 | | Before Eyedea & Abilities were an MC/DJ pair, they were Mike Larsen and Gregory "Max" Keltgen, two friends from Minneapolis. |
 | | A Seattle-based rapper who is heavily influenced by the indie hip-hop duo Atmosphere, Grieves was born in Chicago. |
 | | Atmosphere are a hip-hop group from Minneapolis centering around rapper Slug (aka Sean Daley). The son of a black father and a white mother who divorced when he was a teenager, Slug became entranced with hip-hop, graffiti, and breakdancing, and formed the Rhymesayers collective with two high-school friends -- Siddiq Ali (Stress) and Derek Turner (Spawn). |
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 | | Rapper Brother Ali spent much of his life living in various cities in the Upper Midwest, starting in Madison, Wisconsin, then moving to Michigan as a young child -- where he was first introduced to breakdancing and graffiti and rapping -- and finally settling in northern Minneapolis with his family when he was 15. |
 | | Born Paul Francis in 1977 in Miami, FL, Sage Francis spent most of his youth in Providence, RI. Interested in the poetic side of rap, Francis has been rhyming since age eight, later winning the Superbowl Battle in Boston in 1999 and the Scribble Jam in Cincinnati in 2000 and 2001 (the last under the name of his "metal" alter ego, Xaul Zan). |
 | | Building on the rapping style of eccentrics Kool Keith and Del the Funky Homosapien, Def Jux headliner Aesop Rock became one of the hottest MCs in the post-millennial underground. |
 | | Largely responsible for making Columbus, OH, a viable medium for hip-hop, Blueprint may have a cartoonish-sounding voice, but his lyrics are definitely not one-dimensional, varying from complex narratives to rhyme-battling punch lines to office humor. |
 | | A longtime friend of Definitive Jux leader El-P, rapper Murs first appeared as a solo artist in 2003, after nearly a decade of working with various groups in the underground. |
 | | Felt initially started as a joke between friends Murs (from Living Legends) and Slug (from Atmosphere) after a discussion came up during a 2001 joint tour about who would have the best chance of sleeping with Christina Ricci. |
 | | A self-taught bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, and drummer, P.O.S. (which stands for a variety of things, including Product of Society, Piece of Sh*t, and Promise of Skill) spent most of his childhood influenced by the energy of punk, drumming for Cadillac Blindside and singing and playing guitar for Building Better Bombs. |
 | | Born Felipe Coronel in a military hospital in Lima, Peru, in 1978, Immortal Technique moved to Harlem with his parents when he was two years old. |
 | | Mac Lethal, born David McCleary Sheldon, is a rapper representing Kansas City, MO. He released his first album, Men Are from Mars, Porn Stars Are from Earth in 2002, years after having already garnered a reputation on the freestyling/battle-rhyming circuit. |
 | | The Living Legends, a loose collective of MCs and DJs from the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Japan, and Europe, are unique for both their down-to-earth songs and approach to the music business. |
 | | One-third of the influential L.A. hip-hop group Dilated Peoples, Evidence was born Michael Perretta in Los Angeles, relocating from Santa Monica to Venice Beach with his mother when he was six, after his parents' divorce. |
 | | The progressive Southern duo Cunninlynguists' combination of witty lyrics and edgy production has made them a favorite of underground hip-hop fans. |
 | | The underground hip-hop duo Jedi Mind Tricks started out in the streets of Philadelphia in early 1996. |
 | | Hailing from the Minneapolis half of Minnesota's Twin Cities region, hip-hop collective Doomtree spin their MCs' eclectic influences into a highly literate brand of Midwestern rap. |
 | | With just a few (mostly underground) releases, Dilated Peoples energized the rap underground in similar fashion to fellow West Coast crew Jurassic 5. |
 | | The Grouch was a founding member of the Living Legends crew, a loose collective of MCs and DJs from the Bay Area, Japan, and Europe. |
 | | Possessing a hyper-literate, intellectual style of rapping augmented with dizzying elocution that would tongue-tie even the fiercest auctioneer, Busdriver is eclectic and eccentric enough to cite vocalese jazz singer Jon Hendricks as a primary influence. |
 | | Whether signed or unsigned, award-winning Canadian hip-hop artist Classified never abandoned his ethos of working hard. |
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 | | An outside-of-the-box MC and producer, Eligh was an important contributor to the development of Cali's hip-hop underground in the mid- to late '90s as he helped construct the sound of his crew, the Living Legends, with his productions. |
 | | Side by side with companion Seattle-based rap groups Common Market and Boom Bap Project, the Blue Scholars led the charge in proclaiming the Pacific Northwest as a breeding ground for "true school" hip-hop. |
 | | Alternative rock band from Panama Cage was formed by ex-Tempest Evan Rodaniche, who was joined by drummer Jorge Loaiza, bassist Giancarlo Costa, and guitarist Ricardo Costa. |
 | | Patterning his persona and logo after the Marvel Comics super villain Dr. Doom, the man behind MF (Metal Face) Doom's iron mask is actually Daniel Dumile, aka Zevlove X, a member of former Big Apple hip-hoppers K. |
 | | The underground hip-hop outfit People Under the Stairs was formed by Mike Turner (Double K) and Chris Portugal (Thes One), who met on the fringe of L. |
 | | One-half of the hip-hop group Micranots, I Self Devine spent most of his childhood in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. |
 | | Entering the hip-hop arena in an almost-forgotten fashion, the MC-and-the-DJ tag team Common Market has been pegged as leaders of Seattle's new-school rap movement. |
 | | Each a respected artist on the individual level, DJ RJD2 (born Ramble John Krohn) and MC Blueprint (Albert Shepard) first came together as Soul Position in 2001 in Columbus, OH. |
 | | The Oakland-based Hieroglyphics are an underground rap collective who, at their best, combine an offbeat sensibility with a strong grounding in battle rhyming, freestyling, and other hip-hop traditions. |
 | | The underground hip-hop supergroup Deltron 3030 features Deltron Zero (Del Tha Funkee Homosapien), the Cantankerous Captain Aptos (producer/remixer Dan "The Automator" Nakamura) and Skiznod The Boy Wonder (turntablist Kid Koala). |
 | | Yelawolf is an underground rapper from a small town in the South who found major-label success in 2011. |
 | | Like a few other West Coast rap acts, including the Pharcyde and Jurassic 5, Blackalicious has generally favored what hip-hoppers call the "positive tip"; in other words, its lyrics have often been spiritual and uplifting rather than violent or misogynous. |
 | | Like many underground rappers in the Midwest, Tech N9ne specialized in bizarre hardcore rap and stood as one of the few recognized rappers based in Kansas City when he debuted in the late '90s. |
 | | This trio of genre-bender pride has made a name for itself on the Bay Area scene by successfully mixing spiritualism and hip-hop. |
 | | Born to teenage parents in a working-class area of Connecticut, rapper Apathy first discovered hip-hop at age five when his uncle played him Chaka Khan's 1984 cover of the Prince song "I Feel for You," which featured Melle Mel rapping. |
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 | | When he’s not busy writing for television, performing with his sketch group Derrick Comedy, or acting on the NBC comedy Community, Donald Glover somehow finds the time to make beats and rap as his alter ego, Childish Gambino. |
 | | Born October 19, 1988 to an absent father and a drug-addicted mother, Santiago Leyva grew up quickly. |
 | | Initially regarded as one of the most promising rappers to emerge in the late '90s, Mos Def turned to acting in subsequent years as music became a secondary concern for him. |
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 | | If skills sold, Talib Kweli would have been one of the most commercially successful rappers of his time. |
 | | Asher Roth is a white suburban rapper who broke through to mainstream success in 2009 with his commercial debut single, "I Love College. |
 | | Coming on the scene with a throwback style that betrayed his years, Pittsburgh-based rapper Mac Miller had just turned 18 when he spent 2010 making his name through mixtapes and video sharing websites. |
 | | The RZA -- and maybe even GZA -- of Odd Future (short for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), Tyler, the Creator is the alternative hip-hop crew's main rapper, producer, and source of inspiration. |
 | | Chicago-based MC Lupe Fiasco (born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco) began rapping in junior high school and joined a group called da Pak several years later. |
 | | Though popular success has largely eluded the Roots, the Philadelphia group showed the way for live rap, building on Stetsasonic's "hip-hop band" philosophy of the mid-'80s by focusing on live instrumentation at their concerts and in the studio. |
 | | Kid Cudi is a Brooklyn-based rapper from Cleveland whose debut single, "Day 'n' Nite," became an online favorite in 2008. |
