. Erule's lyricism and flow is absolutely off the charts and the beat is smooth and haunting yet no one seems so speak on it and it barely got any recognition when it came out to start with, even more so Erule never released anything up to par with this again and barely released anything in general. Definitely of of Hip-Hop's greatest forgotten gems.



That fact this dude could rep West-Coast and continue up by providing lyrics like that is astounding, great stuff.

your right i havent heard much of them


can u weed out the average stuff and post a top 10 from that list ..plz ???

thx ill check them out