ARCHIVED ARTICLES: Hidden Gems (The Owen Hollander Experience)

Written: November 2021

Hip-hop has become the mainstream artistry of the music industry. What started as an inner-city genre about social change in the late 1970s Bronx has taken the world by storm in modern entertainment. In a way, rappers have become the new rockstars. To a large portion of the youth today, rappers are to us what Kiss or AC/DC were to our parents. A massively influential aspect of modern hip-hop is the underground scene on the internet. This underground internet scene lives on apps, like YouTube, SoundCloud, and TikTok, that have been responsible for many hits these past few years. Underground rap is distributed to and discovered by a mainstream audience through these platforms. Without such platforms the scene would’ve died long ago.

Recently, the biggest platform for the underground scene has been TikTok. TikTok has allowed many great artists to be recognized and successful. This can also be attributed to online personalities that create content around the underground scene. I spoke with one of these creators named Slater, who has a combined 162.1K followers on his two TikTok accounts, as of writing. Slater sees his main goal on TikTok as helping people discover more music and appreciate artists. He stated that he finds underground hip-hop important because “When something isn’t talked about in popular circles it can easily be forgotten. However, in those underground sections there can be some real gems that people are missing out on. There are many times where people prefer underground artists more than their favorite artists, but they’re just not aware of the underground [ones].” He’s proud to be a voice of the underground community on the app and promote “fun conversations” about hip-hop.

I also spoke with a rapper named King Green, who has 185.4K followers on TikTok, as of writing. I originally saw King Green perform at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and have enjoyed him since then. He’s a prime example of a talented artist that hasn’t received his deserved mainstream recognition. He states this himself in his song Lesson 2: Apathy 0, rapping “I ain’t famous.” He fell in love with rap young, listening to groups like Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep, and never quit. He detailed that his creative process is letting anything flow and the song builds itself. Rap has allowed Green to fulfill his dreams, making songs with inspirations, like Eminem, Pharrell Williams, and Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan, and performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

I love to surf online to discover our next rockstars—it makes a more personal connection to the music when you support them before their mainstream success. So, if you’re someone who wants to explore a genre from a deeper perspective, get online and dig until you discover your hidden gems.