A: This is one of the trickier questions we’ve tried to answer. It seems every time we’re about to arrive at an easy explanation someone throws in a different opinion. Some maintain that rap is a kind of music, whereas hip-hop is a lifestyle — one that includes rap, break dancing, DJing, and graffiti art. Rap pioneer and sage KRS-One says simply, “Rap is something you do, but hip-hop is something you live.”
Others, however, insist that hip-hop is a musical style distinct from rap, for very specific reasons: mainly hip-hop has a particular beat and uses scratching and “breaks” (samples). They claim rapping over a soul or heavy metal track could never be hip-hop. In other words, these folks say all hip-hop is rap, but not all rap is hip-hop.
Unfortunately for us label-hungry knowledge junkies looking for a quick fix, we’ll never arrive at a firm answer. Designations such as “rap” and “hip-hop” are never set in stone, but are free to flow and evolve, kind of like the songs themselves. Of course, some hip-hoppers just enjoy the scene and leave it at that. In the words of the ever-eloquent Biggie Smalls: “Birthdays was the worst days. Now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matthew T. Sussman
I believe the difference between rap and hiphop is inversely related to the freshness of the beats. So I'm told.
2 - Will from mental_floss
That was deep, Michael. Very deep.
3 - A-tone, the Hip Hop Historian
Hip Hop is the original culture that is the foundation for its numerous expressions: DJing, MCing, B-boying, Writing(Graff), etc.
Rap is the act of rhyming to a beat.
Hip Hop Culture and Rap Industry are not the same. The industry is run by those who care nothing about the culture or its practitioners except that they can get paid from exploiting talent.
4 - Will from mental_floss
Thanks A-tone.
5 - gonzo marx
gotta go along with the Answer...
Rap is somethign you do
Hip-Hop is something you are
full disclosure: yer gonzo is more the punk/metal type..olde skewl, but watched the birth of rap/hip-hop up close and personal
nuff said...
Excelsior?
6 - MandOe
Rappers rhyme about gold jewelry, loose women, and gang-banging on machine-produced beats. (Rap)
MC's rhyme about real life, everday life, on beats produced by DJ's. (Hip-Hop)
7 - FACT
A Rapper represents the commercialized,Streotypic and Degrading aspect of Hip Hop while an MC represnts the concrete brack ground and history of hip hop.
8 - Edgar
What would guys consider Tupac way to be?
This will help me have a clearer picture.
9 - IsRael
okay im an emcee.. the difference between rap and hip hop is.. hip hop is the life style.. and the music has a message.. hip hop educates.. rap on the other hand has no message theres lil to no depth in the lyrics.. rappers rap to exploit the business.. emcees are lyricist and do it for the love of the music..
HIP-HOP ARTIST : JADAKISS, IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE, SAIGON, STYLES P, ETC.
RAP ARTIST: LIL WAYNE, 50 CENT ETC..
10 - Lalo
Hip Hop is the teacher. Rap is the show-off. Hip Hop talks about everything negative and makin it positive, including the gangsta lifestyle. It teaches lessons that anyone can learn from. They do it for the love of the music. Rap, unfortunatley, talks about ice (jewelry), shoes, fallin "in love" with a stripper, the collar in your shirt, and anything random that doesnt make sense but somehow gets popular (crank that robocop). The people in that industry don't really care about the history nor the true meaning of hip hop. You can also tell the difference by hearing the beats and lyrics. If that still doesn't answer your question people, just listen closely to the beats and lyrics of a well-known artist, (Lil' Wayne, T.I., DJ Kaled, Rick Ross,) and a relatively unknown artist, (Immortal Technique, R.A. the Rugged Man, Afu-Ra, Black Star,) and you will find the answer. And most of the best beats and lyrics come from the unknown. But it's all commercial now and people are buying into it. Like The Roots said in the song "What They Do":
"The principles of true hip-hop have been forsaken. It's all contractual and about money making."
11 - Old skool teacher
There have been no true hip hop artists or rap artists since 2000. The last people to drop half good lyrics include Eminem and Mos Def and Blackstar. Since then, there have been nothing new.
You guys talk about rap like it s bad, N.W.A and Mobb Deep are rap, and they were gangsta, and their lyrics were deep and have meaning. The music you listen to these days is called PARTY MUSIC!!! Not hip hop, not rap, PARTY MUSIC.
12 - Swift Styles
As a HIP HOP Emcee, i feel that mainstream rap sucks. it doesnt deserve the spotlight. guns, drugs, B*****, rims, disrespecting women? how can this be seen as good music??? or even reltivly good?
rap artists get rich off the image, while Emcees like me construct divine lyricism, spit with immaculate delivery and actually make dope tracks.
It takes 10 mins to write the best mainstream rap to hit the market, it involves no talent at all. my cousin could write one (He's 5!) and it could be sung by 50 and go double plat.
ya put the best Emcee, and the best rapper in a contest where your only judged by talents and see who comes on top.
or better yet, look up the lyrics to the best song Uncle Murda, Lil Wayne, or Soulja Boy
and compare it to the lyrics of Immortal technique, Jedi Mind Tricks, or Binary Star.
Sadly but true, "rappers" are in the spotlight, poisoning the minds of the youth, giving socity bad influences to look up to?
13 - division da emcee
fuck rap.Hip hop is the only music that real people must listen to.50 cents,lil wayne,ja-rule and the list goes on but compare them with the likes of talib,pharoah monch,KRS-One,the last emperor and see who comes out the winner
14 - Cannonshop
Hip-Hop: a distinct creative musical form employing poetry spoken to a beat pattern woven with careful and meaningful sampling techniques. Hip Hop is not manufactured.
Rap: Obscene Nursery Rhymes to a canned beat with samples ripped off from serious artists, this form is to hip-hop what Green Day is to Punk-a manufactured synthetic designed to appeal to the shallow minded and vain.
15 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Hip-Hop: a distinct creative musical form employing poetry spoken to a beat pattern woven with careful and meaningful sampling techniques. Hip Hop is not manufactured.
Sadly enough I can honestly say,by this definition,that I have never heard a "Hip-Hop" album then. I think that Arrested Development was the last band that I could easily reference...
Can someone point me in the right direction?
16 - Nefarious
I've been a music artist for YEARS, and I just have to say that I both agree AND disagree with alot of you.
I agree that hip-hop is a lifestyle, and rap is an image. Commercial rap that you hear on the radio, is wannabe hip-hop.
BUT, I also believe there can be different "types" of hip-hop. I mix hip-hop with many different genres.. punk rock, heavy metal, etc..
Sure, you may consider that "rap", but I get political in alot of my music. I "teach" in my music. So it could be a heavy metal track with me rapping in it. I consider it "Heavy Hip-Hop".
I think hip-hop is a superior creation, and has witnessed MANY levels of evolution. So mixing hip-hop with different elements of sounds, isn't disrespecting it's roots. It's expanding it's genius ability.
17 - Inspectah
You guys got it all backwards.
Real MC's rap.
This fake Hip-pop shit like lil(insert homo), 50cent, the game, fergie..... Is hip-hop. Real rap, is deep, and intellectual: mos def, gangstarr, wu-tang, ect..
18 - edstirling
I'm more confused than ever. It sounds like this rap/hip-hop community is just like any other community, where the individuals that rise to the top and get famous do so because the squeaky wheels get the grease. The gangsta rappers making all the money are just the ones with the most agressive message. They are the rabble rousers who know how to make a fuss and get noticed, but whether the fuss is righteous is purely coincidental. All the while, the community is filled with a great many genuine artists striving to reach some classical, even divine, artistic expression of the human experience. The most talented among these often become ironically mired in their own talent, succumbing to pretension and egotism. They sit back and scoff at less-talented but more successful hacks. And some even preclude their own fame, tempering their arrogance by nobly insisting that their art speak for itself. What you call it doesn't matter, the rap/hip-hop world is merely a microcosm of human society.
19 - emceeba
you guys got it ALL wrong.
Rapping-
high quality lyrics that make sense, rhyme, have good flow, and go with the beat.
e.g. Eminem, 2pac, etc
Hip-hop-
stupid mainstream music crap you hear on the radio nowadays. Usually talks about doing women and having lots of cash.
e.g. 50, Soulja Boy
20 - Evident
yea..rapping is the art of rhyming.
hip-hop is just the culture, and apparently hip-hop artists are exploiting it's expanding market to produce shit that hits our airwaves everyday. tupac RAPS, eminem RAPS, vinnie p RAPS, immortal tech RAPS...lil wayne doesn't RAP, he speaks and flows but his lyrics are not poetry, they have no meaning.
21 - H
I am not a fan of Hip Hop which I feel is a subculture of Rap. Problem is Hip Hop is mainstream. People just say Hip Hop because thats all they know.
As said above Rap is the art of rhyming... Hip Hop evolved (or de-evolved) from that. There are people that dont even rhyme now if you listen or use the same word twice to try and rhyme. Its really subjective from that point.
There are fewer true rappers than Hip Hop artists because the money is in Hip Hop and thats whats selling as well as what gets airplay. I personally enjoyed the days when it was political or funny. The same reasons I liked Hardcore Punk. That was a time in music where it made you think. Now its all just bull ish... Rims, Girls, Bling, smoking, more girls, or nothing at all, ect...
I drink Chrys, You drink Piss! Im OUT!!!
22 - M!Li
"Hip Hop" is a culture or life style, "Rap" is music
"Hip Hop" është kulturë ose stil i jetes, "Rap" është muzika
Hip Hop = Culture
Rap = Music
23 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
"Hip Hop" is a culture or life style..."
Sounds to me like even rabbits got ripped off by the rap community...*Smirk*
24 - Sun Light
fajala rap asht shkurtes e ktyne fjalve
"Rythm And Poem"
25 - Matt J
Old skool teacher, you haven't been looking hard enough. Ever heard of Aesop Rock? Ever heard of the label Definitive Jux? It's just silly to say that there hasn't been anything new since 2000.