Released February 21, 2025,
by Le Mot et Le Reste.
Of the four books we have published, Independent Rap was the most personal, the most dense, and the most important. Published in 2014, this work was the culmination of fifteen years spent exploring in minute detail the underground movement that, on the fringes of mainstream rap, established itself at the end of the 1990s. Since history always has new lessons to teach, it was high time to reissue it in a revised and expanded version, now available more than ten years later. This brand-new edition is released on February 21, 2025.
The book takes us back first to the mid-1990s. After several years of irresistible rise and wild creativity – fueled by the rivalry between the East and West Coasts of the United States – hip-hop had produced its greatest classics, but the genre seemed to be running out of steam aesthetically, chasing mainstream audiences too aggressively and embracing a nouveau-riche imagery that did not sit well with everyone.
It was then, on the margins of the major record labels, that the independent rap wave was launched – a rap that decided to organize itself, relying on its own labels and networks and taking advantage of the freedom opened up by the rise of the Internet. Originally devoted to preserving the purity of hip-hop and restoring an integrity undermined by the so-called bling-bling style, this “indie” rap would evolve, soon doing quite the opposite: roughing up the genre, transcending it, hybridizing it, pushing it to its ultimate limits.
A few artists more or less closely associated with this underground – DJ Shadow, Eminem, Mos Def, Danger Mouse, Rhymefest, Flying Lotus, Aloe Blacc, or more recently Macklemore – would at one point or another achieve broad success, either commercial or critical. For the most part, however, the indie rap story would be a long but thrilling adventure in the shadows.
Company Flow, Antipop Consortium, Mike Ladd and MF Doom, Freestyle Fellowship, Project Blowed, Madlib, Busdriver and the Living Legends, Slug and Atmosphere, cLOUDDEAD, Sage Francis, Buck 65 and Why?, Fondle’em, Rawkus, Def Jux, Stones Throw, Rhymesayers and Anticon. This book tells the story of these artists and labels, as well as many others – more obscure, but representative of an alternative and iconoclastic rap – through the detailed presentation of around thirty scenes and one hundred albums, from the most emblematic to hidden treasures.
PRESS COVERAGE (selected quotes)
RTBF
Spreading out from New York and Los Angeles to the most remote corners of the United States, Canada, and then the rest of the world, independent rap forms a nebula whose map this book draws, presenting each of the players and scenes that composed it, along with the most representative records of the genre. Featuring names that have become iconic such as Company Flow, Project Blowed, Antipop Consortium, MF Doom, Sage Francis, Why? or Buck 65…
The author, Sylvain Bertot, is not merely a sharp connoisseur of rap and hip-hop – above all, he is passionate about it… The book can be approached by following the proposed chronology, but also as a stroll, a wandering through the pages at random, guided by the albums one encounters and feels curious to listen to or revisit. Artistic intention is the primary criterion for selection…
Radio
— Interview on the program Histoire Vivante, Swiss Radio and Television
— Interview on the program Black Mirror
— Interview on the program Pl3in le Poste, on Couleur 3
— Appearance on the talk show Ca Parle Hip-Hop
Press
… our friend is no newcomer: beyond the highly recommended Rap, hip-hop released in 2013, he treated us above all in 2014 to a fascinating and essential Independent Rap. Granted, it’s a specialist book that doesn’t escape relentless name-dropping, but one must do justice to all the players, even the obscure ones, of this “wave” born in opposition to the mainstream, formatted rap that flourished in the 1990s — bland soup subject to the demands of a booming market. The “indie” scene, teeming and irreverent, decided to thumb its nose at clichés and blow apart the boundaries of rap: social, racial, aesthetic.
Fluctuat
Presented in the manner of a non-exhaustive but well-stocked encyclopedia, Independent Rap connects the stars of the vast underground rap nebula, and draws lessons, through around a hundred albums, from the history of that highly eventful decade. Sylvain Bertot is no newcomer to this field, having been the driving force behind Nu Skool and Hip-Hop Section, two of the best French-language websites on the subject.
Author of Independent Rap: The Indie Hip-Hop Wave of the 1990s/2000s in Thirty Scenes and One Hundred Albums (Le Mot Et Le Reste, available at the finest establishments since late June), Sylvain Bertot, co-founder of the POPnews website and editor of the Fake For Real blog, takes a deep and thoughtful look at indie rap and its iconic figures. An opportunity to restore J. Dilla to his rightful place, to evoke an era that Aloe Blacc and Danger Mouse should never have left, and to understand why one can be a purist while still collaborating with Olivia Ruiz.
Noisey
I spoke with the DJs and founders of the highly respected American indie-rap label Fondle ‘Em, Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia, with Antipop Consortium member M Sayyid, with producer and collaborator of the French group TTC, Para One, and with writer and creator of the French independent rap reference site Hip-Hop Section, Sylvain Bertot, to find out whether — and why — everyone had forgotten this pivotal moment in the history of rap music.
With Independent Rap, the author invites us to explore in detail, with the clarity he is known for, the indie hip-hop wave of the late 1990s and early 2000s, covering no fewer than 30 scenes and 100 albums. Sylvain Bertot has been closely interested in this musical scene for over 10 years, having created and run Nu Skool and Hip-Hop Section, the most important French-language sites on the subject around the year 2000. Today his record reviews can be found on his blog Fake For Real. An enormous body of work for a book somewhat thicker than the first, in which readers will again enjoy Sylvain Bertot’s meticulous and effective writing.
Buggin
Devoting a book to rap in France, however specialized, remains a rare act even today. Yet the tide seems to be slowly turning, judging by recent literary output from Jean-Pierre Labarthe, Thomas Gaetner, and a certain Sylvain Bertot, author of a first general work (Rap, Hip-Hop: thirty years in 150 albums, from Kurtis Blow to Odd Future) published by Le Mot Et Le Reste in 2012. This same writer who now trades a broad overview for a sharper focus on independent rap. A fascinating and extremely well-documented book where historic labels cross paths with players of varying stature, from El-P to Astronautalis by way of the singular Buck 65. An encounter with a sharp connoisseur who pulls no punches.
Street Rules
On the occasion of the release last May of Independent Rap: The Indie Hip-Hop Wave of the 1990s/2000s in 30 Scenes and 100 Albums, a name already known in specialist rap literature reappeared on our radar. Sylvain Bertot, who two years earlier had made his mark with Rap, Hip-hop: Thirty Years in 150 Albums, from Kurtis Blow to Odd Future, returned to focus on a more specific period and movement: Independent Rap. A monumental undertaking for both books, as anyone who cares to imagine it will understand. We also discovered that the author had already been honing his pen not on paper but online, running the hip-hop section of the webzine Popnews.com and editing his own blog Fake For Real, after cutting his teeth directing the editorial teams of Nu Skool and Hip Hop Section, two important French-language blogs on the genre around the 2000s.
… Independent Rap provides, for the first time, a focused look at this loosely defined movement, attempting to define and narrate it. A colossal work of synthesis, given the enormous diversity of approaches among its representatives, and the near-total absence of existing sources — making this a truly unique work. This was a corner of rap you had to have lived through to know. And fittingly, Sylvain Bertot is one of those pioneering enthusiasts who helped spread this other hip-hop by creating several webzines and actively contributing to others (HipHopSection, FakeForReal, Popnews…).
Clutch Toulouse (No. 23, october 2014)
Following Rap, Hip-Hop and its 30 years of rap in 150 albums (see Clutch #6), Sylvain Bertot returns with a second work dedicated to his speciality: the indie hip-hop wave of the late 90s and early 2000s. Meticulously, the author pays tribute to a little-known, underestimated and often misunderstood scene. Out of step with a cautious music industry (following the first commercial failures after the fruitful Golden Age period), these unusual rappers — unsigned as they were — seemed all the more creative for it. One hundred records by uninhibited self-starters, operating below the radar yet indispensable, at the forefront of contemporary rap.
ABCDR du Son
A new book that is anything but an isolated act. It is the follow-up to Rap, Hip-Hop, which surveyed thirty years of the genre through a selection of 150 albums, all under the demanding pen of Sylvain Bertot. But above all, it is a continuation of the great Internet adventure of Hip-Hop Section, the defining webzine of the late 1990s. The follow-up is titled Independent Rap and focuses on 30 scenes and 100 albums. A truly fine opportunity to discover and rediscover a selection of gems from the independent scene, including Company Flow, Mike Ladd, MF Doom, Freestyle Fellowship, Sage Francis, Madlib, Busdriver and the Living Legends. And a small selection of French rap as the cherry on top of a richly layered cake. Independent Rap is out May 22.
Damn Right
In carrying out this thankless task, while remaining highly critical when an album — though representative — is not necessarily a complete success, Sylvain Bertot went even further by dissecting, with a precision bordering on autopsy, 30 influential scenes. Thirty scenes, the cradles of labels or artists who set out to whip rap into shape (New York City obviously, Chicago, Detroit, LA…), guided by the principle of never conforming to any trend and never following the dictates of the mainstream.
There is little left to add – this is a very good book, serious, well-researched, and above all written by someone who truly loves the music. The research Bertot must have done was titanic (many of these works are hard to find, when they haven’t disappeared entirely), and for that alone, this book is worth its weight in gold.
Kiblind
Following a first essential work, Rap, Hip-Hop, which surveyed thirty years of rap in 150 albums, the highly erudite Sylvain Bertot (POPnews, Hip-Hop Section, Fake For Real) returns with the 100 most significant albums from the indie scene of the 90s/2000s.
POPnews
Sylvain Bertot is our hip-hop specialist, who also runs the blog Fake For Real. After a first, more general work published in 2012, which he told us about here, here is the second volume, which covers independent rap and will be released, like its predecessor, by Le Mot et le Reste. Available from May 22 – congratulations Sylvain!
Other
Cult#MTL
The title says quite a lot, really. French rap scribe Sylvain Bertot has studied North American rap subcultures from afar, and this lofty read takes you from Halifax to Houston through the eyes of an overseas rap fanatic. Insightful both for Bertot’ s spot-on understandings and one-ocean-removed perspectives on the importance and impact of rap’s ever-influential underground on this side of the globe.
… this is the first book to focus on clearing a path through this teeming and often fascinating scene. And the author knows his stuff, having created the now-defunct sites Nu Skool and Hip Hop Section, which were well ahead of the curve on the subject at the time.
Soul ton Oreille
To learn more about the history of hip-hop, and specifically about independent rap, we recommend Sylvain Bertot’s book: Independent Rap: The Indie Hip-Hop Wave of the 1990s–2000s. A great way to educate yourself, and since books on the subject in French are so rare, there’s really no reason to pass it up!
Laitdbac Records
Our long-time friend/godfather Sylvain Bertot, who founded seminal indie rap websites Nu Skool and Hip-Hop Section and now runs Fake For Real has a new book out later this month (in French, through Le Mot et le Reste éditions). A follow-up to acclaimed “Rap, Hip-Hop. 30 années en 150 albums. De Kurtis Blow à Odd Future”, the new 470-page offering focuses on the so-called “Independent Rap”, covering an incredibly wide range – from New York’s Fondle’em Records to LA-based collective The Shape Shifters to Anticon and the Halifax scene, etc.
Blog Radioinactive
My record with Anti-MC Free Kamal is on the cover of French book about Independent Rap by long-time supporter Sylvain Bertot, the guy behind the Fake For Real online magazine (who also did Hip-Hop Section back in the days). The record features in the book itself along with The Shape Shifters’ Adopted by Aliens, Busdriver’s Temporary Forever and many others and gets a great review. It’s out May 23. Now we need an English version.
