So What Exactly is Experimental Rap Anyway? We Asked Six Rappers, Producers and Journalists
Industry insiders mull over the history of "experimental" as a label for hip-hop and whether the term is functional, redundant or useless.
Photos by John Medina, Peter Kramer/Getty. Photo illustration by Jefferson Harris for Okayplayer.
Earlier this month, JPEGMAFIA got the computers ‘putin ahead of his EXPERIMENTAL RAP album. He told Pigeons & Planes that he was claiming the throne as “The King” of experimental rap, which turned into a sarcasm-tinged tiff between him and Earl Sweatshirt. But beyond the fireworks of what writer Arielle Lana LeJarde deemed “2pac vs biggie for guys with an MF DOOM tattoo,” JPEGMAFIA sparked a community-wide discussion on what experimental rap even means in 2026.
Rap music production started with producers like Grandmaster Flash looping records from turntables with his “quick mix” technique. “[The Quick Mix] is the beginning of it all,” he told me in a 2023 interview for Rolling Stone. “It turned DJs into musicians and allowed the rapper to have a bed of music to speak on. Other than that, where would this music have come from? It had to come from the same duplicate copies of vinyl and the breakdown drum section; we would repeat that over and over again, and then in front of the table would be a person who’s speaking. The first person who did that when I invented this was Cowboy, and this happened in the Bronx.”
To this day, hip-hop producers heavily use Roland’s SP-404 sampler; neither that nor the turntable was designed to make beats. So in some respects, even an artist creating the most bland, conventional beat on that hardware is still adhering to a history of experimentation.
The term earned more utility as the hip-hop industry boomed, and labels eventually cultivated a rubric for the kind of records most likely to be greenlit: glossy, accessible, melodic, hook-driven, crafted in two or three 16-bar verses. And, of course, that’s not to say that indie rap music from then or now can’t have those qualities, but anything that outwardly shirked the confines of a conventional major label rap release essentially became lauded as “experimental.”
The more that hip-hop prioritized the consumer, the more subgenres popped up to organize the veritable marketplace. And while a sound like drill rap or so-called boom bap is identifiable by the percussion, the term “experimental” refers to an approach. That ambiguity leaves the specifications of what’s truly “experimental” wide open to interpretation. So, in a series of interviews, I got some cultural experts to explain their take on just what “experimental rap” means to them. Some thought the term was useful, some thought it was a farce. But, as is the beauty of music, no one is right or wrong.
If somebody ever asked me to show them experimental hip-hop music, I’d probably play them some Dr. Octagon or Lil B. To me, it means the same as experimental music in any other genre: music that defies the norms and standards of the sound of that genre. I would say today LAZER DIM 700 is one of the guys making that kind of music.
I suppose categorizing music as experimental, like a genre, might be useful in some cases, but it almost goes against the idea of experimenting and breaking genre boundaries, which is kind of ironic.
From the onset, rap music was and is experimental music. Currently, I think experimental rap is an arbitrary subsection of rap music that falls short of true and useful meaning because it’s always comparing itself to mainstream rap slop music pushed by wealthy record label conglomerates who constantly poach ideas from the underground and independent scene. Rap’s core tenet of “stop biting” once felt like failsafe rhetoric that would ensure original styles and the innovation that the term experimental rap seeks to build upon. The truest participants of this culture have always strove to push and blur the lines of reality and what is even possible through the craft. I am personally dedicated to inspire awe and wonder and terror via sound.
It definitely can be useful to categorize some rap as “experimental.” There are so many types of styles that have been birthed and will continue to be birthed both regionally and internationally. Categorization may be useful to the uninitiated. If only to direct them to art that aims to do more than be palatable to the widest margin of listeners. If only to direct listeners to the sound that they truly seek.
For me, experimental rap means having your art be as free as possible and not put into any box, regardless of the sound. Pushing boundaries and getting out of your comfort zone across the board. Even if it's something where you think it may lose you some fans or people may not get it, it's about being as confident as possible in your creation, and always keeping listeners on they toes [where] they should never expect what's next.
To me, experimental rap is about pushing the boundaries and the status quo. It's progressive, it's creative, and at times it's meant to make you feel a bit uncomfortable. It may make you think, "Wait you're not supposed to do that," until you settle yourself and remember that the only sonic rule in hip-hop is to be dope! It's wild samples, sometimes it's industrial sounds, there's abstract lyricism, spacey flows — it's all out the box. Artists like JPEGMAFIA, Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE are seen as the leaders of this current experimental rap movement. Some of it has roots in Travis Scott's earlier work or Kanye's Yeezus album. I'm old enough to remember when it was Kool Keith, as Dr. Octagon, who was pushing boundaries with his 1996 album, Dr. Octagonecologyst. Or when El-P took us from Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus to his Def Jux era — even his Run the Jewels run is a bit left-of-center. But now we have this resurgence of new artists who are leading the way. I think it's good for the genre.
It's important to understand that it's all hip-hop and what makes our music and our culture beautiful is the vast creativity. That being understood, I do think it's important to categorize segments of rap, because future generations need to feel ownership, need to have the freedom to create something that they can contribute to hip-hop — all without being bound to a set of rules that came before them. Creating these segments also means that we're creating new space, and we're not all competing for the same awards, or radio slots, or spots on a playlist. On the flip side, there has also been this idea of adult contemporary hip-hop, which has been thrown around. Like, why should Playboi Carti and De La Soul be competing against each other? It's all hip-hop, but they're doing different things sonically.
It's interesting that an artist has titled their LP [EXPERIMENTAL RAP]. I think EHH is definitely in the ears and eye of the beholder because when I think of experimental hip-hop, I expect to hear something jarring and avant-garde that wouldn't please most ears of casual rap fans.
On the indie scene, the last few years, there's been a trend of "drumless beats," which seemed experimental at first but became passé and run-of-the-mill very quickly — and in response, some of my favorite underground hip-hop producers came back with heavy boom bap, more 808s, bigger bass, and drums reminiscent of the Bomb Squad/Shocklee era.
As a Bandcamp expert and trainer for indie artists and labels, the term "experimental hip-hop" and its use as a tag or label for a project or album can propel someone into a top slot because it's underutilized. If 100 hip-hop LPs drop on a Bandcamp Friday, yours may not make a blip. But if only two of those are tagged as experimental? It becomes a highlight and will be more notable and recommended within the platform.
Like any other subgenrefication, I believe it can be misused and in this case, it's not pushed far enough. I'd like to hear experimentation taken to a higher height both in lyricism and in rhyme styles — give me a 2030 Scaramanga or Antipop Consortium or Divine Styler!! Experiment further with sound and the types of samples used to really and truly push this subgenre forward.
By its very nature, rap is experimental. It is the most post-modern of all art forms, built atop the best sounds of the previous century, originating from spontaneous outbursts of bravado, joy, derision and rebellion. The Cold Crush were experimental rappers. No one ever topped Rammellzee's bugged-out linguistic warfare. There was a period where the good Dr. Octagon threw fried chicken, wet wipes and Capri-Suns into the crowd. Spoonie Gee introduced the new rap language. At its best, rap is a subversive mutation. If it's not experimental, it's almost always inconsequential. I don't think toe-tagging rap into individual segments is particularly valuable, although it is a shrewd marketing gambit. You've got to cut through the chaos somehow.
