Aquifer is a hip-hop group from a sparsely populated county (about an hour outside of Sacramento) in northern California, called Amador. Aquifer originated, in idea, in early 2001 and has been evolving ever since. Armed with a common concern for the state of humanity and the diminishing integrity in hip hop music, three individuals set forth on separate missions to do something about it. Through years of freestyling, writing, and recording in small, self-made, home recording studios, a unique style had developed from each member of the soon to be trio.

In 2006 the then duo, comprised of Nick Bianco and Tommy Fox, completed the first 'Aquifer' album ("Galatians 1:20") and distributed hundreds of copies throughout the region for free. Around the same time, in the same area, Brannum Goldsmith was compiling collections of his freeflows and some written material and using the same philosophy of free distribution to spread his sounds throughout the region. The three individuals worked closely together between the years of 2004-2008, at times even living under the same roof as one another. In April of 2008, the duo completed it's second album "Room for Growth" (a collection of songs recovered from a tragic 2007 house fire) which was nominated for a Sacramento Area Music Award (Sammie) for "Outstanding Album/Release". . That same year Aquifer was nominated for a Sacramento Area Music Award (Sammie) for "Outstanding Hip-Hop Group". It wasn't until 2008 that Brannum officially joined Aquifer and the group finally produced it's first album as a trio "Cavendish's Papers", which they released in November of 2009.