What is the difference between "rap" and "hip-hop" music?

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[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. rap is a subset of hip hop.

Rap, is, well everybody knows what rap is.

Hip hop music may include rap, but could be singing R&B, no singing & no rap, etc.

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2. Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.

[ghostsofgiants]

3. Hip-hop is an entire subculture.

To quote KRS-One: "Rap is something you do. Hip-hop is something you live."

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Sure.

But the OP was referring specifically to hip hop music.

[mark414]

7. you were with me on that other thread but....no no no

even the guys who invented hip hop would disagree...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Who invented hip hop?

[mark414]

9. dj kool herc

and i got to meet him last summer in NYC at a hip hop block party! he's still got them turntablin' skills...

(grandmaster flash, afrika bambaata, fab 5 freddy, the rock steady crew and the entire cast of Wildstyle also deserve mention...)

hip hop is probably one of the only cultural phenomenons that has an exact starting date...august 11, 1973 - herc's sister wanted to throw a back to school party so her big brother obliged and decided to show off what he'd been putting together. they lived at 1520 sedgwick avenue in the south bronx and were in the building's rec room until the party attracted so many people they had to move it to a park across the street. (a little boy who grew up in the building next to 1520 sedgwick would find inspiration from herc's partys and he went on to call himself krs-one).


Kool DJ Herc (born Clive Campbell on April 16, 1955) is a Jamaican-American musician and producer, generally credited as a pioneer of hip hop during the 1970s. He was the originator of break-beat deejaying, where the breaks of funk songs—being the most danceable part, often featuring percussion—were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties (AMG). Later DJs such as Grandmaster Flash refined and developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Kool_Herc

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. What about George Clinton?

Or Herbie Hancock?

[mark414]

11. clinton was a contemporary

and parliament had more to do with the rise of hip hop on the west coast than on the east coast - as for hancock and any sort of role in it, "rockit" was the first commercially successful song to feature a DJ scratching but he had nothing to do with it's origins...

herc used to play all sorts of stuff, as did all the other early djs - not just "black music" - rock records, funk, reggae, everything. of course james brown is the most influential non-hip-hopper and it probably wouldn't exist without him, but it never would've happened without herc.

there is a pretty amazing book that came out a couple years ago, "can't stop won't stop: a history of the hip hop generation" by jeff chang that was incredibly well done. it's worth checking out:

http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Stop-Wont-History-Generation/dp/031230143X

[mark414]

4. rap is part of hip hop, it is one of the four elements

there are four elements of hip hop music that go back to its origins in the early 70's (but each element goes back even further than that).

1. b-boying (breakdancing)
2. DJing
3. bombing (tagging, graffiti)
4. the emcee (the rapper!)

there are some who have made the argument (most notably krs-one) that a 5th element is consciousness - the desire to learn history and life and what is going on in this world and take on action on what you've learned.

rap is something you do, hip hop is a way of life - they are not separate things and they are not distinct genres or styles...

http://www.djemir.com/hiphophistory.html

edited to add that in the 1980's when hip hop started getting national attention (thanks mostly in part to the b-boys, like the rock steady crew's breakdancing appearance in 'flashdance' and a subsequent world tour), people started figuring out that this stuff could make people money. unfortunately for the culture as a whole, the most easily packaged and marketable of the four elements was probably the least important one - the emcee, the rapper. you couldn't sell a DJ (though that has changed) or put a b-boy in a box or a bombed building wall up on a shelf. and as the rap element of hip hop has grown the others have declined, which is partly responsible for all the absolute shit that we see out there today that talks a big game but doesn't have a fucking clue where they came from.

[Dukkha]

6. one sucks and one blows

:hide:
kidding!

the first reply is pretty accurate. in a sense rap is to hip-hop what punk is to rock & roll.

[leftofthedial]

12. one sucks and the other sucks harder

seriously, no one knows. anyone who pretends that there is a difference, much less pretends to know what that difference is, is probably a rapper.

[mark414]

13. ....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5622498#5622536

and i'm not a rapper

[leftofthedial]

14. I'm just being a jerk

rap is part of hip hop and a sub-genre of its own

personally, I think most of both is pretty awful

but some of it is exquisite.

[Deja Q]

15. Rap, circa 1990, was pretty good...

Mind you, by 1994 and the "Hammer Rejection" and the development of 'gangsta rap', things went downhill.

I'm not saying Hammer was any good; a toddler using a $20 fisher price toy synth keyboard could do just as good... Queen Latifah, Public Enemy, and occasionally Run DMC had some solid stuff. Socially aware lyrics, a new and fresh beat - multilayered and deep. Not the two-note garbage made today.

[mark414]

16. ahhh tell me about it

it's so sad...you can still find some pretty amazing stuff in the underground, but clever lyrics and good beats don't make any money i guess :shrug: :cry:

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. The criminal activities of the musicians