Are Hip Hop and Rap the same thing? Does Hip Hop refer to the pices leaning towards a more traditional song/melody format whereas Rap is more focused on the “rap”?
sigh
Listen, Rap is one of the four elements of Hip-Hop, the culture. The four elements are DJing, MCing (rapping), Breaking, and Writing (graffiti). “Hip-Hop” is usually used to mean the music in a broader sense, like, Mary J. Blige and the X-Ecutioners are not “Rap”, but are definitely “Hip-Hop.” “Hip-Hop” is also used more towards the artists that pay homage to the medium’s history, like you would more likely call Talib Kweli “Hip Hop”, and Ludacris “Rap.” Got it?
Yeah, got it. Thanks. I appreciate the information.
I’m not so crazy about your talking down your nose at me, though.
You’re welcome.
I should be more compassionate. You’ve obviously been locked in a box in Utah for the past twenty years.
Amazing. I did a google search on “four elements of Hip-Hop” and damn if this isn’t so. Never heard of it before.
Don’t be so condescending though, you act like it’s common knowledge.
Yeah, I enjoy listening to rap and hip-hop at times, but I’ve never had the difference broken down to me either. Don’t hold it against us that we’re not as cool as you.
Geez, dude - what the hell is your problem?
Or maybe he’s just not a fan of this one specific genre of music and is therefore not familiar with the intricacies of it. Nah, you’re right, he doesn’t have the exact same knowledge you do so he must be a twit.
I’ve not been locked in a box, and I live with a very aspiring hip-hop artist, and another VERY aspiring hip-hop dancer (he’s currently living in the house for the Wade Robson Project show on MTV, training the for the third round of the WRP dance contest).
I’ve never heard of what you’re making to sound as common as the three brances of government. I’m going to ask one of my roommates if they’ve ever heard of this, and if they haven’t, believe me, it doesn’t exist. They live for this. Getting MTV and BET in the house was a major priority.
yeah, the four elements exist.
although i think people who get all uptight about it display the arguable fifth element of hiphop, which is music snobbery…
but i think hiphop has sort of become the label for music that is maybe a little more serious or “underground”, while rap is sort of what puffy shakes out of his sleeve.
you know, nelly is to rap what common is to hiphop. kind of a misnomer, really, since common pretty much sucks. his afro-hippy posturing has got to be a final grasp at some sort of relevance, while nelly is probably more “real” with his bacchanalian ramblings. at least he’s telling it like it is. but that’s music snobbery at work.
if you really want to hear some bullshit, check out krs-one and is damn “temple of hiphop.” talk about last grasps at relevance…
I can’t believe you’re dissing KRS-One and Common.
You must be out yo mind!
To the OPer, I never knew the “formal” definition either. I just always assumed that if you think it’s hip-hop, then it probably is. Guess that makes me a Utahan too.
These “four elements” may exist, but how long have they existed? Could this be an artificial set of definitions created after the words rap and hip-hop were already in use?
Hip Hop is the whole culture, rap is the vocal style. DJ Shadow is hip hop, but he isn’t/doesn’t rap. toque’s condescension was unwarranted, but this question gets asked so often that it’s becoming the Cafe Society equivalent of Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways? (of course, in this case, you can be excused due to the difficulty of searching for the words hip, hop or rap).
aaslatten: hip hop has consisted of those four elements since pretty much the beginning. Hip hop began in the '70s with djs at block parties extending the break sections of records so people could dance to them for longer. I guess the djing and the breakdancing are the oldest aspects.
Djs would ‘battle,’ competing for crowds, and to do so they’d introduce bigger sound systems, fancier cutting and scratching techniques and (importantly) guys up the front who’d psych up the crowd, get them involved and tell them where the next party was at. The original rappers were just advertisers for the dj. It wasn’t long before they’d start varying their schtick, rhyming, introducing new topics, etc. and eventually the rapper became the focus of the music rather than the dj. Hip hop was used to describe the entire music/culture, whereas rap was what the rapper did.
I’m not too sure of the origins of graffing, but I imagine it evolved with the rest of the culture as a result of its poor, urban nature.
These days, the term ‘hip hop’ is used by some purists to seperate the music they like (usually underground artists or some of the more respected mainstream artists such as Dre, Eminem or Outkast) from the music they don’t like (usually mainstream artists such as Nelly or Puffy, but I suppose some purists could exclude whoever they want). Using these definitions, an artist is hip hop if the speaker feels the artist is ‘real’ and part of the culture, but an artist is rap if he’s making the music but hasn’t a connection to the culture.
I find it pretty useless to say that Puffy isn’t hip hop. Listen to the music; he’s hip hop. He might be shite, commercial hip hop, but it’s still hip hop.
common had a mediocre album, one great album, then he had a fair album, then a slightly above average album, then an excreble one. badu fucked him up real good, just like she did andre. andre should thank her, though. it separated him and outkast from the pack. they ent on to create some amazing shit. as for com, well, he’s almost as contradictory as kris. one minute he’s bashing homosexuals, then he’s jacking their clothing style. plus he fell off lyrically.
kris was a bonafide rap pioneer. he and rakim changed the course of rhyming as a musical form. he was a genius. WAS. then came nike. “the revolution is basketball?” krs never recovered from that.
it’s harsh but true. the thing is, rap is fueled by novelty. once an emcee’s style gets stale, it’s over. look at de la soul. thye were (and still are, really) my favorite group. then they started this art official bullshit. but i just listen to buhloone mindstate and forget it ever happened.
really, the only way to go is to get killed. look at biggie and tupac. they got elevated to diety status once they died. tupac was an average artist with a lot of charisma that happened to appeal to the ladies. that’s it. his music was actually heading downhill before he died. biggie was a true talent, but he was very young and didn’t have much material released. puffy would have dragged him into trl hell before long, anyway.
Okay, Mr. Snobbypants…what the fuck is “house”?
And I bet hip-hop guys would never say, “Mr. Snobbypants”, either. Cuz they ain’t cool, man. They ain’t hip to the lingo. They’re squaresville, man.
And I bet hip-hop guys would never say, “Mr. Snobbypants”, either. Cuz they ain’t cool, man. They ain’t hip to the lingo. They’re squaresville, man.
thanks gex … pretty interesting stuff
Perhaps, to look at it in a positive light, rap is fueled by creativity. If an emcee isn’t offering anything new, it’s over. But artists that continue to evolve remain relevent.