Independent As F***: Underground Hip-Hop from 1995-2005

by Ben Pedroche

288 pages, Paperback

Published May 15, 2025

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Topic-wise I’m probably the core audience for this, but having read (most of) it, I’m now left wondering who or what the book is for.

Much of it consists of entries on artists divided by region, where we mostly get very brief biographical notes, followed by an “and then" -style listing of their releases. We’re told time and time again that this or that album is/was “acclaimed”, but nothing about the music itself or anything revealing about the artist. And then we’re on to the next one, with an awful lot of repetition of stock phrases and descriptions. It’s very rare I feel the need to skip sections of a book, but I did here.

What are these acclaimed records like in relation to those of the last artist mentioned or the contemporaneous major label music they're supposedly set against? Why should we care or wish to investigate? We never find out. It’s like a long, strictly factual listicle or a compendium of the opening sections of rappers’ Wikipedia pages.

Things only lift in the last section where the author offers his personal take with some favourite releases but even then the prose is curiously devoid of passion.

Still, it made me realise we could really do with a good, well-researched history of independent/underground hip-hop with cultural context and a clear through-line/narrative.

[Ian C-K]

I wasn't aware of Pedroche prior to seeing his book covered on Rap Reviews and The Questions Podcast. After learning a little more about him, I have to admire the effort that he has put into archiving and championing independent hip hop. It's also clear that he spent a lot of time visiting the same types of record stores, shows, and websites that I did during this era.

To be honest, the first chapter of this book is pretty dispensible. It lists information in the form of paragraphs, without any analysis or meaningful commentary. The second chapter does a better job of distilling the conventional wisdom about this era of independent hip hop, without necessarily breaking any new ground.

The most useful chapters of the book are the ones that follow. They are arranged in a reference format and provide an overview of the artists, labels, albums, and singles that defined this era. It was a fun chance to reminisce, and I would recommend having your record collection (or youtube) handy while you read these chapters.

Reading Pedroche's book gave me the opportunity to think about this era in new ways, with the benefit of hindsight. First, I realized how many of the defining artists of this era I really could not connect with (I'm looking at you Cage, Anticon, Atmosphere, Murs, Aesop Rock, etc...). I also gained an appreciation for how permeable the barriers were between "mainstream" and "underground" hip hop, despite the battle lines that fans like me drew at the time. Looking back, groups like Natural Elements and Skrewball probably would have been perfectly happy teaming up with Dipset or Roc-a-fella, even though their fans saw their movements as diametrically opposed.

In his interview on The Questions Podcast, Pedroche mentioned that certain artists get less coverage in his book, due to the social/political stances they have taken in recent years. I couldn't help searching for evidence of which artists were omitted. Kanye is the most obvious target, although his contributions to the underground were short-lived. I wondered whether Pedroche might be referring to Necro or Non-Phixion, but they both receive a decent amount of ink in the book. In the end, I'm not sure who he is referring to, but I did notice that Talib Kweli and Immortal Technique are discussed less than you would expect.

It would be difficult to assign an overall rating to this book. I feel like it is a good first step toward creating a rigorous scholarship of this musical subgenre. I hope that future writers will examine the conventional wisdom from this era and delve deeper into the genre's many facets. I applaud Pedroche for creating this book as a labor of love, and I appreciated the opportunity to revisit the music that defined my high school and college years.

[Rivers · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has its heart in the right place. As a catalog of the music of the era its a solid reference. But there is really no exploration of the scene, time and place, context, or critical analysis of any of the art. The opening does a decent job of setting the backdrop leading up to 1995. From there, we are mostly told that these artists were from these areas, and they released these albums. These record labels existed and released these albums. The author has done his homework based on the endnotes, but there is almost nothing of substance here. We read almost nothing about how the music sounds - the beats, the MCs, the styles, etc. The writing style is a drone of "X artist released Y album, followed two years later by Z album."

This is a book in dire need of an editor. Will keep it on the shelf as a reference, but the story was not told.

[Will Mccormick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book by any means but one that definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

This book is a nice introduction into this era of hip hop, but I feel there were a lot of artists and 12" singles omitted. I would have like to personally have seen deeper exploration of the random rap era that occured in the mid - late 90s. More depth is needed and lot of artists were barely touched on.

The main issue I had with the book is what others have mentioned - lack of context and the connectivity between the artists/labels/movements within the scene.

This book works as a great reference that I will go back to the future and is a nice catalog of some of the more major groups/artists/labels of the era, but I'd like to see something more definitive in the future.

[Madalene · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have noted, this is more of an annotated catalog, not a history. Still appreciate that the author took the time to catalog all of it - but if you're on the fence, start by following Pedroche's blog, where he catalogs quite a bit of the newer work by these great underground hip hop artists.

[Rich Gibbons · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good source of information about a topic I love. It reminded me of a few things I'd forgotten and gave me some new info too - but it is more a catalogue than a book.

There's no real story or narrative and it feels a little one dimensional.

I recommend it, but don't expect too much.

[Brendan Bagley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broad but still exhaustive, this is a book for serious hip-hop heads looking to fill in the gaps in their knowledge of the time period.