# Music — What I Listen To > Brad's music taste — underground hip-hop, 90s industrial/alternative, and IDM. No mainstream anything. Hip-hop is where he spends the most listening time. I'm a huge music head. My taste runs in three lanes that are more connected than they look: underground hip-hop, 90s industrial and alternative, and IDM/experimental electronic. The common thread is density — I like music that rewards attention, has layers, and doesn't hand you everything on the first listen. ## Hip-Hop Hip-hop is where I spend the most listening time. It's not close. But I have zero interest in mainstream rap — never have. I care about lyricism, production, and people who are genuinely doing something different. I grew up on the golden age, got deep into the underground in the early 2000s, and never left. ### My Core Artists **MF DOOM** is the GOAT. Full stop. The wordplay, the sampling, the villain persona, the way he treated rap like architecture. Madvillainy is one of the greatest albums ever made in any genre. The fact that he had all those aliases — Viktor Vaughn, King Geedorah, Metal Fingers, Danger Doom — and each one had its own distinct character and sound, that's not just music, that's world-building. I can talk about DOOM for hours. The internal rhyme schemes, the food metaphors, the way he'd change flow mid-bar. And the mask — the mask wasn't a gimmick, it was a statement about what matters in hip-hop. Just remember ALL CAPS when you spell the man name. **Aesop Rock** has the densest vocabulary in hip-hop — that's not opinion, that's been measured. He uses more unique words per track than any other rapper in history. Labor Days, Skelethon, The Impossible Kid, Spirit World Field Guide — every album rewards multiple listens because you catch new layers each time. I'm genuinely convinced half his bars are about things nobody has decoded yet. His production evolved too — the early Blockhead collabs have a different feel than his self-produced stuff, and both work. **El-P** is industrial hip-hop before that was even a genre. Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus was ahead of its time by about a decade. Fantastic Damage sounded like the future was broken. Then he started Definitive Jux and gave the entire underground a home. And then Run The Jewels happened — El-P and Killer Mike together is one of the best things to happen to hip-hop this century. The production on RTJ2 and RTJ3 is genuinely unhinged in the best way. **Outkast** proved you could be experimental and still make records that move people. ATLiens is a perfect album. Aquemini is a perfect album. Stankonia is a perfect album. Andre 3000 might be the most naturally gifted MC who ever lived — the way he can switch between rapid-fire technical rapping and these melodic, almost sung deliveries is insane. Big Boi is criminally underrated as a lyricist. And their production choices — working with Organized Noize to create something that sounded nothing like East Coast or West Coast, that was revolutionary. **The Roots** are the best live band in any genre. Not "best hip-hop band" — best band, period. Black Thought is one of the greatest MCs alive and somehow still doesn't get the recognition he deserves. Things Fall Apart, Phrenology, Game Theory, Undun — each one is a masterwork. The fact that they maintained that level of artistic integrity while being the Tonight Show band for years is remarkable. ?uestlove's drumming is the heartbeat of everything they do. **Open Mike Eagle** does this anxious, self-aware, absurdist thing that hits different. Dark Comedy was a revelation. Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is about the demolition of a housing project and it's somehow both devastating and funny. He does comedy rap without being a comedy rapper — there's genuine pain underneath the jokes, and that tension is what makes his stuff resonate. Component System with the Auto Reverse was a return to form. His podcast work and the Hellfyre Club scene connection add another dimension. **Danny Brown** is chaos with perfect timing. The way he switches between that high-pitched manic voice and the deep, introspective delivery is like two different rappers sharing one body. XXX was a gut punch. Atrocity Exhibition is a masterpiece of experimental hip-hop — he named it after a Joy Division song and a J.G. Ballard novel, and the music lives up to both references. That album sounds like Detroit falling apart and being rebuilt simultaneously. ### The Underground I Love Beyond my core artists, the underground is deep. **billy woods** and **Armand Hammer** are making some of the most important hip-hop right now. **Ka** was a firefighter who made some of the most poetic, minimalist rap ever recorded before he passed. **Roc Marciano** brought the grimy, sample-heavy street rap back before Griselda. **JPEGMAFIA** is doing things with production that shouldn't work but absolutely do. **Quelle Chris** is consistently one of the most creative voices in underground hip-hop. **Milo/R.A.P. Ferreira** is rap for people who read philosophy — in the best way. **Homeboy Sandman** has this effortless, conversational flow that makes complex rhyme schemes sound like he's just talking. **Atmosphere** and **Brother Ali** from the Rhymesayers camp — Slug's storytelling on albums like God Loves Ugly and When Life Gives You Lemons was formative for me. **Eyedea** was a battle rap genius who died way too young. **Sage Francis** brought spoken word energy into hip-hop. **Busdriver** raps faster and more intricately than almost anyone, and his production choices are fearless. The labels matter too. **Def Jux** (El-P's label) was ground zero for the underground in the early 2000s. **Rhymesayers** built the Minneapolis scene into something national. **Stones Throw** gave us Madvillainy. **Backwoodz Studioz** is where billy woods operates. **Mello Music Group** has been quietly releasing some of the best underground hip-hop for years. ### Old School and Golden Age I know my history. You can't understand where hip-hop is without knowing where it came from. **Rakim** changed MCing forever — before him, rappers were basically just shouting over beats. He introduced internal rhyme schemes, complex cadences, and a calm delivery that let the words do the work. **KRS-One** brought intellectualism and aggression together. **A Tribe Called Quest** made jazz rap into something warm and accessible without dumbing it down. **Gang Starr** — Guru's monotone delivery over DJ Premier's boom bap production is one of the most distinctive sounds in hip-hop. **Pete Rock & CL Smooth** — Mecca and the Soul Brother is untouchable. **Wu-Tang Clan** rewrote the rules. 36 Chambers is a masterpiece, but what's more impressive is the business model — five solo albums across different labels, all feeding back into the Wu-Tang brand. RZA's production on those first-wave solo albums (Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Liquid Swords, Supreme Clientele, Ironman) is some of the best hip-hop production ever recorded. Ghostface and DOOM were supposed to make a full album together (DOOMSTARKS) and it never fully materialized, which is one of hip-hop's great what-ifs. **Nas** — Illmatic is the album every MC measures themselves against. Ten tracks, no filler, every verse essential. The fact that he was 20 when he made it is almost incomprehensible. ### Southern Hip-Hop The South doesn't get enough credit for how much it shaped hip-hop. Besides Outkast, **UGK** (Bun B and Pimp C) brought Texas rap to a level that influenced everything after them. **Scarface** is one of the greatest storytellers in rap history — The Diary is devastating. **Goodie Mob** (with CeeLo before Gnarls Barkley) were doing conscious Southern rap before anyone acknowledged the South could do that. **Three 6 Mafia** invented a whole sonic palette that still gets sampled today — that dark, Memphis phonk sound. **8Ball & MJG** were making sophisticated Southern rap when New York was still pretending the South didn't exist. ### Modern Hip-Hop I Respect **Kendrick Lamar** is the closest thing to a consensus GOAT in modern hip-hop, and he's earned it. To Pimp a Butterfly is a jazz-fusion-funk-rap masterpiece that won a Pulitzer for a reason. The conceptual storytelling, the production ambition, the willingness to make an album that doesn't sound like anything else — that's what hip-hop should be. **Tyler, the Creator** had one of the most impressive artistic evolutions in hip-hop history. Going from Odd Future shock rap to Flower Boy to Igor to Call Me If You Get Lost — each album is a completely different thing, and they all work. Igor isn't even really a rap album and it's one of the best things he's made. His production has gotten genuinely stunning. **Earl Sweatshirt** went from Odd Future prodigy to one of the most interesting voices in abstract hip-hop. Some Rap Songs is lo-fi, fractured, and deeply personal in a way that connects back to what Ka and billy woods are doing. His work with The Alchemist on VOIR DIRE was a highlight. **The Alchemist** might be the defining producer of the 2020s underground. His work with Boldy James (The Price of Tea in China, Bo Jackson), Freddie Gibbs (Alfredo), Action Bronson, Earl, Conway — every beat is this minimal, sample-based canvas that lets MCs breathe. He found the sweet spot between boom bap and something modern. **Freddie Gibbs** went from street rap to art without losing the streets. Piñata and Bandana with Madlib are two of the best rap albums of the 2010s. Alfredo with The Alchemist is lean and perfect. **Griselda** — Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher — brought that grimy, street-level, sample-heavy approach back. They're carrying the torch from Roc Marciano and connecting it back to the Wu-Tang aesthetic. **JID**, **Denzel Curry**, **Little Simz**, **Noname**, **Saba**, **Smino** — the new wave of lyricists who actually care about bars. JID's flow is technically insane. Denzel Curry has range from mosh-pit energy to introspective lyricism. Little Simz (out of London) made one of the best rap albums of the 2020s with Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. Noname's Room 25 is compact and brilliant. Saba's Care for Me is one of the most emotionally resonant rap albums I've heard. ### Production I pay as much attention to production as lyrics. The evolution from drum machines (808s, SP-1200) to the MPC to DAWs changed what was possible. **DJ Premier's** boom bap chops are the gold standard for sample-based production. **RZA's** dusty, lo-fi soul loops on those first-wave Wu-Tang solo albums created an entire aesthetic. **Madlib** is the ultimate crate digger — the range of what he samples is insane, from Bollywood to Brazilian vinyl to obscure jazz. **El-P's** production is dense, industrial, and futuristic. **Kenny Beats** is doing interesting things with the newer generation. **Pierre Bourne** and **Metro Boomin** defined the trap sound, which I can respect even if it's not my lane. The Eurorack modular connection is real — generative ambient patches are basically Boards of Canada meets systems thinking. But the density and layering in underground hip-hop maps to how I think about code architecture. ## Industrial and Alternative Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Primus, Alice in Chains. That's the core. Tool is the intersection of math, philosophy, and heaviness — Lateralus is a Fibonacci sequence set to music. NIN was my entry point into understanding that music could be built from texture and noise, not just melody and rhythm. Primus is Primus — Les Claypool plays bass like nobody else on the planet and the whole band operates in this weird space between funk, metal, and absurdism. Alice in Chains wrote the heaviest harmonies in rock. Layne Staley's voice is one of the most haunting sounds ever recorded. ## Electronic and IDM Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Die Antwoord. Aphex Twin is the obvious one — Richard D. James has been 20 years ahead of everyone else for 30 years. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and Drukqs are both perfect and sound nothing alike. Boards of Canada make music that sounds like memories decaying — like a VHS tape from a childhood you're not sure you had. Die Antwoord is a wildcard but they commit to the weirdness completely and I respect that. ## The Connection All of this feeds into everything else I do. Eurorack modular is the obvious link — generative ambient patches are basically Boards of Canada meets systems thinking. But the density and layering in underground hip-hop maps to how I think about code architecture. Tool's polyrhythmic structures are container philosophy set to music. And NIN's approach to texture and noise is how I think about emergent behavior in multi-agent systems — you set up the conditions and let the interesting stuff happen in between the notes. ## Details - **Category:** Notes - **Tags:** music, hip-hop, industrial, electronic, idm, personal, underground **Also read:** [All writing](https://bradanderson.org/writing?format=md) · [About Brad](https://bradanderson.org/about?format=md) --- **Navigate:** [Home](https://bradanderson.org/?format=md) · [About](https://bradanderson.org/about?format=md) · [Work](https://bradanderson.org/work?format=md) · [Projects](https://bradanderson.org/projects?format=md) · [Breeds](https://bradanderson.org/breeds?format=md) · [Writing](https://bradanderson.org/writing?format=md) · [LLM guide](https://bradanderson.org/llms.txt) _Ask BradBot directly: POST https://bradanderson.org/api/agent/ask with {"question": "..."} (details in https://bradanderson.org/llms.txt)._