Anticon

Believing that rap needs a healthy alternative underground to counter mainstream hip-hop, Anticon is a collective loosely modeled after the American indie rock movement. Made up of eight MCs and producers -- Alias, Doseone, Jel, Odd Nosdam, Passage, Sole, The Pedestrian, and Whynull -- the collective pioneered a sound that matches obscure, near-beat poetry lyrics to beats that incorporated abrasive noise samples and unusual time signatures. Their origins started with The Live Poets, a crew based in Maine in the early '90s that was led by Sole. After releasing their own records and trying to create a buzz in the industry, he became disenchanted with the East Coast scene and began seeking other areas of the country with a similar offbeat attitude. He decided to move to San Francisco's Bay Area with fellow Live Poet Alias, where a number of MCs from Minneapolis and Canada were working with local rappers on new and experimental projects. They first met Minnesota native Slug, who was a fan of The Live Poets, and the three decided to work together with California MC Doseone on Deep Puddle Dynamics, an embryonic Anticon project. Although the four MCs had only briefly known one another, they shared a common vision, so they began to look for others who might be interested in starting a label with them.

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