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Alternative hip hop
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 follows:
Alternative Rap refers to Hip-Hop groups that refuse to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such as gangsta, bass, hardcore,...
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Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys is an American hip hop group from New York City. The group comprises Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "MCA" Yauch, and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz. Since around the time of the Hello Nasty album, the DJ for the group has been Michael "Mix...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1979
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Originally called DVX, the name was changed after Mellow Man Ace left in 1988. Cypress Hill was the first Latino group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1988
Gorillaz
Gorillaz is an English virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn of Britpop band Blur, and Jamie Hewlett, co-creator of the comic book Tank Girl. The band is composed of four animated band members: 2D (vocals, keyboard), Murdoc (bass guitar),...
Place Musical Career Began:
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Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai (pronounced: juh-meer-o-kwy) are an English Acid Jazz/Funk/soul/disco band. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1992
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn (pronounced /ˈdeɪmən ˈɔːlbɑːn/; born 23 March 1968 in Whitechapel, London), is a Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has been involved in many high profile projects and collaborations throughout his...
Date of birth:
- Mar 23, 1968 (age 41 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
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Fun Lovin' Criminals
The Fun Lovin' Criminals (often referred to by their initials, FLC) are an American alternative hip hop / alternative rock group from New York City. Their musical style is eclectic, covering such styles as hip hop, rock, funk, blues and jazz. Their...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1993
OutKast
OutKast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, a city south of Atlanta, Georgia. They were originally known as The OKB (The OutKast Brothers) but later changed the group's name to OutKast. The group's original musical style was a...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1991
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Founder of the industrial rock musical project known as Nine Inch Nails, he was previously associated with the bands Option 30, Exotic Birds,...
Date of birth:
- May 17, 1965 (age 44 years)
Place of birth:
Musical Genres:
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Mike Shinoda
Michael Kenji "Mike" Shinoda (born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, record producer, and artist from Agoura Hills, California. He is best known as the rapper, songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of rock band Linkin Park...
Date of birth:
- Feb 11, 1977 (age 32 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group that was formed in 1985. The group is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip (Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, formerly Jonathan Davis), rapper Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor), and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1988
Active as Musical Artist (end):
- 1998
Jurassic 5
Jurassic 5 was an American alternative hip hop group formed in 1993 by rappers Chali 2na, Akil, Zaakir, Mark 7even, DJ Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist. The group broke up in 2007.
Jurassic 5 came together from two separate crews, the Rebels of Rhythm and...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1993
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noel Hill (born May 25, 1975) is an American recording artist, musician, producer and actress. Early in her career, she established her reputation in the hip-hop world as the lone female member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo...
Date of birth:
- May 25, 1975 (age 34 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
De La Soul
De La Soul is an American hip hop group formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres. The members...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1988
Fugees
The Fugees were an Caribbean-American hip hop group that rose to fame in the mid-1990s, whose repertoire included elements of Hip hop, soul and Caribbean music, particularly reggae. The members of the group are rapper/singer/producer Wyclef Jean,...
Place Musical Career Began:
Art of Noise
Art of Noise (also The Art of Noise) were an avant-garde synthpop group formed in 1983 by producer Trevor Horn, music journalist Paul Morley, and session musicians/studio hands Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik, and Gary Langan. The group's mostly...
Place Musical Career Began:
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene (born October 3, 1975), better known as Talib Kweli, is an African-American MC from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker"; his middle name in Swahili means "true". Kweli first gained recognition...
Date of birth:
- Oct 3, 1975 (age 34 years)
Place Musical Career Began:
Dead Prez
Dead Prez is an American underground political hip hop duo composed of stic.man and M-1. They are known for their confrontational style combined with socialist and pan-Africanist lyrics. These lyrics tend to focus on revolution, veganism,...
Gang Starr
Gang Starr was an influential East Coast hip hop duo that consisted of MC Guru and DJ/producer DJ Premier and a former trio. The group was known mainly for their unique style, which combines elements of New York swing jazz and hip hop.
The group was...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1987
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas (abbr. BEP) is a hip hop band that formed in Los Angeles in 1995. The group is composed of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist will.i.am and vocalists apl.de.ap, Taboo, and Fergie. Since their album Elephunk in 2003, the group's...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1995
Blackalicious
Blackalicious is an American hip hop duo made up of rapper Gift of Gab (born Tim Parker) and DJ/producer Chief Xcel (born Xavier Mosley). They are noted for Gift of Gab's often fast-paced, multi-syllabic, complex rhymes and Chef Xcel's diverse range...
Place Musical Career Began:
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry (born July 1, 1945) is an American singer–songwriter and actress, most famous for being the lead singer for the New Wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she also performed and...
Date of birth:
- Jul 1, 1945 (age 64 years)
Place Musical Career Began:
The Pharcyde
The Pharcyde is an alternative hip hop group from South Central Los Angeles, where the group's members grew up. The original four members of the group are Imani (Emandu Wilcox), Slimkid3 (Tre Hardson), Bootie Brown (Romye Robinson) and Fatlip ...
Place Musical Career Began:
The Roots
The Roots are a Grammy Award-winning, American hip hop band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals. Their debut album was released in 1993 and...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1993
Digable Planets
Digable Planets is a Grammy Award-winning American Alt Hip Hop group based in New York City, composed of Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler (from Seattle), Craig "Doodlebug" Irving (from Philadelphia), and Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira (from Washington, D...
Place Musical Career Began:
Digital Underground
Digital Underground was an alternative rap group from Oakland, California. They could also have been accurately defined as a "project" or "music family" rather than a group as their personnel steadily changed and rotated with each new album & tour. ...
Place Musical Career Began:
Crazy Town
Crazy Town is an alternative band formed in Los Angeles in 1995 by Bret Mazur and Seth Binzer. The band is best known for their 2001 single, "Butterfly", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Members of the band mix elements of...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1999
Leaders of the New School
The Leaders of the New School were an American hip hop crew composed of Uniondale, New York natives Charlie Brown, Dinco D, Busta Rhymes and Cut Monitor Milo, Busta Rhymes' cousin. The four got their start touring with hip hop group Public Enemy,...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1991
Active as Musical Artist (end):
- 1993
Bradley Nowell
Bradley James Nowell (February 22, 1968 – May 25, 1996) was an American musician who served as lead singer and guitarist of the popular Californian band Sublime. He died at 28 from a heroin overdose shortly before the release of Sublime's self...
Date of birth:
- Feb 22, 1968
Date of death:
- May 25, 1996 (age 28 years)
Place of birth:
Instruments Played:
Souls of Mischief
Souls of Mischief is an alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California, that is also part of the hip hop collective, Hieroglyphics. The Souls of Mischief formed in 1991 and is composed of emcees A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai.
Oakland native...
Place Musical Career Began:
N*E*R*D
N.E.R.D is an American rock, funk and hip hop band. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin Records as a duo, The Neptunes. After producing songs for several artists throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, the...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 2001
D12
D12 (also known as D-12, The Dirty Dozen, D-Twizzy, D-Tizzle and Detroit-Twelve) is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. D12 has had chart-topping albums in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. D12 was formed in 1990, but...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1999
Pras
Prakazrel Samuel Michel, known as Pras, (born October 19, 1972) is a Grammy Award-winning Haitian-American rapper, actor, film producer, and member of the hip hop trio The Fugees, considered one of the most influential groups of the 1990s for their...
Date of birth:
- Oct 19, 1972 (age 37 years)
Place Musical Career Began:
Arrested Development
Arrested Development is a multiple Grammy Award winning American alternative hip hop group founded by Speech and Headliner as a positive, Afrocentric alternative to the gangsta rap popular in the early 1990s.
It took the group three years, five...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1989
Atmosphere
Atmosphere is an American hip hop group from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The members are rapper Slug (born Sean Daley, September 7, 1972) and DJ/producer Ant (born Anthony Davis), former member and Co-founder Spawn (born Derek Turner), who left the...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1994
Neneh Cherry
Neneh Mariann Karlsson (born 10 March 1964), known as Neneh Cherry is a Swedish two-time Grammy Award-nominated and MTV Europe Music Award-winning singer-songwriter and rapper. Cherry is also an occasional DJ and broadcaster. Cherry blends hip hop...
Date of birth:
- Mar 10, 1964 (age 45 years)
Place of birth:
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West (pronounced /ˈkɑːnjeɪ/; born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, record producer, and actor. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's...
Date of birth:
- Jun 8, 1977 (age 32 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
pe
Hed PE, also known as (hed) planet earth and stylized as (həd) p.e., is an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California. Formed in 1994, the band performs a style of music which they refer to as "G-punk". Their music is primarily based in a...
Place Musical Career Began:
Deltron 3030
Deltron 3030 is a supergroup of hip hop artists, composed of producer Dan the Automator, rapper Del tha Funkee Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala. Their work features many other artists as well, all taking on various futuristic pseudonyms.
The group's...
André 3000
André Lauren Benjamin (born May 27, 1975), better known by his stage name André 3000 (and sometimes simply Dre), is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actor, best known for his work in the group OutKast.
Benjamin was...
Date of birth:
- May 27, 1974 (age 35 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1991
Café Tacuba
Café Tacuba (often stylized as café tacvba) is a Grammy Award and Latin Grammy Award-winning band from Naucalpan, Mexico. They were founded in 1989, and since then have had the same musical lineup:
Mexican folk music player Alejandro Flores is...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1989
Kottonmouth Kings
Kottonmouth Kings is an American hip hop, rapcore group from Orange County, California. Kottonmouth Kings officially formed in 1994, and describe themselves as "psychedelic hip-hop punk rock". Kottonmouth Kings are composed of Daddy X (the former...
Place Musical Career Began:
Daniel Dumile
Daniel Dumile (pronounced /duːməleɪ/) is a British-born American hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM (also known as DOOM) , where the "MF" stands for Metal Face or Metal Fingers. He has appeared in...
Date of birth:
- Jan 9, 1971 (age 39 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
CLOUDDEAD
Clouddead (styled as cLOUDDEAD) was a musical group consisting of the experimental hip hop musicians Doseone (Adam Drucker), Why? (Yoni Wolf), and Odd Nosdam (David Madson). Generally Drucker and Wolf provide the group's vocals while Madson produces...
Musical Genres:
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Little Brother
Little Brother is an American hip hop group from Durham, North Carolina that consists of Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh. Producer 9th Wonder was a part of the group since its inception, but left before recording the album Getback. Their debut album The...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 2003
G. Love & Special Sauce
G. Love & Special Sauce is an alternative hip-hop band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are known for their unique, "sloppy", and "laid back" blues sound that encompasses the sound and production of classic R&B.; The band features Garrett...
Place Musical Career Began:
Epic Mazur
Epic Mazur (born Bret Mazur) is an American rapper/record producer and a co-founder/co-frontman of Crazy Town.
Bret Mazur grew up in Brooklyn, New York before his parents moved across the country to Hollywood, Los Angeles. It was here that he began...
Date of birth:
- Aug 31, 1970 (age 39 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.
The youngest of three children, Williams...
Date of birth:
- Feb 29, 1972 (age 37 years)
Musical Genres:
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Raz-B
De'Mario Monte Thornton, (born June 13, 1985) better known by his stage name Raz-B is an American singer and actor, most famous for being a member of R&B; boy band B2K.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Raz B was a member of the group B2K as a teen. He is of...
Date of birth:
- Jun 13, 1985 (age 24 years)
Place of birth:
Place Musical Career Began:
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Greenthink
Greenthink were a group of hip-hop musicians and rappers. The group included the rappers Why? and Doseone (of anticon. and cLOUDDEAD), although many other artists contributed to varying degrees,including Sole, Alias, Odd Nosdam, Slug of Atmosphere,...
Place Musical Career Began:
Angie Stone
Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B; and soul singer-songwriter, keyboardist, record producer, and occasional actress.
Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began singing gospel music at...
Date of birth:
- Dec 18, 1961 (age 48 years)
Place of birth:
Musical Genres:
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Adam Horovitz
Adam Keefe Horovitz (born October 31, 1966), better known as Ad-Rock or King Ad-Rock, is an American musician, guitarist, rapper, producer, and actor. He is best known as a member of the pioneering hip hop group, Beastie Boys.
Horovitz was born in...
Date of birth:
- Oct 31, 1966 (age 43 years)
Place Musical Career Began:
Josh Eppard
Josh Eppard (born December 6, 1979) is MC and music maker under his stage name, Weerd Science and current drummer for indie band Initials. Best known for his drumming with new prog band Coheed and Cambria, Eppard was also a founding member of the...
Date of birth:
- Dec 6, 1979 (age 30 years)
Place Musical Career Began:
Erick Sermon
Erick Sermon, also known as Erick Onassis, (born November 25, 1968 in Bay Shore, New York) is an American rapper, musician, and producer. Sermon is best known as half of late-1980s/1990s hip hop group EPMD and for production work. He currently...
Date of birth:
- Nov 25, 1968 (age 41 years)
Place Musical Career Began:
Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes is an American Rap Rock band from Geneva, New York. The group formed when Travis "Schleprok" McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley and decided to form a band. After the addition of guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and bassist Eric...
Place Musical Career Began:
Active as Musical Artist (start):
- 1997
Mr. DJ
Mr. DJ, born David Sheats, is a Grammy Award-winning American hip-hop record producer and DJ from Atlanta, Georgia.
Raised on the southside of College Park, Georgia, Mr. DJ entered the music industry as a DJ for Atlanta-based hip-hop group OutKast....
Styles of Beyond
Styles of Beyond is an underground rap group from the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The group consists of MC's Ryan Patrick Maginn (Ryu) and Takbir Bashir (Tak), Colton Raisin Fisher (DJ Cheapshot), and producer Jason Rabinowitz ...
Place Musical Career Began:
Grand Buffet
Grand Buffet is a hip-hop duo from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, made up of Jackson O'Connell-Barlow (stage names: Iguanadon, Grape-a-Don, Plaps, Nate Kukla, and Mr. Pennsylvania) and Jarrod Weeks (stage names: M-Dog, Lord Grunge, Viceroy, Matt Kukla,...
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The X-Ecutioners
The X-Ecutioners is a group of hip hop DJs / turntablists from New York.
Formed as a DJ crew in the early nineties and originally including 11 members, under the name X-Men, which was chosen partly because of their rivalry between Super DJ Clark...
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Christopher Stewart
Christopher "Tricky" Stewart (born January 4, 1974) is an American songwriter, music producer, music publisher, executive producer, recording industry executive and recording studio owner. In a career spanning 16 years, Stewart, at the helm of his...
Date of birth:
- Jan 4, 1974 (age 36 years)
Place of birth:
Musical Genres:
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People Under the Stairs
People Under the Stairs are an underground hip hop group from Los Angeles, California. It's composed of two emcees, Thes One and Double K. The group, also known as PUTS, has released seven albums since 1998, about one every two years. PUTS has a...
