When it comes to hip-hop? There was an enlightenment period where my heart still lies, before the stigma of being a “conscious rapper”, “underground” - or even “backpacker”.
I call this record industry psy-ops, because the music media tried to use it against anyone that didn’t fit the bill. How do I know that?
THEY TRIED TO CALL JAY DILLA A BACKPACKER
Philistines, troglodytes, absolute cretins, scum of the earth. Dear god I hate the record industry.
Incidentally, if you want to go back into the past, I can recommend Quannum Records, the indie label of Blackalicious, Lifesavas, Latyrix and Lyrics Born.
Other than that, Def Jux, Rhymesayers (the mixtapes, get the friggin mixtapes), Stones Throw - ofc. Back when you needed an indie label.
Today we can happily say that bedroom productions will be the saving grace, mostly because it is seperate from the industry, so we do get a lot of great music.
But it also proves the industry is a homogeneous bottleneck.