By the year 2000, the indie backpacker hip-hop style has spread over pretty much all places in the United States, except maybe in the South. The most popular form of rap music, there, is its total opposite: it is gangsta, raunchy, and primarily designed for clubs. It has a limited linkage to New-York and the boom bap heritage. In the Dirty South, actually, only a few guys from Florida can more or less be related to indie rap. Plus, of course, the CunninLynguists.
Originally, this group from Lexington, Kentucky, is just a duo. It has only two members, rappers Deacon the Villain, and Kno (originally from Georgia), who is also taking care of the beats. Together, they bring some East Coast hip-hop flavors away from their cradle, perfecting the arts of scratching and sampling, opting for astute punchlines, and for lyrically agile and meaningful raps, as their name indicates.
Per the indie hip-hop ideology, the CunninLynguists despise mainstream rap. The ironic title of their first album, Will Rap For Food - which they found in a video from Dr. Dre, where he was mocking his rival Eazy-E - shows it, as well as tracks like "Funkinwichu", where the duo makes fun of the Cash Money and No Limit labels, and "Thugged Out Since Cub Scouts", where they ridicule gangsta rappers.
Will Rap For Food is full of sarcasm. However, it delivers much more than that. The CunninLynguists also like lighter and playful raps, like on "Lynguistics", "Halfanimal", "Takin' The Loss", with Jugga the Bully, and the posse cut "616 Rewind", with Tone Deff, Sankofa, Kashal Tee and Celph Titled. And some other songs, on the opposite, strike a sensitive chord: "Mic Like A Memory", about the role of hip-hop in these their lives ; "Missing Children", with Braille, about the death of beloved ones ; and "Family Ties", about unworthy parents dismissing their responsibilities.
A key strength here are Kno's beats. He might be less strong a rapper than Deacon, but his production work is first-class and creative, like with the furious cords on "Lynguistics", the Common sample on "Mic Like A Memory" or the Eminem one on "Halfanimal", the accordion of "Thugged Out Since Cub Scouts", the quasi trip-hop on "Not Guilty", the sepulchral sound on "Missing Children", and the drum'n'bass conclusion of this track and "Takin' The Loss".
Compared to these, Celph Titled's beats on the "So Live!" single sound a bit tedious. Unsurprisingly, considering his talent with beats, that Kno will focus on production duties when Mr. SOS, and then Natti, will join the band, helping the CunninLynguists to become one of the rare enduringly notorious indie rap bands, in the greater hip-hop landscape.