I have been listening to a lot of rap lately, and I started wondering what people actually mean when they say an artist is "underground". It used to be simple. It meant you were unsigned, you sold CDs out of your trunk and you probably couldn’t get on the radio. But after reading the article by Andree Gee, I'm starting to think the term doesn’t make as much sense as it used to.
The internet has changed a lot. The big wall between “mainstream” and “underground” has kind of disappeared. The digital evolution has allowed artists to operate with a direct-to-consumer model, eliminating many of the barriers that kept certain acts obscure. These days all artists are a Tik Tok trend away from a platinum single. Are all the artists “underground” in the same way? It's difficult to explain exactly what that phrase means today.
To me underground music means “Everything that is different and diverse from the mainstream, music that is somewhat niche.” I think this somewhat aligns with what renowned A&R executive Dante Ross thinks “Underground rap means everything that’s not mainstream and has a somewhat determined ceiling.” However I think that “ceiling” is getting harder to smash through, even if it's easier to upload music. Sure everyone can put a song on Spotify, but that doesn't mean they are being heard or paid. I was pretty shocked to learn that Spotify recently stopped paying royalties on tracks that have fewer than 1000 plays. To be honest, that feels like a slap in the face to the true underground. It basically tells them that only mass appeal is appreciated and small art is worth literally nothing.
This forces artists to chase trends instead of building a unique sound. As Whalar points out, Tik Tok has become a massive force in the music industry. It’s great for discovery but it also creates a pressure to make music that works in short viral clips. If an "underground" rapper is just tweaking their sound to please the tik tok algorithm, are they really even underground anymore? Or are they just trying to be mainstream?
I used Gemini to help me summarize the main points of the article, and it highlighted that the “underground” used to be about a shared ideology and community, not just sales. I feel like we are losing the community spirit within the underground scene. Now it just feels like all the artists are fighting a lonely battle against an algorithm.
Ultimately, I don't think the underground is dead, but it has definitely changed. It isn’t about trunk sales anymore, it’s about survival in a digital ocean. If you find a niche artist you love, you should support them directly, buy their merch or go to a show, because streaming definitely isn’t paying their bills.
References:
Gee, A. (2024, December 11). What Does 'Underground Rap' Mean Today? Complex. https://www.complex.com/music/a/andre-gee/underground-rap-evolution Google. (2025). Gemini [Large language model]. https://gemini.google.com Stassen, M. (2023, November 21). Confirmed: Spotify to stop paying royalties on tracks with less than 1,000 plays. Music Business Worldwide. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/confirmed-spotify-to-stop-paying-royalties-on-tracks-with-less-than-1000-plays/ Whalar. (2023, June 15). The TikTok Effect: How the platform is changing the music industry. Whalar. https://whalar.com/insights/the-tiktok-effect