Albums

For someone so closely related to a bygone era – the late 90's, the years of backpacker rap – Aesop Rock is aging rather well. At least, he is not giving up. Now part of the Rhymesyaers crew, he released in 2012 one of his finest albums, the self-produced Skelethon. And the year after, he launched The Uncluded, a duo with the Moldy Peaches's Kimya Dawson, somehow the counterpart of Aes for folk rock, its intellectual and bohemian side. Also, in 2014, he launched again a project he had initiated a few years earlier, Hail Mary Mallon, a trio with DJ Big Wiz, and another unsung hero of New-York's indie rap scene: Rob Sonic, of Sonic Sum.

The guys from Hidden Fortress may not be the most famous rappers on Earth. A few details, however, are providing us with some hints about the kind of hip-hop these guys from Vancouver are into: first, their 2010 album has been released by Hand'Solo Records, a label which may be one of the oldest on the indie rap scene – though not the most productive ever; and also, the featuring of some slightly more famous people, like the extravagant Japanese rapper Kaigen, the beatmaker Planit, a.k.a. The Dirty Sample, and Modulok, from the very dark Red Ants.

Originally, with his far-from-perfect compilations like Time Invested (2002), Factor seemed to play second fiddle in the Canadian indie rap scene. Sure, he had a big address book, including some key names of California's underground. But the simply looped voice, guitar or piano samples, which characterized his production style, were too formulaic; they sounded too often a bit inoffensive and lazy.

In 1999, Madlib had introduced us to his alter ego, Quasimoto, on Soundpieces: Da Antidote, the underground favorite he had released with his band, Lootpack. One year later, he decided to dedicate a full album to this character, so that he exposes him a bit better and gives more room to his most extreme ideas. This proved to be a success, artistically speaking; the rapper and beatmaker released a strange, atypical and intriguing rap record, as hinted with its unusual cover art.

A key character in the West Coast Underground scene since the 1990's, when he was a member of Log Cabin – a cult band which would give birth to the Living Legends - and later on a Shape Shifters affiliate, Radioinactive had tried everything, with his supersonic and multisyllabic flow. His first album had been terribly lo-fi (Fo' Tractor), the second one had mixed pure genius with unbearable fillers (Pyramidi), and his joint project with Busdriver and the beatmaker Daedelus (The Weather), despite a few anthological bangers, was not fully satisfying.

Released in 2002, Musicide, Nobs' first album, had some highlights, like "Fair Weather Song", or "Idiot Box". But this was not enough for distinguishing this man – a rapper close to Phlegm's Brad Hamers – from the multitude of Internet MCs emerging from the indie world, around this time. With Workin', however, it was different. Even if Nobs didn't change anything to his formula – this was still the posture of the angry underground White MC, unhappy about the world, unhappy about himself – this record proved to be much better than the one before.