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3 Underground Rappers Who Have Been Quietly Making Fantastic Albums for Years

Noisey highlights three underground hip-hop artists who have continued to make great albums decades into their careers.

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The beautiful thing about the underground hip-hop scene is that it can truly sound like anything. Punk rappers and models in Atlanta are free game just as much as your typical backpackers. Artists who grew up in the footsteps of Earl Sweatshirt often combine their dense lyricism with wild production that reimagines what the mainstream could sound like.

In the age of the internet, the underground erodes any perception of a central sound or region. As long as you aren’t charting on Billboard and making music for Wingstop ads, you could qualify as part of the counterculture.

Another beautiful aspect of it is that you can make a real living in the space without ever selling out. Some artists qualify as underground and never broke through to the glitz and glamour of mainstream hip-hop. Instead, they’ve built a strong, devoted core audience that routinely streams and buys their records and merch and shows up for every show. Some of them have done this grind for over a decade.

In honor of those........

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