 | | In the mid-'90s, Sean Price, known then as Ruck, and partner Rock dropped their debut album, Nocturnal, as the rap outfit Heltah Skeltah during a time when East Coast hip-hop was delivering mainstream and underground classics left and right. |
 | | Frequently and rightly placed in the same context as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Kanye West, J Dilla (aka Jay Dee) built and sustained a high standing as a producer's producer while maintaining a low profile. |
 | | Growing up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the boy who would become producer 9th Wonder, Pat Douthit, performed in the school band and also played keyboards at home. |
 | | Born in Washington, D.C., to a Sudanese father and an African-American mother, Amir Mohamed grew up in Maryland, influenced by soul and rap as well as the myriad of musicians on both sides of his family. |
 | | Rising from the rugged streets and rich musical tapestry of Detroit, Slum Village were poised to carry on the old-school, funk, and soul-filled hip-hop torch of genre pioneers A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and the Pharcyde. |
 | | Camp Lo is a rap group from the Bronx who melds hip-hop with jazz sensibilities and funk. After having a hit single, "Coolie High," from The Great White Hype soundtrack in early 1996, they released their debut album, Uptown Saturday Night, in February 1997. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Part of the new millennium resurgence of alternative rap, Little Brother drew from atypical inspirations for Southern hip-hop: classic Native Tongues outfits like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as more recent torch-bearers like the Roots and Black Star. |
 | | The most influential MC-and-DJ tandem of the 1990s, Gang Starr set new standards for East Coast rap with a pair of early-'90s touchstones, Step in the Arena (1991) and Daily Operation (1992), whose appeal has only grown over the decades. |
 | | Common (originally Common Sense) was a highly influential figure in rap's underground during the '90s, keeping the sophisticated lyrical technique and flowing syncopations of jazz-rap alive in an era when commercial gangsta rap was threatening to obliterate everything in its path. |
 | | With an impressive resume in rap that includes membership in the legendary Juice Crew (along with Marley Marl, MC Shan, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Roxanne Shante, and Craig G) and a verse on the 1988 classic posse cut "The Symphony," Brooklyn's Masta Ace is truly an underappreciated rap veteran and underground luminary. |
 | | Born and raised in Detroit on the sounds of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, Curtis Cross found out at an early age that he had a talent for hip-hop, especially for beats. |
 | | The High & Mighty's momentary affiliation with Rawkus Entertainment in 1999 brought them national acclaim, and the duo returned to the underground thereafter and used the newfound clout to promote their Eastern Conference label. |
 | | One of the most talked-about rappers of 2008, Jay Electronica built his reputation via the Internet and word of mouth, without so much as a single commercial release to his credit. |
 | | As golden age rap suddenly gave way to West Coast gangsta in the early '90s, an East Coast variety of hardcore rap arose in turn, with Mobb Deep initially standing tall as one of New York's hardcore figureheads on the basis of their epochal album The Infamous. |
 | | If skills sold, Talib Kweli would have been one of the most commercially successful rappers of his time. |
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 | | Beginning with his classic debut, Illmatic (1994), Nas stood tall for years as one of New York City's leading rap voices, outspokenly expressing a righteous, self-empowered swagger that endeared him to critics and hip-hop purists. |
 | | The underground Los Angeles-based duo of MC Blu (b. Johnson Barnes) and DJ/producer Exile (b. Aleksander Manfredi) earned widespread acclaim right out the gate with their debut album, Below the Heavens (2007), which critics crowned as the seemingly perfect marriage of Blu's everyday-struggle raps and Exile's Pete Rock- and J Dilla-inspired production. |
 | | San Mateo native Rasco (whose name is an acronym for "realistic, ambitious, serious, cautious, and organized") worked as a member of the West Coast hip-hop groups Various Blends and Cali Agents. |
 | | A member of Fat Joe's DITC crew, rapper Big L was born Lamont Coleman on May 30, 1974. He made his solo debut with 1995's Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous, scoring a series of underground hits including "No Endz, No Skinz," "Street Struck" and "Da Graveyard"; Big L's best-known effort, the single "Ebonics," followed on his own Flamboyant label in the summer of 1998. |
 | | Casual was third out the gate (following Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Souls of Mischief) from the Hieroglyphics crew, the undisputed kings of the Oakland underground scene. |
 | | Rapper, DJ, and producer Pete Rock first emerged in 1991 as one half of a duo with C.L. Smooth, debuting with the All Souled Out EP. |
 | | While a member of the New York City duo Organized Konfusion, Pharoahe Monch developed a reputation as one of underground hip-hop's preeminent lyricists, crafting intricate and intelligent raps with partner Prince Poetry. |
 | | Widely known initially for his work as a producer and MC with the rap group Main Source, Large Professor soon after became a full-time producer working with such acts as Big Daddy Kane and A Tribe Called Quest. |
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 | | Massachusetts-born rapper Termanology quickly rose from underground obscurity to working with some of hip-hop's elite producers, particularly DJ Premier. |
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 | | Hailing from the West Michigan town of Grand Rapids, Apollo Brown is a hip-hop producer currently based in Detroit. |
 | | Planet Asia (born Jason Green) rose from the uncharted hip-hop territory of Fresno, CA, to become one of the stars of the West Coast "true school" generation that emerged in late '90s. |
 | | Whenever anyone mentions the name of Detroit rapper Royce da 5'9", a whole list of other names surround it. |
 | | In contrast to his imposing presence and hard thug posture comparable to rappers like Bumpy Knuckles or Big Shug, Detroit rhyme-slayer Guilty Simpson first achieved exposure on records by eccentric left-field producers like Madlib, Dabrye, Four Tet, and one of his biggest admirers, Detroit's own J Dilla. |
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 | | Without question the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s, A Tribe Called Quest jump-started and perfected the hip-hop alternative to hardcore and gangsta rap. |
 | | A layered wordsmith, Queens rapper Homeboy Sandman was born to a boxing father who emigrated from the Dominican Republic to New York and fought on the heavyweight circuit. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Roc Marciano is an MC from New York City's tradition-rich Long Island. His work, first with the U.N. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Born James Campbell in Westbury, NY, in 1969, gruff-voiced MC Freddie Foxxx (aka Bumpy Knuckles) was in a group by the age of ten and made his recorded debut as Freddie C. |
 | | An earnest student of the early-'90s boom-bap technique, underground rap producer Marco Bruno, aka Marco Polo, was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. |
 | | Hailing from East Orange, NJ, Chino released his debut album, Here to Save You All, in 1996 and has since had plenty of now famous appearances on DJ Sway and Tech's morning radio show called "The Wakeup Show. |
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 | | With just a few (mostly underground) releases, Dilated Peoples energized the rap underground in similar fashion to fellow West Coast crew Jurassic 5. |
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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. |
 | | Part of the celebrated '90s underground rap group Black Moon (with producer Evil Dee and fellow MC 5Ft), Buckshot released his first solo album, The BDI Thug, in 1999 with Duckdown (which later reissued a longer version in 2003). |
![Way to Go/I'm on It [12" Single] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/803482/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "Way to Go/I'm on It [12\" Single] Album Cover")
