Throughout this past year, the direction of indie hip-hop has been all over the spectrum. As the genre continues to diversify, more originality and creativity are seen in projects that create their own path in music. Often, these paths criss-cross in the form of interesting collaborative projects, such as the Jaylib album or The Four Horsemen EP, which puts together the haphazard combination of Killah Priest, Ras Kass, Canibus and Kurupt.
The best collaborative album to surface in 2003, though, is easily Soul Position's . The pairing of Blueprint's endowed mic presence and RJD2's vivid, thick production is one that naturally created and quickly exceeded high expectations. RJ gave Blueprint a set of exceptionally produced, emotionally charged beats and Blueprint had the entertaining and often thought-provoking rhymes to match. With songs like \Run,"" ""Look of Pain"" and ""Share This,"" Soul Position proved that true chemistry can be instantaneously obtained.
But both RJD2 and Blueprint did not let the collaboration get in the way of their solo careers, and both artists kept themselves busy over the course of the year. RJD2's production could be found all over the place, as he produced nearly half of Diverse's album () and chipped in tracks for The High & Mighty, MURS, Tame One and the Cunninlynguists, among many others. In the meantime, Blueprint kept himself busy on the mic and behind the boards with his well done solo debut, . His crew, Greenhouse Effect, also saw the release of their debut, .
Of course, there were other artists in the industry who also kept themselves very busy in 2003. The invasion continues for producer/rapper Madlib, whose crowning achievement of '03 was the amazing hip-hop/jazz fusion album, .
Though that album would have been enough to mark a remarkable year for the Beat Conductor, Madlib also put down half the beats for fellow Lootpack member Wildchild's solo debut, . On top of that, he collaborated with Jay Dee on the previously mentioned Jaylib project and produced the entire Dudley Perkins album, an often whimsical neo-soul collaboration stitched together with good production. Up next for Madlib is the highly anticipated album with fellow rapper/producer MF Doom, who himself was also quite busy in 2003, dropping two exceptional albums under the monikers Viktor Vaughn and King Geedorah, along with adding three new volumes to his Metal Fingers instrumental series.
To the surprise of few, Madlib will be a busy man once again in 2004. Bootlegged and incomplete releases of his collaboration with MF Doom, , have been available for several months and have sparked lot of interest in this project. In addition to that, Madlib will be working with the likes of Radiohead and Talib Kweli.
One huge point to note for hip-hop in 2003 was the increased level of production. Along with the likes of Madlib and RJD2, veteran producers Ant of Atmosphere and J-Zone each reached a new plateau of quality with and , respectively. More notable, though, was the rise of new producers Soul Supreme and 9th Wonder. While each made waves by remixing Nas albums ( and , respectively) their new projects were even more impressive. Soul Supreme's is an excellent compilation album that features quality performances by the likes of KRS-One, Wordsworth and Planet Asia. 9th Wonder's group, Little Brother, put out an ATCQ-esque performance and easily one of the year's best albums with The Listening. LB has made fans of The Roots, and 9th Wonder produced a song for Jay-Z's The Black Album. This group seems to be well on its way to greatness and could perhaps someday rival its ""older brothers,"" the classic hip-hop groups of hip-hop's golden age.
While rookie artists were trying to make power moves, mainstay veterans were attempting to hold on to their upper echelon status, with very mixed results. Gangstarr blessed its listeners with yet another excellent album in . Though not quite the classic album that 1998's is, Guru and DJ Premier once again displayed why they are considered to be among the best ever.
Unfortunately, 2003 did not bring about such luck for the Wu-Tang Clan. RZA's first solo under his original name (as opposed to the Bobby Digital CDs), , is a shell of what it could have been. Though well produced at times, this album suffers from great inconsistency and RZA's lyrics often fall into irrelevance. Raekwon's 2003 release, , is bland and predictable. Sadly, it's sound bears closer resemblance to Rae's horrible flop, , than it does to his 1995 classic . Inspectah Deck, too, suffered from the same fate as his Wu brethren as his sophomore album is merely a shell of his solid debut, .
Fortunately, there were other artists and groups whose sophomore releases fared much better than Deck's. Vakill showed why he is arguably the best battling emcee in hip-hop with his second album, . Chock full of clever and often hilarious punchlines, all spit over good Molemen production, Vakill represented Chicago well with one of the better albums of the year. Hieroglyphics came back where they started from this past year with their second group release, . Though not quite the album that the original, , is, the Hiero crew appeased their core following with a very solid release. While Del, who's working on his newest solo endeavor, made only a few appearances, the rest of the group picked up the slack and showed off their talents. Opio in particular was very impressive, with head-nodding verses in ""Fantasy Island"" and ""Heatish.""
The Cunninlynguists dropped one of the best albums of the year with their second effort, . With diverse and notable production handled mostly by group member Kno, along with entertaining and often conscious lyrics by all the artists, Cunninlynguists have proven to be more than just a clever pun.
Though 2003 was a great year for indie hip-hop, 2004 has the potential to be even better.
