Contrary to poular belief, gangsta rap is not the only type of rap. There are many sub-genres, such as alternative rap. Alternative rap or Underground rap is defined as a culture rather than just a musical genre. Underground rap and hip hop includes the various arts of turntablism, sampling, producing, breakdancing, visual art, graffiti, spoken word, beatboxing, freestyling, cyphering, and more. The music itself is distinguished by artists who are not promoted by major record labels, often because of their experimental musicianship and lyrical content. Many underground artists are also using hip hop to successfully communicate issues of social justice, global and political change, and collective consciousness. Underground hip hop beats are often characterized by the fusion of loops sampled from all genres of music, including classical, jazz, funk, rock, and punk. Although some listeners may associate live instrumentation with alternative hip hop, this distinction is invalid because mainstream rap acts such as J-Kwon use live instruments as well. Underground hip hop artists generally do not achieve the same level of financial success that commercial rappers achieve, although their work is often critically acclaimed.

Artists labeled as "alternative hip hop" musicians usually record and perform in styles that are more closely related to the original concepts and styles of hip hop music and hip hop culture, as opposed to their mo...

A Rap Style that's totally different from Party Rap and Gangster Rap focusing strictly on Subjects the majority of Rappers don't Rap about. Most people that sell records well and get a lot of air play now in days will call it Preaching Rap.

Alternative rap is a type of rap music (that got popular during the late '90s as rap music entered major identity crisis) that self-consciously aspires to distance itself from the rest of the rap scene. Ok, if we bear in mind what current rap music became, that's not so hard to understand, but "alterna/indie/emo" rap is just another side of the caricature that rap music nowadays is. I would say that terms "alternative", "indie", "emo" rap are synonyms for one same thing: a tendency inside rap formed during late '90s music that is dragging rap away from its core, paradoxically as it may sound - no matter how some of those people are swearing that they're trying to "keep rap music in a healthy state".
Mostly, "alterna/indie/emo" rap circuit is based around labels like Def Jux, Anticon and few of them more (like Rawkus early on) and most of the artists inside of that little sect are whites. Of course, targeted public are also sub-urbanite white kids who really would like to get into rap, but have difficulties to comprehend Black (read: street) system of values {code of the street}, so they have those "white, handsome, intelligent, deep, intellectual and emotional" mc-es with whom they could establish better bond than with Jay-Z or 50 Cent, let's say. That said, "alterna/indie/emo" rap also could be called "rap music without the street component". Pretty confusing is that rap music (which traditionally pulled all its potency from the streets, all its rawness, grittiness, dir...