Anticon

Headquarters: Bay Area, CA

Founded: 1998

Founded by: Tim Holland (Sole) and James Brandon Best (Pedestrian)

Link: http://www.anticon.com/

Genre(s): underground and experimental rap, indie-hop, instrumental hip-hop, forward thinking music

Active Roster
Alias, Jel, Telephone Jim Jesus, Dosh, Odd Nosdam, Themselves (Doseone and Jel), Passage, Sole, Why?, Pedestrian, Restiform Bodies (The Bomarr Monk, Passage and Telephone Jim Jesus), 13 & God

Alumni
Sage Francis, Buck 65

Key Releases
Various Artists – Music for the Advancement of Hip-Hop, Deep Puddle Dynamics – The Taste of Water, Why Kneel?, Sole – Selling Live Water, 13 & God – 13 & God

History
As far as labels are concerned, Anticon is individual for a number of reasons. Firstly, Anticon is a collective. While a lot of labels have a collective atmosphere, Anticon stays true to the word. There is no single owner/highest ranking person of the group; they share ownership rights, ideas, abilities, equipment and problems. I don't believe there that there is a more tightly knit label in existence. Secondly, they are innovators. Anticon has been pushing the boundaries of rap before it was the hip thing to do. And on the same note, they have been doing it well since the very first attempt, Deep Puddle Dynamics. The result has been highly influential to not only the members but to the continually growing population of listeners alike. You can easily hear the influence on a lot of the experimental hip-hop records that are being released today, if not all of them. Thirdly, they have sustained the test of time. For a sound that is definitely not easily accessible, at least to most of the public, it is impressive not only that they have been able to sustain financial stability (at least for independent label standards), but they have been able to grow to international recognition. Not bad for 7 guys hanging around the Bay area experimenting with hip-hop.

How did this band of merry men come together from seperate corners of the country? Anticon was originally conceived by Tim Holland (Sole) and James Brandon Best (Pedestrian) in early 1998. The name (ant-icon) was chosen for two reasons, Sole wanted a name with absolutely no associations (check) and Pedestrian wanted a name that expressed their desire for challenging the normal (check). The second wave of contributers to the collective was brought in during the recording of the first Deep Puddly Dynamics record. Jeffrey Logan (Jel), Adam Drucker (Doseone) and Brendon Whitney (Alias) made such an artistic impact on each other, they devoted their services to Anitcon. The final pieces were two art-school dropouts, David Madson (Odd Nosdam) and Yoni Wolf (Why?), dropped out of art-school (like you need school for art) and migrated west to join the party. The result has been a musical outburst of unprecendented creativity as album after album, collaboration after collaboration, moniker after moniker was unleashed on the unsuspecting public. It is also notable to mention the 8th, silent partner of the group; Baillie Parker handles all of the business so that the others don't have to worry about all that jive (remember a label is a business). As you are reading this, the Anticon family is continuing to grow and it will be very interesting to see where they will venture next.

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