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New York and the East Coast · New York City · since 1981

1981
East Coast
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Downtown Manhattan

New York City
Punk crossover · the record business · indie rap
Ride the roster1:40
Story, bloodline and 8 names

Not a neighbourhood scene so much as a collision. Downtown clubs put rappers on bills with punk bands, the art world adopted the writers, and in an NYU dorm room Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons started Def Jam. Fifteen years later El-P started Def Jux a few blocks away and gave indie rap its own noise.

Bloodline · 1 stop from The Bronx
  1. 1973The Bronx
  2. 1981Downtown Manhattan

Fab 5 Freddy carried the Bronx downtown into punk clubs and galleries, the Rock Steady Crew followed, and Blondie's "Rapture" put it on MTV before a single rap label existed.

Next stopsSouth Central (LA), Tokyo, Cape Town, Paris, Berlin and 1 more

Def JamRock Steady CrewDef JuxWild Style
Roster
1979
Rock Steady Crew

Took b-boying off the street and onto world stages.

YTW
1981
Fab 5 Freddy

The connector between the Bronx, the downtown art world and MTV.

YTW
1984
Def Jam

Rubin + Simmons. The label that made rap a mainstream American industry.

YTW
1986
Beastie Boys

Hardcore punks who became the first rap album to top the Billboard 200.

YTW
1997
Company Flowdeep cut

"Independent as f—". El-P's manifesto for rap outside the majors.

YTW
1999
Aesop Rockdeep cut

Largest vocabulary in recorded rap, and he earned it honestly.

YTW
2001
Cannibal Oxdeep cut

The Cold Vein — Def Jux's masterpiece, rap as science fiction.

YTW
2013
Run the Jewels

El-P and Killer Mike — the indie lineage arriving back at arena scale.

YTW

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