Playlist
Alternative Hip-Hop Essentials
Apple Music Hip-Hop
Tracks: 100387:10
Going against the grain with hip-hop's abstract artists.
Updated Dec 23, 2025
Tracks 100
- 1Pure... 90s Dance Party4:11
- 2Buhloone Mindstate (30th Anniversary)4:15
- 3Check Your Head (Deluxe Edition) [Remastered 2009]4:16
- 4Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time And Space)4:21
- 5Hip Hop 100 Hits: Urban Rap & R 'n' B Anthems4:38
- 6Greatest Hits4:04
- 7Nouvel an - Années 903:43
- 8Hiturile verii4:27
- 9Power In Numbers3:08
- 10Madvillainy1:58
- 11This Week4:32
- 12Matthew3:03
- 13Blazing Arrow3:26
- 14RSE20: 20 Years of Rhymesayers Entertainment4:17
- 15Exit4:51
- 16Donuts2:57
- 17Labor Days4:26
- 18O.S.T.4:55
- 19All of the Above4:35
- 20Hip Hop 20233:36
- 21Will Rap for Food (Deluxe Edition)2:27
- 22Love & Hate3:40
- 23Run the Jewels 22:32
- 24We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service2:52
- 25Hiding Places3:52
- 26Veteran2:37
- 27Dark Comedy3:31
- 2819993:31
- 29Doris4:03
- 30Under Pressure (Deluxe Version)3:38
- 31LA Summertime Vibes3:03
- 32Watching Movies with the Sound Off3:40
- 33Telefone3:28
- 34Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often3:37
- 35Man On the Moon: The End of Day (Deluxe Version)4:55
- 36Let the Sun Talk5:07
- 37Best of 2017 Hip Hop5:35
- 38tears of joy1:44
- 39CARE FOR ME2:42
- 4090s Hip Hop & Chill5:03
- 41Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time & Space)4:35
- 42Blunted on Reality5:22
- 43Ill Communication3:19
- 44R&B Summer3:28
- 45Critical Beatdown3:24
- 46To Whom It May Concern4:33
- 4790s R&B3:46
- 48A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing4:19
- 49All Hail the Queen3:58
- 50Hot 90s Hits4:17
- 51Essential: Holiday4:37
- 52Boxcar Sessions3:28
- 53New York Hip Hop3:26
- 54Grandes Temazos de los 90's4:19
- 55Behind the Front3:35
- 56Soundpieces: Da Antidote!2:45
- 57A Book of Human Language4:47
- 58J 5 (Deluxe Edition)5:21
- 59A2G EP2:13
- 60Go! - Common Classics4:03
- 61The Next Step4:31
- 62Labor Days4:31
- 63Operation: Doomsday (Complete)4:18
- 64Free Soul Nujabes First Collection2:52
- 65Donuts1:38
- 6621st Century Urban4:14
- 67Grown Up - Single2:19
- 6819993:22
- 69If There's a Hell Below4:45
- 70I Don't Like S**t, I Don't Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt4:10
- 71Neighborhood Watch4:05
- 72RTJ43:01
- 73The Disrupt3:29
- 74The Minstrel Show3:51
- 75Boy Meets World5:13
- 76Beauty And The Beat2:55
- 77Dennehy4:12
- 78Be (20th Anniversary)3:45
- 79None Shall Pass (Bonus Track Version)4:03
- 80Arrythmia2:42
- 81The Grind Date3:05
- 82The Anthology3:39
- 83Straight Out the Jungle4:38
- 84Ill Communication3:32
- 85Cydeways: The Best of the Pharcyde4:56
- 86The Early Works of J-Live3:12
- 87Innercity Griots3:37
- 88Of the Heart, Of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience4:44
- 89Do You Want More?!!!??!4:41
- 90Alben für die Ewigkeit: The Score4:20
- 91Uptown Saturday Night4:00
- 92Fantastic Damage3:47
- 93The Shining5:36
- 94Quality Control4:48
- 95Hip Hop 100 Hits: Urban Rap & R 'n' B Anthems3:34
- 96Dr. Octagonecologyst3:17
- 973rd Eye Vision4:33
- 98The Platform4:00
- 99Triple X Years In The Game3:53
- 100Jazzy Rap3:47
About this playlist
As soon as hip-hop went mainstream, the avant-garde was there to subvert it. Emerging in the late '80s, the quirky samples, bohemian clothes, and introspective lyrics of the Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul would be the enduring landmarks of a hip-hop "alternative." The rise of the Fugees, The Pharcyde, and The Roots in the ’90s coincided with alternative rock's ascent. The '00s independent label boom boosted lateral thinkers like Madlib, El-P, Aesop Rock, J. Dilla, and MF Doom. And artists like Earl Sweatshirt, Kid Cudi, and Childish Gambino continue that trailblazing tradition today, changing style and sound from release to release.