Primary Stylistic Influences:
- Old-School Hip-Hop, Alternative Rock
Secondary Stylistic Influences:
- Soul, Funk, Jazz, occasional Punk Rock, Blues, Country Music and Folk Music influences on some artists
Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a sub-genre of hip hop music that is defined in greatly varying ways. Allmusic defines it as Hip-Hop groups that refuse to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such as gangsta, bass, hardcore, and party rap. Instead, they blur genres—drawing equally from funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul, alternative rock, punk, reggae, and even folk (though many acts, particularly older ones, do still adhere to a traditional boom bap framework); acts with more straightforward styles tend to still have more complex and less straightforward lyrical concepts that are often referred to under the mantle of "abstract hip-hop". In some circles known as "backpack rap" or "hipster hip-hop", due to its greater appeal to white Alternative Rock fans rather than Hip-Hop fans.
Closely related to Conscious Hip Hop.
Notable Artists
- 3rd Bass
- Aesop Rock
- Die Antwoord
- Arrested Development
- A$AP Rocky
- Backxwash
- Balming Tiger
- Basehead
- Beastie Boys (beginning with Paul's Boutique)
- 1989 - Paul's Boutique
- Beck (among many others)
- 1994 - Mellow Gold
- 1996 - Odelay
- 2005 - Guero
- Blackbear
- The Black Eyed Peas (until their Genre Shift to Glam Rap/Pop during the recording of Elephunk, but eventually went back to full-blown alternative hip hop in Masters of the Sun Vol. 1)
- Black Sheep
- Big KRIT
- Brand Nubian
- BROCKHAMPTON
- The Correspondents
- Danny Brown
- Busta Rhymes
- Cage
- Camp Lo
- Cannibal Ox
- Caparezza
- Champtown
- Chance the Rapper
- Neneh Cherry (along with Contemporary R&B, Jazz and Trip Hop)
- Childish Gambino
- clipping.
- cLOUDDEAD
- Company Flow
- Common (also Conscious Hip Hop)
- Consolidated (also Alternative Dance, with pronounced Industrial influences)
- Cool Kids
- The Coup (also Conscious Hip Hop)
- Cunninlynguists
- Cypress Hill
- 1993 - Black Sunday
- Da Bush Babees
- Dälek
- Das Racist
- De La Soul (Ur-Example)
- Lana Del Rey
- 2012 - Born to Die
- 2019 - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (Trope Codifier)
- Dessa
- Death Grips
- Diafrix
- Digable Planets
- Digital Underground
- Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy (combined with Industrial Music, bizarrely enough)
- Doctor Steel
- Doomtree
- Earl Sweatshirt (possibly on Doris, definitely on I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside and Some Rap Songs)
- 2018 - Some Rap Songs
- El-P
- Epik High
- Eyedea
- Flobots
- Flying Lotus, including Captain Murphy
- Fort Minor
- 2005 - The Rising Tied
- The Fugees
- 1996 - The Score
- Fun Lovin' Criminals
- G-Eazy
- G. Love & Special Sauce (mixed with Rap Rock and Alternative Rock)
- Gang Starr
- Goodie Mob
- Gorillaz (mixed with Alternative Rock)
- 2001 - Gorillaz
- 2004 - Demon Days
- 2010 - Plastic Beach
- Grandson
- Hieroglyphics (Trope Codifier)
- Lauryn Hill
- The Historian Himself
- Hobo Johnson (mixed with Pop Punk, slam poetry, and who knows what else)
- Hopsin
- J. Cole
- J Dilla
- 2006 - Donuts
- JPEGMAFIA
- Jungle Brothers
- Jurassic 5
- K. Flay
- K.I.Z
- Kid Cudi
- Kid Rock:
- 1993 - The Polyfuze Method
- 1996 - Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp
- Kids See Ghosts
- Kilo Kish
- Kitty Pryde
- Kool Keith (depending on the persona, but most would cite Dr. Octagon as alternative hip-hop, and the man himself was a Trope Codifier for abstract hip-hop)
- Kendrick Lamar
- 2012 - good kid, m.A.A.d city
- 2015 - To Pimp a Butterfly
- Leaders Of The New School
- Lil Ugly Mane
- Little Big
- Little Brother
- Little Shannon Dudley
- Lizzo
- Lupe Fiasco
- Luscious Jackson (mixed with Alternative Rock)
- M.I.A.
- MF Doom
- Madvillainy [As Madvillain with Madlib] (2004)
- Mac Miller
- MOD SUN (early work)
- Mos Def And Talib Kweli Are Black Star
- Myzery
- Rico Nasty (also Rap Rock and Trap Music)
- New Kingdom
- OFWGKTA
- Oliver Tree
- OutKast (started to overlap with Neo Soul circa Aquemini)
- The Pharcyde
- Plan B
- PM Dawn
- P.O.S.
- Public Enemy (although more Political Rap, they helped codify this genre and they're often lumped into this category by modern hip hop fans)
- Q-Tip
- Queen Latifah (relatively early in her career, at least)
- Regal Pinion
- Rizzle Kicks
- The Roots (potential Ur-Example along with De La Soul, though the latter was releasing material years before they were)
- 1993 - Organix
- 2006 - Game Theory
- 2011 - undun
- Run the Jewels
- Sadistik
- Sage Francis
- Santigold
- Self-Insert passionately fuses hip-hop into mechanical and deconstructive contexts by using extreme digital voice modification and loud, aggressive electronic instruments.
- Shabazz Palaces
- Jaden Smith
- Soul Coughing
- Souls Of Mischief (Trope Codifier, also see Hieroglyphics)
- Space
- 1996 - Spiders
- Spearhead
- Spose
- Straight Outta Oz
- The Streets (combined with UK Garage)
- Stereo MC's
- Stetsasonic
- Swollen Members
- TD Cruze
- TechN9ne
- That Handsome Devil
- THEE Satisfaction
- Tinie Tempah definitely has some shades of this.
- Torae when he isn't straight old school.
- Travis Barker's collaborative works with rappers usually land here, combining hip-hop with Alternative Rock and Pop Punk.
- A Tribe Called Quest (Trope Codifier)
- 1991 - The Low End Theory
- 1996 - Beats, Rhymes and Life
- Twenty One Pilots
- Tyler, the Creator
- 2019 - Igor
- Urban Dance Squad combines this with Rap Rock and occasionally Funk Metal
- Us3
- Watsky
- Chris Webby
- Kanye West: One of the most unique examples, combining alternative hip hop with Glam Rap to create his own individual style with a desire to push the envelope production wise on each album he creates, also well known for the Taylor Swift incident.
- 2004 - The College Dropout
- 2010 - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- 2013 - Yeezus
- 2016 - The Life of Pablo
- Why? (alt hip-hop is apart of this band's Genre Roulette, along with indie rock and acoustic folk)
- Saul Williams
