The Underachievers - Renaissance (2017)

East Coast hip-hop duo the Underachievers formed in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn in 2011, comprised of rappers AK and Issa Gold. AK had originally been using the stage name "The Underachiever" and applied the moniker to the duo when they began, representing their fondness for smoking weed, experimenting with psychedelic drugs, and other interests which could be seen as symptoms of underachievement by mainstream society. Their curiosity for psychedelics bled through into a somewhat trippy sound that combined frantic rhyme styles with heavy, experimental production. A video for one of the duo's early tracks caught the attention of critically acclaimed producer Flying Lotus, who signed the group to his label Brainfeeder in 2012 and released two of their mixtapes the next year. Proper debut full-length Cellar Door: Terminus Ut Exordium saw release in August of 2014. The conceptual Evermore: The Art of Duality followed in 2015 with the album split into "light" and "dark" sides. ~ Fred Thomas.