# What is Hip Hop? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683 "2004-04-12T22:59:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EasyPhil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@EasyPhil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EasyPhil)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/1 "2004-04-12T22:59:48Z")
Is it music, a genre, a lifestyle? Teeming millions, what say you? ---
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/2 "2004-04-12T23:21:09Z")
This is a terrible place to ask anything hiphop related, from my experience with past related threads. Hiphop displays many characteristics of a culture. There is a hiphop style of speaking, dressing, making art, and dancing. These fall under the four pillars of hiphop: DJing, Breakdancing, Rap, and graph. Rap is what you do, hiphop is what you live. ---
**Author:** ![Niggle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Niggle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niggle)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/3 "2004-04-13T00:39:11Z")
There is a difference in the music as well. Generally (I love blanket statements) you won’t get all the reference to crime, drugs, rape, etc in hiphop. Rap… well - it’s open season with rap. I can stand listening to hiphop (and it’s rather fun to dance to) but rap makes me wince. -n > [@conczepts](#): > > This is a terrible place to ask anything hiphop related, from my experience with past related threads. > > Hiphop displays many characteristics of a culture. There is a hiphop style of speaking, dressing, making art, and dancing. These fall under the four pillars of hiphop: DJing, Breakdancing, Rap, and graph. > > Rap is what you do, hiphop is what you live. ---
**Author:** ![gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gentle)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/4 "2004-04-13T00:59:50Z")
[All Music Guide definition](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=C2). Good site for all things musical. ---
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/5 "2004-04-13T01:18:16Z")
The difference between hiphop and rap is so arbitrary as to be useless. The idea of seperating them when they’re really the same thing is more an artifact of the early 90’s when so many parental watch dogs didn’t want their kids listening to “that gangster rap!” So anything that is about “bad” subjects is suddenly rap, and kids can listen to parental-friendly hiphop. Ask 100 different hiphop heads what rap and hiphop are and you’ll get near 100 different answers, but I don’t think subject matter makes for a seperate genre if the music is the same. Which it is. I really doubt on a double blind test anyone would be able to differentiate between hiphop and rap without lyrics, with any accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/6 "2004-04-13T02:48:48Z")
> [@Niggle](#): > > There is a difference in the music as well. Generally (I love blanket statements) you won’t get all the reference to crime, drugs, rape, etc in hiphop. Rap… well - it’s open season with rap. I can stand listening to hiphop (and it’s rather fun to dance to) but rap makes me wince. > > -n Wrong. It’s like conczepts said, rap is the musical part of hip hop (a [sub]culture.) See [http://www.templeofhiphop.org/](http://www.templeofhiphop.org/) for more info. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/7 "2004-04-14T16:33:13Z")
Until recently, I taught an an HBCU (pred. black school to you). The students there referred to their current urban music as “hip-hop” _only_ and looked down at anyone who called it “rap” as someone who was pathetically uninformed. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/8 "2004-04-14T17:10:57Z")
> [@conczepts](#): > > The difference between hiphop and rap is so arbitrary as to be useless. The idea of seperating them when they’re really the same thing is more an artifact of the early 90’s when so many parental watch dogs didn’t want their kids listening to “that gangster rap!” So anything that is about “bad” subjects is suddenly rap, and kids can listen to parental-friendly hiphop. > > Ask 100 different hiphop heads what rap and hiphop are and you’ll get near 100 different answers, but I don’t think subject matter makes for a seperate genre if the music is the same. Which it is. I really doubt on a double blind test anyone would be able to differentiate between hiphop and rap without lyrics, with any accuracy. Sorry to step in so bluntly, but this isn’t right. Originally, as **conczepts** said, Hip Hop was not music, but a way of life. If you ‘lived hip hop’, you dressed in a certain way, talked in a certain way and engaged in specific activities - the main four were (still are): - Rap (which is the art of rhyming over music) - DJing (the art of making the music itself) - B-Boying (a certain way of dancing - mainly breakdancing) - Graffiti (spraying stuff on walls) Over the years the latter two have fallen into the background. DJing (as in the people that use turntables and vinyl records to make music) is pretty well gone as well - the beats for rappers to rap over are now made on computer or with live instruments. Since the rap aspect has now vastly emulated its siblings, the terms ‘hip hop’ and ‘rap’ have become almost interchangeable. There is still a slight difference between the two - in some people’s eyes there is still ‘Rap music’ and ‘Hip Hop music’, with the former being the poppy, commercial rapping you see in the charts (e.g. Nelly, Chingy, some Eminem, some 50 Cent) and the latter being the deeper, true-to-its-roots variety that rarely makes it into the charts on onto the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/9 "2004-04-14T18:09:51Z")
> [@conczepts](#): > > Rap is what you do, hiphop is what you live. This is similar (as you may know) to what KRS-One says in “Hip Hop vs. Rap”, a b-side to the “Sound of Da Police” single, which was released in '93. His exact quote is “Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live.” And that is the old-school, insiders usage. Rap is the music, hip-hop is the culture. The more recent (and probably more wide-spread) usage is, as others have posted, that hip-hop is either synonymous to rap, or that it’s a different genre of music that is similar to rap. I’ve heard it used both to describe rap-influenced R&B (either a mix of singing and rapping, or singing over “rap beats”), or “positive rap”. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/10 "2004-04-14T18:14:14Z")
> [@conczepts](#): > > The difference between hiphop and rap is so arbitrary as to be useless. Tell that to my 9 year old son. He likes rap, some of which I also like. But, every so often I will tell him about a CD I heard and think he might enjoy. Some of these result in him giving me a look of disgust…seems they are hiphop (per him), which he hates. Oh well. He recently walked in when I was listening to “Jimmy Luxury and the Tony Rome Orchestra…A Night In The Arms Of…” He said that this was hiphop. I never woulda thought… ---
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/11 "2004-04-14T19:05:34Z")
What is the verb for making hiphop music? Rapping. That’s what rap artists do, and that’s what hiphop artists do, usually both of them over sampled beats from a producer. Subject matter shouldn’t warrant a different genre if the music is the same. The label has it’s uses though. I call my interest “hiphop” so that others interested in “hiphop” will know I am talking about deeper, less mainstream artists like Hieroglyphics and Jedi Mind Tricks. But “deeper” and “less mainstream” don’t make for a seperate genre. Different sound does. JMT has a few potentially offensive lyrics, _“I run up in churches and smack crosses…”_ and _“Y’all believe lies, like y’all is catholic”_ but musically they have no differences that would seperate them into a seperate genre from Hieroglyphics. Does this mean they “rap” those two lines, but they’re a “hiphop” group the rest of the time, like Hieroglyphics? > [@vetbridge](#): > > Tell that to my 9 year old son. He likes rap, some of which I also like. But, every so often I will tell him about a CD I heard and think he might enjoy. Some of these result in him giving me a look of disgust…seems they are hiphop (per him), which he hates. Oh well. Could you ask him what the difference between hiphop and rap is? That would be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/12 "2004-04-14T19:25:59Z")
The actual details are highly technical, but I’ll do my best to put it into layman’s terms: Said a hip hop the hibbe to tha hibbe the hip hip a hop you don’t stop a rockin to the bang bang boogie say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogety beat. Sorry, that’s as clear as I can make it. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/13 "2004-04-14T19:44:13Z")
> [@conczepts](#): > > Could you ask him what the difference between hiphop and rap is? That would be interesting. I have tried that. He couldn’t really put it into words, and was a little offended that I pushed the issue. Sort of like someone saying they cannot define porn but knows it when they see it. I give up. I think that he likes rap in general, but any that he does not like he calls hiphop. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/14 "2004-04-14T23:06:15Z")
That’s understandable, when you’re 9 and don’t know a whole lot about music it is hard to describe why you like something. ---
**Author:** ![vinniepaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@vinniepaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vinniepaz)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/15 "2004-04-14T23:21:59Z")
originally, hip-hop was the culture (the four elements) and rap was just one of the elements. Over time, MTV decided hip-hop was more “street” than rap and started using it for everything from j-kwon to r. kelly (MTV is one of the most racist major media organizations in the country, hence it lumping all black artists, like r.kelly who happens to be R&B into the category of “hip-hop”). So to all but the biggest rap/hip-hop “purists”, the two terms are virtually interchangable. As for what it is, it is a mainly lyrical artform that relies heavily on rhythm and rhyming. It orginated as 40 (i think) bar street poetry “battles.” ---
**Author:** ![bookbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@bookbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bookbuster)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/16 "2004-04-15T00:57:54Z")
Like others have said, hip-hop is made of four elements. Breakin’, DJ’ing, Rapping, and graffiti. One is not more important than another to someone that truely embraces the hip-hop lifestyle. Rap is not the music of hip-hop, it is the poetry. The DJ is still responsible for the MUSIC. If you want to know about the history of DJ’ing, and where it is at today (NO IT IS NOT DEAD!!! SHEESH) please watch the award winning documentary [Scratch](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0143861/). This movie will break down the four elements of hip-hop for you, from the mouth of someone who should know, Afrika Bambatta. When I see “hip-hop” artists on MTV that don’t have DJ’s or use stage-prop DJ’s, don’t care about breakdancing or graffiti, think style is defined by basketball jersey’s — these guys are going against the grain of true hip hop. Some groups, like the Quannam tour I just saw with Blackilicious, Gift of Gab, DJ Shadow, or for example, Jurassic 5, still embrace the 4 elements of hip-hop. And it shows in the quality of music. ---
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/17 "2004-04-15T01:54:18Z")
It is an entire culture. with 4 official elements Breaking, Graffiti Art, Turntablism, and Emceeing or Rapping unofficial elements include Beat Boxing or using your mouth as a percussion instrument, Spoken Word Poetry and hip hop style of dress and talk. If you have a deep appreciation for these elements and or practice one of them then you might be Hip Hop. ---
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-hip-hop/239683/18 "2004-04-15T04:06:55Z")
Really well said, Bookbuster.