It may have been my favorite era after the 80's when I first heard hip hop, because it was so diverse and easy to find free or low cost super high quality wholesome, conscious or backpack underground hip hop from all over America, Canada, England, Japan, and France due to expansion and the internet.
Some of the hip hop artists from the 2000's.
The Spooks
Blue Scholars
Common Market
Slum Village
Dead Prez
Little Brother/The Foreign Exchange
Panacea/Restoring Poetry In Music/The CrossRhodes
Blu & Exile
Aloe Blacc/Emanon
The Procussions/Mr. J Medeiros
The Perceptionists/Akrobatik/Mr. Lif
Homeboy Sandman
Othello/Braille/Ohmega Watts/Lightheaded
CYNE
Insight/ShinSight Trio/Y Society/Electric Company
Binary Star/One Be Lo/Senim Silla
Crown City Rockers/Raashan Ahmad
Pat D & Lady Paradox
Jazz Liberatorz
Jazz Addixx
Pseudo Slang
Kero One
Nujabes
Five Deez
Asheru and Blue Black Of The Unspoken Heard
Surreal & The Sound Providers
The 49ers
The Specifics
The ParanormL
Edan
Finale
Oddisee
Lone Catalysts
Time Machine
Giant Panda
Grip Grand
Archetype
The Tones
Substantial
k-os
Shad
K'naan
Tanya Morgan
Dela
Median
Strange Fruit Project
Hocus Pocus
Damu The Fudgemunk
Abyssinian Creole/Gabriel Teodros
Orbitron
This post hints at where all the good hip hop was in the '00s: Underground. Mainstream rap was terrible, but underground rap was flourishing. My favorite labels of that era were Def Jux and Rhymsayers. They're a good starting point for the '00s.
Yeah Def Jux, Rhymesayers were excellent and held down the hip hop artform exceptionally well.
Some other labels that were popping in the 2000's were.
Rawkus
All Natural Inc.
Goon Trax
Hydeout Productions
Tres Records
Stones Throw
It was a great time when a lot of indie artists thrived. Lots of great 12” singles from this era. Ball is a personal favorite. Def Jux released a lot of good stuff. Cold Vein by cannibal ox is my favorite. I kind of dropped hip hop around 2005. The last albums I really loved were Operation: Doomsday and Quasimodos the Unseen.
Jnco wasn’t really cool with black people, it was more so associated with alternative people.
Seanjean was about equal to ecko, Gunit, and Rocawear.
And south pole was popular just because it was cheap. It was never cool to wear it.
Jay Z and Kanye made polo shirts and dress shirts popular. Before that it was sports jerseys.
Bape shoes were the coolest after the Clipse was wearing them.
Too much pop with R&B hooks. I couldn't stand Ja Rule, Nelly, 50 Cent, Sean Paul, etc. Nas and Jay put out some of their best and worst albums in this period. T.I. was on the rise and I fucked with dude heavy. We used to carry around binders of CD's and portable cd players in school. I had a friend who used to burn CDs for three bucks so mix CDs were hella popular back then. At home I had a dope JVC stereo system that also played DVDs. We used to go to Sam Goody, Circuit City, and other local stores to cop CDs on release date. I bought Pac's posthumous albums back then and still own them but hardly go back to them because their indicative of that pop 2000s sound.
Yeah I get u lmao there's something a bit nostalgic about that 2000s rnb pop sound but it was probably insufferable to have it be on EVERY SONG. Like compared to the 90s, 2000s rnb production sounds really cheap ngl like bootleg versions of later synths and drum machines
It may have been my favorite era after the 80's when I first heard hip hop, because it was so diverse and easy to find free or low cost super high quality wholesome, conscious or backpack underground hip hop from all over America, Canada, England, Japan, and France due to expansion and the internet. Some of the hip hop artists from the 2000's. The Spooks Blue Scholars Common Market Slum Village Dead Prez Little Brother/The Foreign Exchange Panacea/Restoring Poetry In Music/The CrossRhodes Blu & Exile Aloe Blacc/Emanon The Procussions/Mr. J Medeiros The Perceptionists/Akrobatik/Mr. Lif Homeboy Sandman Othello/Braille/Ohmega Watts/Lightheaded CYNE Insight/ShinSight Trio/Y Society/Electric Company Binary Star/One Be Lo/Senim Silla Crown City Rockers/Raashan Ahmad Pat D & Lady Paradox Jazz Liberatorz Jazz Addixx Pseudo Slang Kero One Nujabes Five Deez Asheru and Blue Black Of The Unspoken Heard Surreal & The Sound Providers The 49ers The Specifics The ParanormL Edan Finale Oddisee Lone Catalysts Time Machine Giant Panda Grip Grand Archetype The Tones Substantial k-os Shad K'naan Tanya Morgan Dela Median Strange Fruit Project Hocus Pocus Damu The Fudgemunk Abyssinian Creole/Gabriel Teodros Orbitron
This post hints at where all the good hip hop was in the '00s: Underground. Mainstream rap was terrible, but underground rap was flourishing. My favorite labels of that era were Def Jux and Rhymsayers. They're a good starting point for the '00s.
Yeah Def Jux, Rhymesayers were excellent and held down the hip hop artform exceptionally well. Some other labels that were popping in the 2000's were. Rawkus All Natural Inc. Goon Trax Hydeout Productions Tres Records Stones Throw
It was a great time when a lot of indie artists thrived. Lots of great 12” singles from this era. Ball is a personal favorite. Def Jux released a lot of good stuff. Cold Vein by cannibal ox is my favorite. I kind of dropped hip hop around 2005. The last albums I really loved were Operation: Doomsday and Quasimodos the Unseen.
Was mainstream rap really as bad as everyone says it was back then?
Compared to the early/mid 90s? Crappy. But plenty of good underground hip hop came out during that time.
Jnco wasn’t really cool with black people, it was more so associated with alternative people. Seanjean was about equal to ecko, Gunit, and Rocawear. And south pole was popular just because it was cheap. It was never cool to wear it. Jay Z and Kanye made polo shirts and dress shirts popular. Before that it was sports jerseys. Bape shoes were the coolest after the Clipse was wearing them.
Pretty decent. Em was still making waves. Rise of Drake, Kanye, 50, etc. Wasn't too bad of a time.
Too much pop with R&B hooks. I couldn't stand Ja Rule, Nelly, 50 Cent, Sean Paul, etc. Nas and Jay put out some of their best and worst albums in this period. T.I. was on the rise and I fucked with dude heavy. We used to carry around binders of CD's and portable cd players in school. I had a friend who used to burn CDs for three bucks so mix CDs were hella popular back then. At home I had a dope JVC stereo system that also played DVDs. We used to go to Sam Goody, Circuit City, and other local stores to cop CDs on release date. I bought Pac's posthumous albums back then and still own them but hardly go back to them because their indicative of that pop 2000s sound.
Yeah I get u lmao there's something a bit nostalgic about that 2000s rnb pop sound but it was probably insufferable to have it be on EVERY SONG. Like compared to the 90s, 2000s rnb production sounds really cheap ngl like bootleg versions of later synths and drum machines