Like every music genre out there, hip hop can get a bad rap. Deservedly so at times what with the seemingly constant stream of glorified violence, obectification of women and an approach to money that can only be described as bordering on dictatorial that the big media outlets choose to focus on. Hip hops current top dogs, the Kanyes, Kendricks and A$APs have been making big bucks on the back of some legitimately great stuff for a while now, but what about the acts these guys follow and steal from. What about the alternatives? For the past two decades, underground and alternative hip hop artists have been creating some of the most unique and genre bending music out there. Theyre hip hops mad scientists. The alchemists wholl take standard beat formats and just electrocute them, the shamans wholl discuss philosophy, Don Delillo and Adventure Time in successive lines. Alternative hip hop artists are finally getting the much needed love they have always deserved, in some cases with record labels set up solely to cater to this fantastic, ever morphing genre. Here are fifteen alternative hip hop artists who have been tearing up the rule book and bucking trends over the past few years, much to the betterment of an industry that was slowly starting to stagnate before our very eyes.
15. Cities Aviv
The state of Tennessee is normally associated with country singers, banjo players and weapons grade moonshine as opposed to high quality hip hop. But Memphis based artist Cities Aviv has bucked that trend and is currently dragging the city kicking and scheming into a different scene. One of the many internet darlings that will be on this list, Cities Aviv has bounced between genres from hardcore punk to cloud rap before settling on his current glitch riddled sound that sits somewhere between Deftones, RZA and Joy Division. He twists all these different genres and sounds together to form his DNA strands and creates hazy beats which he chops up like sashimi over which he fires out gruff vocals that sound like they were forged in a magma chamber. Cities Avivs punk heritage really does come through in full force throughout his first full length album Come To Life that was released in 2014. He can still change it up and hang with the OGs though as proven by his earlier works, Coastin being the primary example of this, but Cities Aviv is at his best when hes at his most boisterous; setting his home town on fire because hes bored of it. Whatever it is that he has to say, hell shout it at you until your rib cage rattles.