Anonymous asked: what are your thoughts on "mainstream" vs. "underground" hip-hop?

I’ll admit, long ago I was one of those strictly “underground” folks that refused to listen to anything that had any relation to the radio, MTV, etc. How naive I once was.

After a while, what I realized is that no one has an universal agreement on what mainstream and underground actually mean. What it comes down to is good music versus bad music. And that, is a completely subjective matter. Everyone has their own opinions on what they deem good and bad music. I for one, am not really fond of those two terms because it’s a completely new ball game with the Internet. Relatively unknown artists now have the ability to reach hundreds of thousands globally by releasing music via the internet. And some have. Are we not allowed to consider them “underground” anymore? 

People say “underground” artists are true to their music and don’t sell out. Who’s to say what Chris Brown and Trey Songz sing about aren’t true to them? Just because Drake has branched out into different territories musically, he’s a sellout? But Blu can make an overly experimental No York, and still be praised by the hip-hop community? This whole mainstream vs underground is one big mess to me. That’s why I just stick to the whole good music versus bad music concept. I’ll listen to what I like to listen to, and not listen to what doesn’t interest me. Putting these kinds of labels on artists is pointless. You even have those cats out there who refuse to listen to artists because they’re labeled as “mainstream.” How pathetic.