Could someone clarify the difference for me? Is there, in fact, a difference?
Is it something like rock (i.e. Rolling Stones) vs. pop (The Beatles)? Does the amount of bling and/or Cristal in a video make a difference?
Would I be correct in calling The Roots rap and Missy Elliot hip-hop? What about groups like Wu-Tang? Is gangsta-pop (Lucacris) considered hip-hop or rap? What about one-shots like Handsome Boy Modeling School?
Just looking to further categorize things.
If I’m not mistaken, rap is a very broad term, describing a bunch of styles of music. Hip-hop is a particular style of rap.
But I won’t swear to that–we’ll see what the others have to say.
Lots of people get hung up on those terms, saying that Rap is pop garbage and Hip Hop is the real stuff, but, like most labels, they’re pretty arbitrary. If you’re worried about offending people, use Rap only as a verb, refer to the genre as Hip Hop.
I think of rap as a vocal style, whereas hip hop is a musical style.
It is possible to have instrumental hip hop (DJ Shadow), but impossible to have instrumental rap.
Rap is frequently featured in hip hop songs, but it is not a necessity. Both Missy Elliot and The Roots are hip-hop.
Rap has become the name used to describe music, particularly hip-hop, that features rapping.
Since hip hop describes the musical and cultural aspects of the music, often when one wants to differentiate a song or artist from pop, the music will be described as hip hop. However, calling P Diddy hip hop wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows, as it as an encompassing term referring to the whole genre.
Ludacris and HBMS are both rap and hip hop.
Traditionally, hip-hop refers to the entire culture, and includes both rapping, breakdancing, graffiti and DJing. Hip-hop music would then be music that is based in that culture, not necessarily with emceeing. So when hip-hop dorks start talking about how “that’s not hip-hop, it’s just rap” they mean that the guy is rapping but he doesn’t have any understanding of the culture behind it (he doesn’t live hip-hop the way we do :rolleyes: ). Personally, I think distinctions like that are way too arbitrary, but that could be because I don’t live hip-hop. 
gex gex pretty much explained my understanding of the situation - good job.
What Dryga_Yes is pretty much how I’ve always seen it. The “four elements” encompass hip-hop culture as a whole, with actual rapping being 1/4 of the equation.
There’s a quote (from KRS-ONE, I believe) that says “Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live”.
Rawkstah- What do you mean when you say " one-shots like Handsome Boy Modeling School"??
ultrafilter is very wrong in his/her reply. Drygayes is very correct. I just call the music I like hip-hop, because to say I like rap would be silly because a lot of stuff doesn’t have any rapping on it, but is no doubt hip-hop. For example, right now I’m listening to D-Styles’ album “Phantazmagorea.” Not one rapper on the entire album, it’s all made up of scratches, beat juggles, etc.
asomihite – when I call Handsome Boy Modelling School a one-shot, it’s because, to my understanding, it is. Just a small side-project from Dan the Automator and Prince Paul, similar to Lovage, featuring Mike Patton and Dan the Automator. If HBMS has put out more than one album, well, I guess I’m wrong. And missing out!
Thanks for the clarification, Dryga_Yes.