How Non-Commercial Is Non-Commercial Rap?

One of the most common tropes in the parts of the hip hop underground consisting of either headwrap spoken word neo-soul types or backpack rocking "it's next shit" Def Jukies, is that whatever rappin' they're listening to instead of Beanie Sigel or U.G.K. is superior to those two groups/rappers because it "isn't commerical" and "it's about the music, not the bling or the bitches". The question seems to arise, how non-commercial are Mos Def and The Roots? Seriously? The most obvious idea is to take a look at the world "commercial". The typical backpacker definition of "commercial" is a rapper who isn't true to themself and who they are and totally sells out, trying to maintain a false "image" so that a certain section of the population (in the backpacker's mind usually a mysterious terrifying population of scary Black people) will buy their records. So in the four-elements mindset of the average "real hip-hopper" these rappers are just worthless liars and discards whereas their underground heroes are the last real MCs alive, pursuing a dying art for the last few believers.

So first off as an example, let's take a look at the idea of rappers not being true to themselves. Obviously using Mos Def as an example, is he really running around being righteous all the time? Is he not eating pork and praying on mountains and shit every day before lunch? I think not. He probably just hangs out, eats, drinks, and lives just like the rest of us. But for some reason on all of his records he's on some holier than thou mic prophet "let me educate you" steez. Another example of this is Nas, who for some reason is the "acceptable commercial rapper" to these heads, probably because he gave them Illmatic to scream about. I don't think I even need to go into how much of a hypocrite he is. What kind of "underground street corner poet" tries to sound like Jay-Z and Biggie and then pretends he's Pablo Escobar or some shit? Neither of those dudes are really like what they're like on wax, so that's one check against them. But what audience are they tempering their image for?

Duhduhduh duh. Backpackers and headwrap dudes! These non-commercial rappers obviously have a built in audience, that is pretty much guaranteed to buy all of their records. Another important point to this concept is that the people who buy "conscious" rap records probably have way more disposable income than the people who bought Let's Get It. I'm also betting they buy more band merchandise, go to more shows, and buy more "Freestyle The Art Of Rhyme" DVDs. So let's take a look see. So far it's looking like a lot of if not most "conscious" "underground" "real hip hop" is made by people who pretend to be something they're not so that their built in audience (a bunch of internet White kids in the burbs) will run out and buy their records and then scream that it's "Next Level Shit". Isn't that usually the criticism leveled at commercial rap?

Now let's look at the word underground. In these people's mouths it usually means rappers who aren't on major labels and who stay true to themselves and push that "real hip hop". Think about it, what about all the hundreds of West Coast, Southern, and Midwestern rappers who are on their own label, make their own records, and are huge in their respective cities and regions without ANY radio or MTV play. There are a lot of rappers who everyone in their area knows and loves, and they make enough money to feed themselves and their families just from that. And because these artists still live in the city and own their own businesses they're keeping money in their own community and stimulating their neighborhood's economy. Now there's also a huge amount of "real hip hoppers" that do this (Boot Camp Clik comes to mind), but for some reason all the Lil' Kekes, Mac Dres, and Blade Icewoods of the world are just as bad as 50 Cent but the Clik are underground heroes. Who's more underground? Mac Dre who put out like 20-30 albums on either Romp records or Thizz entertainment and kept money in his community (RIP) or the abovementioned Mos Def who put out his last album on Geffen and had two songs all over MTV? Think about it.

Disclaimer: I have no issue with underground rap. Look at the "favorite music" in my profile. I only have issue with the fans of underground rap who try to secede from the rest of hip hop so the emo chicks they're trying to scheme on won't think of them as "inferior" for listening to what I've actually heard them describe as something I'm not comfortable typing.

Oh and Ghostface-Charlie Brown Snippet sounds fucking sick. I can't wait for Fishscale.