Antipop Consortium

Antipop Consortium is one of the most inventive underground hip hop crews in the early 2000's. The Consortium was formed in fall 1997 to turn the commercial Hip Hop scene on its head. It consisted of the three vocalists (Beans, High Priest and M. Sayyid) which come from the New York street poetry scene and producer Earl Blaize in the background. After a series of cassette only releases on the own label Antipop Recordings and some underground singles the label Ark 75 released the group's debut album "Tragic Epilogue" in 2000. Their music is bridging the gap between Hip Hop and Intelligent Dance Music. Because of that avantgarde electronic label Warp Records, known for releasing such artists as Aphex Twin or Autechre, signed the Group in 2001 and released the EP "The Ends Against The Middle" and 2002 the second album "Arrythmia" with world wide acclaim. So the music came also more and more into the ears of electronic listeners. After a long cooperation and uncountable collaborations and side projects with other artists the group temporarily split in August 2002 to pursue other projects. They reformed in August 2007. During their hiatus, Beans pursued a solo career while Priest and Sayyid formed Airborn Audio. In March 2008, they performed their first show together in six years in the Melkweg in Amsterdam. In September 2009, they released a new album entitled "Fluorescent Black".