Abstracthiphop is a style of hip hop that eschews many of the genre’s conventions. It has become a fixture of the underground hip hop scene since the early 2000s. Lyrically, abstract artists tend to focus on more abstract ideas such as existentialism or social institutions rather than everyday problems or braggadocio.
Abstract hip hop music uses a wide range of unconventional production techniques that can include samples from a variety of sources. It also incorporates elements of jazz, funk, soul, and electronic music as well as spoken word and poetry.
The ethos of abstracthiphop includes the following core doctrines: properties of flow, layering, and rupture; a principle of productive consumption; excessive publicity or promotion–what affiliates refer to as “hype”; embracing individual and communal entrepreneurship; and a committed politics of action and loyalty.
The aforementioned doctrines are intertextually-positioned and shaped by a series of intricacies and conflicts that are often inconspicuous or even concealed. These intricacies are typically most notable around collective social categories such as gender, age, and class.
