This genre, like any, doesn't really exist. This is just something people started saying in the late 90's, early 00's. As with emo in the 80's it's a dismissive term used to describe some music I actually like. It's also been called "conscious rap", or "alternative hip hop. I'm curious if any hip hop fans here think that a. the term is of any use, and separately b. if some of the music it describes is any good.
Here are some of my arguments for:
It's potentially a less corporate, and definitely a less consumer driven image of hip hop. There is romance to a 1996 MC who lives in Brooklyn toting a backpack full of lyrics, novels, poetry books and philosophy. The kind of curious person who posts up at a coffee shop and consume massive amounts of language and caffeine in the service of inspiration and art. Some sterling examples of this supposed sub-genre: The Roots, Pharcyde, Common, Blackalicious, Dilated Peoples, Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kwali), Tribe Called Quest and maybe some of their more jazz oriented forefathers like Digable Planets who retrospectively are a little corny (but charming). There were only about a million lesser known contributors to this scene, many in Minneapolis and other less typically hip hop cities.
Arguments against:
Macklemore. White college kids consuming music that features a more sanitized vision of black culture (this is a minefield of a discussion). A higher percentage of goofy, or even pretentious MCs.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
2I thought backpack rappers referred more to the late 90s / early 2000s indie artists like the entire Def Jux roster, Slug/Atmosphere, some of Stones Throw, even occasionally encompassing weirdos like Ill Bill, RA the Rugged Man, etc. I always heard the term used as a put-down.
Crap as applied to the above-named artists, but not crap as applied to the hordes of mostly-white imitators of those artists.
Crap as applied to the above-named artists, but not crap as applied to the hordes of mostly-white imitators of those artists.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
3I thought it was stuff like Jurassic Five and Common. Gang Starr straddled the line with the jazzier moments.
We're headed for social anarchy when people start pissing on bookstores.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
4I was hoping for a moment that there were guys rapping about mountain goats and marmots, glaciated granite and andesite, freeze-dried food and sleeping under the stars.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
5Yeah, that shit is pretty dorky.brephophagist wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:06 pm I thought backpack rappers referred more to the late 90s / early 2000s indie artists like the entire Def Jux roster, Slug/Atmosphere,
Damn, someone has to make an outdoorsy, geology rap project. Just samples of wind and boulders rolling.Geiginni wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:30 pm I was hoping for a moment that there were guys rapping about mountain goats and marmots, glaciated granite and andesite, freeze-dried food and sleeping under the stars.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
6When I briefly listened to a lot of Anticon and fantasised about becoming a backpack rapper I would rap "high on a hill lived a lonely goatherd, yo-duh-lay-yo-duh-lay-yo-da-lay-hee-hoo" to myself all the time for laughs.Geiginni wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:30 pm I was hoping for a moment that there were guys rapping about mountain goats and marmots, glaciated granite and andesite, freeze-dried food and sleeping under the stars.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
7Of the stuff I listened to at the time, this is the one I revisit every couple three years or so:
Odd Nosdam is brilliant. But I don't really have any desire to listen to the MCs any more, even Clouddead etc.
Odd Nosdam is brilliant. But I don't really have any desire to listen to the MCs any more, even Clouddead etc.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
8Exactly this.Geiginni wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 10:30 pm I was hoping for a moment that there were guys rapping about mountain goats and marmots, glaciated granite and andesite, freeze-dried food and sleeping under the stars.
clocker bob may 30, 2006 wrote:I think the possibility of interbreeding between an earthly species and an extraterrestrial species is as believable as any other explanation for the existence of George W. Bush.
Re: Genre: Backpack Hip Hop
10"Conscious," "sanitized, "curious." LOLZ. Fuckinell. This whole post is a minefield, and you don't seem to know where you've left them.losthighway wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2024 6:48 pm This genre, like any, doesn't really exist. This is just something people started saying in the late 90's, early 00's. As with emo in the 80's it's a dismissive term used to describe some music I actually like. It's also been called "conscious rap", or "alternative hip hop. I'm curious if any hip hop fans here think that a. the term is of any use, and separately b. if some of the music it describes is any good.
Here are some of my arguments for:
It's potentially a less corporate, and definitely a less consumer driven image of hip hop. There is romance to a 1996 MC who lives in Brooklyn toting a backpack full of lyrics, novels, poetry books and philosophy. The kind of curious person who posts up at a coffee shop and consume massive amounts of language and caffeine in the service of inspiration and art. Some sterling examples of this supposed sub-genre: The Roots, Pharcyde, Common, Blackalicious, Dilated Peoples, Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kwali), Tribe Called Quest and maybe some of their more jazz oriented forefathers like Digable Planets who retrospectively are a little corny (but charming). There were only about a million lesser known contributors to this scene, many in Minneapolis and other less typically hip hop cities.
Arguments against:
Macklemore. White college kids consuming music that features a more sanitized vision of black culture (this is a minefield of a discussion). A higher percentage of goofy, or even pretentious MCs.