The question of whether the whole song is a rap is a blurrier one. I don’t know if I would answer in the affirmative there. But the full questions from the OP is “Is ‘West End Girls’ a rap? Well, at least the verses.” So that was the question I was answering.
Well, “The Message” is easily one of the most well-known and influential rap songs in history. So, if it emulates that I would say yes.
Does it contain “rapping?” Yes.
Me personally though, I wouldn’t consider it a rap song.
It is a rap song, but in the pop rock genre rather than hip hop. Years ago, the local 70s-80s-90s radio station would play a promo priding itself for playing “music for nice people, no rap”. But it played “West End Girls” all the time. The contradiction would piss me off.
U2’s “Numb” also qualifies as a rap song.
Wow, one of my favorite songs from the 80’s and until this thread and related articles that have been shared I never thought of it as a rap song. Just seemed like a catchy pop song with a nice lyrical tempo to it but for whatever reason I never connected it to hip-hop/rap. Look at that, 2 days into 2019 and I already learned something new!
I would have interpreted that to mean they don’t play songs glorifying violence, homophobia & misogyny. Does that sub-genre have a name? Gangsta rap?
So you’re saying Be Prepared isn’t legitimate rap?
Yes, that is what I was saying. I’m arguing it doesn’t become rap simply because you throw in small bits of spoken dialog in rhythm. Scar is sloppy enough with his rhythm (making it sound like regular dialog) for it not to count as rap anyways, but Shenzi’s perfectly timed “Where do we feature?” doesn’t make it rap, either.
It’s just a concept that happens in musicals where certain lines are spoken or use speak-singing.
I’d argue that calling the song rap and calling it a rap song carry different meanings.
That said, given they were deliberately copying a rapping style, I say it counts as a rap song.
I agree with monstro that it’s not hip-hop. But those aren’t actually the same thing. You can have hip-hop with no rapping, and rapping without hip-hop. It’s just that hip-hop is a style that tends to include rapping.
This is why I prefer to use the term “hip-hop” when describing what many here would call rap music. Hip-hop is a lot more than just a lyrical style, and all that extra stuff is what most people conflate with the term “rap” today. In a technical sense of course the OP is right. In a technical sense though, all modern rock and pop music (including hip-hop) is a form of jazz. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
A technical win is as good as a win! 
A lot of rap, especially earlier pre-90s rap, exhibits none of those characteristics. I mean, look at something as seminal as De La Soul’s “Three Feet High and Rising,” for instance.
Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. The underlying beat and aesthetic is not what I generally think of as hip-hop, but the vocal technique is definitely rap.
Sure, that’s why I was asking if there’s better terminology to differentiate the ugly nasty stuff that gives it a bad, erm, rap.
Within most genres, you’re going to get a range. Sure, gangsta rap is probably going to have more of the objectionable stuff, but it goes beyond just a genre description. I mean, just look at hard rock. A good bit of it has the same issues; much of it does not. But I can’t pinpoint a hard rock genre that is free of misogyny vs one that is not.
If that was their intention, they could have just said, “We don’t play songs glorifying violence, homophobia, and misogyny.” There’s no need to single out rap, like rap is the only genre to have “not nice” songs.
I agree, that would have been better. Still, rap has had a much greater prevalence of that in its recent history, so it’s not hard to see where antipathy toward the entire genre comes from. It’s not as though anyone has any moral obligation to stay open-minded about art forms that have such a history.
Oh, come on. Listen to 80s hard rock (and 70s, too). Misogyny is not exactly rare in that genre.
What have I
What have I
What have I done
To deserve this?
Yeah, but pre-90s rap stopped getting played on the radio by the mid-90s.
I grew up listening to hip-hop and most of what was popular on the radio was glorifying violence, misogyny and homophobia.
91-96
NWA
Ice Cube
Dr. Dre
Snoop Doggy Dogg
2Pac
Junior Mafia
Biggie
Westside Connection
That’s the stuff I was hearing on the radio all the time.
97-2000
I felt like it started to lighten up a bit. Puffy ushered in the shiny suit era. Mase was a huge star. Lauren Hill made a big splash.
But then you had:
Nas
Mobb Deep
DMX
Jay-Z
Eminem
Master P
all glorifying violence, misogyny, and homophobia.
2001-2003
Outkast’s radio output was more positive, if not their overall output (I only have one album). But the violent stuff was still getting a lot of attention:
Ja Rule and Murder INC
50 Cent
Eminem
The Game
TI
“Trap music” starts to get popular, music about slanging drugs.
2004-200?
Kanye West raps about a broken jaw and changes things. 50 Cent becomes rejected by the masses.
It’s cool to be a regular dude in hip-hop or even be just a weirdo.
I think Lupe Fiasco is making noise, but maybe he started even earlier.
Big Sean doesn’t seem to rap about being a tough guy or gang member.
But somewhere along the way, non-gangsta rap becomes unpopular again.
Even weirdo and self-proclaimed Martian Lil Wayne starts glorifying gang life, as he started claiming Blood in exchange for street protection.
“Drill Music,” the successor to gangsta rap, gets big by way of Chicago artists like Chief Keef.
Positive or conscious rap is not popular in mainstream hip-hop.
Cardi B, one of the biggest rap artists right now, openly brags about being a gang member, not just in interviews, but in her music and videos too.
Yeah, I can see why people might have that opinion of rap music, but yeah, they should have just said it the way you did.
I personally don’t like listening to rap music anymore, because the majority of what I come across is extremely depressing, with the importance placed on materialism, violence, and misogyny.