Experimental Hip Hop
Experimental hip hop is rap that breaks the genre's usual rules, using harsh noise, odd rhythms, unusual samples or abstract lyrics.
Beats may draw on industrial music, noise, electronic or avant-garde music, and songs often use unconventional structures. The approach first appeared in the 1980s and early 1990s. Independent acts such as cLOUDDEAD pushed it further around 2000, and Death Grips, JPEGMafia and clipping. took it to wider audiences in the 2010s. It overlaps with alternative hip hop but is more abrasive.
Artists it is known for: Death Grips, JPEGMafia, clipping..
- Family
- Hip-Hop & Rap
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United States, 1980s to early 1990s
- Also called
- experimental rap, abstract hip hop
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 7%
About 5,800 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have experimental hip hop among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Experimental Hip Hop artists
MF DOOM
Westside Gunn
Madvillain
JPEGMAFIA
Earl Sweatshirt
DONDA
Devon Hendryx
Death Grips
The Alchemist
matt proxy
The experimental hip hop artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.