Dallas Penn: Underground Kings…

Duck Down Records has to be doing something right. They have remained the pre-eminent music label for underground rap for nearly two decades(15yrs as Duck Down, more if you include DruHa and Buckshot working together at Nervous Records). Just think for a moment about all the trends in rap that have taken place over the last twenty years…

Shout rap
Afrocentric rap
Lady rap
Shiny suit rap
Wu-Tang
Coke rap
Glitter mouth rap
Ho rap
Crunk music
DipSet
Skinny jeans rap
Autotune rap
Throwback rap
Lazerbeam rap

The list of rap music subgenres is endless but throughout all of those trends the one subgenre that remained faithful to Hip-Hop was backpacker rap. People shitted on backpacker rap over the years because it didn’t change clothes and get all trendy, or it didn’t get off the corner and drive a fancy car, but when all of these other subgenres have moved on to the next (R&B, country?) we will still have backpacker rap.

This is why Duck Down Records is the most important music label in the history of rap music. They are possibly even more important that Def Jam simply because they stayed the course throughout their existence. They didn’t chase trends just to hang out with the popular cool kids. Duck Down Records kept it real when everyone else was keeping it cliche. For Duck Down, ain’t a damn thing changed in 2010.

Later this month Steele from Smif-n-Wessun will release ‘AmeriKKKa’s Nightmare Pt.II: Children of War’. Kidz in the Hall has an album called ‘Land Of make Believe’ scheduled for early March release and then Marco Polo and Ruste Juxx close out the years first quarter with their collabo album ‘The eXXecution’. What other music label is opening the new decade with this much music focused on rap?

And coming right down the pike is the Random Axe project featuring Black Milk, Guilty Simpson and Sean Price. Then there is the Hip-Hop event Smif-n-Wessun with Pete Rock followed by the Sean Price ‘Mic Tyson’ album. This is how Duck Down Records keeps the underground alive.

Support real Hip-Hop