The Top 12 Greatest Independent Hip-Hop Labels [PHOTOS]
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Hip-Hop music has always had an independent spirit. Plenty of prominent, and major, rap labels of the present day started out indie (see: Cash Money, for one example). The truth is plenty of your favorite artist are rocking right now because they didn’t let a corporate label sleeping at the wheel dim their vision.
On this Independence Day, Hip-Hop Wired felt it was only right to salute some of the game greatest indie Hip-Hop labels. Some have unfortunately fallen by the wayside (Def Jux was shuttered) while others continue to thrive (Stones Throw just dropped a dope Quasimoto project).
Check out the greatest independent Hip-Hop labels of old and kind of new in the following pages.
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Photo: The Spotted Pig
Started by Brian Brater and Jarret Myer, with some help from Rupert Murdoch’s son, Rawkus Records became Grand Central to some of NYC Hip-Hop’s greatest underground rhyme talent. Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Company Flow and Pharoah Monche are just some of the heavyweights that recorded for the label.
First Priority
First Priority was a family affair since it was owned by the father (Nat Robinson) of MC Lyte and Audio Two (Milk Dee and Gizmo). Nepotism rarely works so well in the rap game.
New Orleans native Master P went to Cali and started pushing his records independently. A ridiculous deal with Priority Records where he kept his masters later and the No Limit Tank became a force. The roster—Fiend, Mia X, Mystikal and Beats by the Pound on production—was nothing to snooze on.
Sleeping Bag Records
Sleeping Bag Records (“Fresh” was the rap imprint) earned an early rep as a label to avoid. However, their roster of Hip-Hop acts was sick; Mantronix, Nice-N-Smooth, EPMD, Just Ice and T-La Rock. Also, one of its founders, Will Socolov, would open Freeze Records, which distributed an album called Reasonable Doubt by a rapper named Jay-Z.
Rap-A-Lot Record
James Prince’s label is responsible for the careers of acts like Scarface and the Geto Boys, Big Mike and Devin the Dude The label helped make Southern rap music a national force.
Hate or love it, Bryan “Birdman” Williams and Ronald “Slim” Williams are still winning over 20 years later. That is no easy feat. To keep it 100; signing Paris Hilton was suspect, though.
Founded by DJ Peanut Butter Wolf in 1996, Stones Throw is one of the last great independent Hip-Hop labels left. Acts like J Dilla, Madvillain, Guilty Simpson and Madlib have and continue to record for the Cali based label, a testament to its dedication to quality control.
Like Sleeping Bag Records, Wild Pitch caught a flack (probably justified) for jerking artists. But their roster of talent (Gang Starr, UMCs, Main Source) was top notch.
The Hieroglyphics crew (Souls of Mischief, Casual, Del and more) left the major label game in the rear view years ago and have been flourishing ever since.
Def Jam Records
It was the house that Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin built thanks to T-La Rock and Jazzy Jay’s “It’s Yours,” LL Cool J’s “I Need A Beat” and the Beastie Boys’ “Rock Hard,” which led to CBS Records (now Sony) giving them major distribution. Rubin dipped, and eventually so did Russell Rush, but that Def Jam logo is still Hip-Hop.
