Underground MCs

Keep your ears glued to the underground and you won’t just hear bleeding-edge beats; you’ll also witness the fitness of hip-hop’s hungriest MCs, from such old-school icons as KRS-One (as heard atop the spare, lightly scratched loops of “Underground”) to such latter-day leaders as Atmosphere (the seamless storytelling and solemn guitar samples of “Always Coming Back Home to You”), Aesop Rock (the free-associative phrases and sci-fi score of “Limelighters”), and Jean Grae (the prickly poetics and steely keys of “A-Alikes”).

Some of the same names drop science in our Next Steps, too, right alongside everyone from Edan to the Foreign Exchange.

When Edan scribbles a song title like “Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme,” what the producer/MC really means is this: he’s about to attack every last bar, from a heavyweight drum break to a helium-laced chorus. And while we’re on the topic of tackling hip-hop’s headiest tracks, there’s no denying the street-seasoned skills of Mr. Lif (the shadow-chased soul of “Head High”), Aceyalone (the funk-infused hooks of “Lost Your Mind”), and Eminem’s old partner in rhyme, Royce da 5’9’’ (the Gang Starr-caliber DJ Premier production “Hip Hop”).

As for how our Deep Cuts fits into this equation, let’s just say the game doesn’t get much more underground than a Pete Rock rarity or Kool Keith on his worst behavior.

Wondering how People Under the Stairs and Hieroglyphics earned four spots in our Deep Cuts? That’s easy — they’re two of Cali’s most criminally overlooked hip-hop acts — pass-the-mic types who pay tribute to hip-hop’s golden age with feel-good flows and verses that read like a slam-poetry session. If you prefer grooves that are grittier than a mechanic’s fingernails, we’ve got that covered there, too, including the severed circuitry and apocalypse-now narratives of El-P (“Stepfather Factory”), the unrated shock tactics of Kool Keith (“Girl You Know”), and the supergroup stylings of the Weathermen, as remixed by Rjd2 (“5 Left In the Clip”).

Let’s get one thing straight: while the accompanying playlist is rooted in the scrappy rhyme schemes of rap’s underground scene, that doesn’t mean it’s any less likely to wreck your woofers than Kanye West or Jay-Z. If anything, it’ll make you scratch and nod your head, as we connect the dots between both coasts and such cult favorites as the many aliases and side projects of MF Doom and Madlib (Madvillain, Viktor Vaughn, Jaylib). Caught somewhere in between are enough certified jams to keep a party going ’til dawn, whether that means cranking a twisted Cage track that lifts a couple synth lines from A Clockwork Orange (“Agent Orange”), cueing a seething, piano-guided slice of Immortal Technique (“Industrial Revolution”), or bumpin’ the perfectly balanced he’s-the-DJ-I’m-the-rapper pairings of 7L & Esoteric (“Word Association,” “Protocol”).