Underground Hip Hop Labels
The biggest hip hop labels of all time remain the 2 major-owned rap imprints, Def Jam and Death Row, alongside 20th Century Fox Records and Atlantic Records, but the underground hip hop labels profiled here are the 6 independent companies that built the scene without ever signing a distribution deal with them: Rhythm King, Tom Tom, J All Star, 4th & B'way, Rawkus and Definitive Jux.
Each of the 6 operated between 1986 and 2012 on a 3 to 200 LP catalog, and each left a catalog you can still buy on CD or tape today. The rest of this page profiles the 6 catalogs, then follows the 3 distribution models, the 2002 50 Cent moment, the 2012 Rhythm King revival, and the tape formats the scene keeps shipping on.
The cleanest way to read these catalogs is through Underground Hip Hop, Defined as a set of production and release habits: a label that books its own shows, runs its own tape program, and releases artists no major calls back. Alternative Rap Artists are the working test: if a major label signs the act within 12 months and the next 2 albums sound like radio edits, the original release was a mainstream product wearing an indie jacket. Experimental Hip Hop is the third filter, and it is the strictest, because the act must be building sound itself, not just sampling it. De La Soul passed all 3 filters before any of these 6 labels existed: the group's 1987 debut on Tommy Boy, a small New York label that later folded into major distribution, used 3 production teams and a spoken-word feature on every side, which made the group the reference point every catalog below is measured against.
The 6 Catalogs
The 6 catalogs fall into 2 generations: 2 New York tape-era labels, 1 New Jersey collective label, and 3 New York club-era labels, each with a signature format that the next section explains.
Rhythm King
Rhythm King is the oldest underground hip hop label in active operation, and it still runs the scene's most active tape program. The label started in 1986 in the Bronx and released its first 12 inch in 1987; it is run from a 2 person office by 1 founder and 1 partner, with a catalog of roughly 200 releases that covers 4 decades of New York rap. Its 2 signature artists are DJ Spinderella and Marci, and the catalog doubles as a record of the boom bap era, from 1988 to 1998, that the mainstream never carried on radio.
Tom Tom
Tom Tom is the 1 label in this list that put out De La Soul, and it did so in 1987 from a bedroom in Brooklyn. The label ran for 11 years, from 1987 to 1998, and released 3 De La Soul albums on top of a 15 release catalog of Brooklyn crews. The catalog matters because it documents the first generation of alternative production: 2 producer teams per album, and 4 guest MCs per side, a density that later became the standard for the whole underground hip hop scene.
J All Star
J All Star is the 1 label in this list that was a band before it was a company. The Wu-Tang Clan released its 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), on the label after a 4 year development period, and the 20 track record was mixed in 1 room at a 45 turntable setup. The catalog holds 12 releases, most of them Wu-Tang side projects, and it is the reference catalog for the 1994 to 1997 New York boom bap era.
4th & B'way
4th & B'way is the 1 label in this list that grew out of a club, 4th & B'way, which held 120 people on a 2 story venue on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. The label ran from 1990 to 1997 and released 9 LPs plus 20 12 inch singles, with DJ Holographix and the 4th & B'way crew as its house acts. The catalog is the 1 place the 1991 to 1994 New York club scene is documented on vinyl, because the mainstream labels never carried it.
Rawkus
Rawkus is the 1 label in this list that turned a 150 person basement in the Lower East Side into a distribution network. The venue and label ran together from 1997 to 2004, and the label released 28 LPs plus a 40 release tape series, with Atmosphere, Little Brother and the Roots as its flagship acts. The catalog is the bridge between the 2 generations in the list, because Rawkus booked the 2 club-era acts and the 2 tape-era acts in the same 40 night season.
Definitive Jux
Definitive Jux is the 1 label in this list that made Experimental Hip Hop a billing line, and it did so with 2 acts: MF DOOM and El-P. The label ran from 1998 to 2012 and released 45 LPs, with a 12 release MF DOOM catalog that includes 2 albums issued on tape first, and a 10 release El-P catalog that defined the 2002 to 2008 production sound. The catalog is the reference point for the 3 distribution models below, because it used all 3 at once.
The 3 Distribution Models
The 3 distribution models are tape, independent press and club sales, and each of the 6 catalogs above depends on 1 of the 3 for its survival. The models run in the order of cost, and the order is the order the scene adopted them.
- Tape: a 100 unit C60 run costs 400 dollars per title, ships in a 1 envelope, and breaks even at 20 sales at 20 dollars each.
- Independent press: a 500 unit CD run costs 2500 dollars per title, needs a 6 week lead time, and breaks even at 250 sales at 10 dollars each.
- Club sales: a 100 unit 12 inch run costs 1200 dollars per title, sells at 8 dollars in the venue, and breaks even on the night of the show.
The numbers explain the catalogs: Rhythm King runs the tape line because it is the 1 format that a 2 person office can ship, Definitive Jux runs the press line because its 12 release DOOM catalog needs a 6 week production window, and 4th & B'way runs the club line because the 120 person venue sold the 20 singles it pressed in the same building.
The 2002 50 Cent Moment
The 2002 50 Cent moment is the 1 event that split the 2 generations, and it happened in 1 summer. On August 27, 2002, the debut single from 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin, 21 Questions, entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 39; by December 2002 it sat at number 2 and had moved 2 million units in 4 months. The mainstream labels read the 2 numbers the same way: a rap act with a 30 second hook and a 45 second verse could out-sell a 20 track underground catalog in 1 quarter. The 6 labels in this list did not change their catalogs after the moment, but the 2 tape-era labels, Rhythm King and Tom Tom, stopped pressing CD and moved fully to tape, and the 3 club-era labels, J All Star, 4th & B'way and Rawkus, each cut their 2003 release slate by 40 percent. The 1 exception was Definitive Jux, which added 2 releases to its 2003 slate and kept the Experimental Hip Hop billing intact through the 4 year window from 2002 to 2006.
The 2012 Rhythm King Revival
The 2012 Rhythm King revival is the 1 event that proved the tape line was still a live format, and it happened 26 years after the label's first 12 inch. In 2012, Rhythm King repressed its 1987 catalog on C60 tape in 100 unit runs, and the 60 unit first pressing of the 1992 DJ Spinderella single sold out in 3 weeks at 20 dollars a copy. The revival moved 4000 tape units in its first 12 months, which is 20 times the annual tape sales of the 2003 scene, and it pulled the 2 person office back into a 20 release per year pace. The 6 labels in this list did not all follow the tape line, but 3 of them, Rhythm King, Tom Tom and Definitive Jux, now run standing tape programs with 12 month release calendars, which is the 1 structural fact that separates the underground hip hop labels from every major imprints catalog on this page.
The Tape Formats the Scene Ships
The tape formats the scene ships are the C60 and the C90, and the 2 formats are the 1 reason the underground hip hip labels can price a release at 20 dollars and still break even. A C60 holds 30 minutes per side, which fits a 4 track EP at 7 minutes per side, and a C90 holds 45 minutes per side, which fits a 12 track LP at 7 minutes per side. The C60 runs 400 dollars per 100 unit press; the C90 runs 520 dollars per 100 unit press. The 2 price points are what keep the 6 catalogs in this list on a 12 month release calendar, because a 20 dollar tape breaks even at 20 sales while a 10 dollar CD breaks even at 250 sales, and a 2 person office can sell 20 tapes in 1 month but cannot sell 250 CDs without a 6 week press run.