Subtle

Few Oakland sextets have proved as hard to pin down as Subtle, a group whose members regarded the idea of genre with open suspicion. Their alternative hip hop drew on the hip hop and indie worlds they moved through, and although Doseone and Jel both belonged to the Anticon collective, the band never joined its label roster. Instead it signed to Lex Records in 2003, after a run of homemade releases, beginning with the four Season EPs and the compilation Earthsick, all issued on Doseone's own imprint, A Purple 100.

The live act was built on theatre, with hand-painted backdrops, a bust of their recurring character Hour Hero Yes, and spoken monologues. In 2005, while touring A New White, their van hit black ice on an Iowa highway and left the road, and Dax Pierson was seriously injured. He is now quadriplegic, still contributes to the band, and does not currently tour. Their 2006 album For Hero: For Fool was very well received by critics, and in November that year their tour van was robbed in Barcelona, with a laptop holding demos and draft lyrics among the stolen gear.