Looking for free underground hip-hop

January 10, 2013 7:44 PM

I have an ipod that I want to fill up. I don't do torrents, and I'm not looking for anything illegal, I just want stuff that's being given away. I'm really into The Roots, The Fugees, anything by the Sandpeople Collective, Atmosphere, Nas, Angel Haze, that sort of thing. Not really into Odd Future. I know there are a zillion good underground rappers out there with free downloadable albums. Can you recommend some for me?
posted by Slinga to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Hit up DatPiff and MixFiend for lots of legal downloads (many mixtapes are produced for free distribution, not every single thing on those sites is legally free, but a good majority is). Look for artists you recognize and seek out other artists they're on a track with, etc.

If you want a specific recommendation, Big K.R.I.T. is basically the greatest rapper of the past decade or so (no lie). Get all his mixtapes. All of them!
posted by wrok at 8:05 PM on January 10, 2013

I haven't checked out J. Period's website lately, but I have downloaded some of his very high quality mixes in the past.
posted by gnutron at 8:06 PM on January 10, 2013

Here's a few mixes I've enjoyed recently:

BBU - bell hooks
Action Bronson & The Alchemist - Rare Chandeliers
A$AP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP
Action Bronson - Blue Chips
Big K.R.I.T - Return Of 4eva
King Louie - Drilluminati
posted by ndfine at 8:52 PM on January 10, 2013 [4 favorites]

The Food Chain - Brunch (name your own price)
posted by wrok at 8:56 PM on January 10, 2013

Satellite High
posted by unixrat at 9:33 PM on January 10, 2013

Some artists on soundcloud allow downloads of their tracks; a browse there could help.
posted by TrinsicWS at 2:41 AM on January 11, 2013

SIT DOWN, MAN and SHUT UP DUDE by das racist are both free
posted by runrunrun at 4:06 AM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Start digging around on Soundcloud and before you know it, you'll have more good free music than you know what to do with.
posted by empath at 8:21 AM on January 11, 2013

If you like Atmosphere/Rhymesayers, please (!) check out Doomtree.

Free records by Doomtree alumni:
SNAXXX by Mike Mictlan
Wild Life by SIMS
and Wugazi, which does precisely what it says on the tin
posted by divined by radio at 8:59 AM on January 11, 2013

ndfine, wrok and divined by radio linked to some free stuff on Bandcamp, but you can use Google to search for free hip-hop on Bandcamp.com by using the site:something special search operator. Sometimes you will only find a single free track from a whole album, but poke around, and you'll find something you like.

And if there's only one free track, you can still stream the whole album. If you like it enough, you can buy it all, or just the individual tracks you dig. Bandcamp is good.

Oh, and Busdriver recently released a free EP on Big Dada. Give them your email address, and you get the 7 track EP. It's pretty good stuff. Busta Rhymes also released a free-ish album earlier this year, and I listed out all the Mishka releases on Bandcamp by genre back in July, so it's not 100% complete, but it is a good start to that collection of free music.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:59 AM on January 11, 2013