# What is the difference between R&B and hip hop?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-r-b-and-hip-hop/210935>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 2, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-r-b-and-hip-hop/210935 "2003-11-02T03:12:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gjorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@Gjorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gjorp)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-r-b-and-hip-hop/210935/1 "2003-11-02T03:12:35Z")

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What is the difference between modern R&B and hip hop? I do mean the modern stuff. I can’t tell the difference.

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**Author:** ![Gjorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@Gjorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gjorp)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-r-b-and-hip-hop/210935/2 "2003-11-02T15:36:33Z")

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I knew it, there is no difference, is there, that’s why no one’s been able to answer my question.

Er… I mean, bump

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**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-r-b-and-hip-hop/210935/3 "2003-11-02T19:56:23Z")

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Alright, I’ll take a shot. Hip hop isn’t a term that really describes the music, although that is a part of it. Hip-hop, as I understand it, is comprised of four elements- DJ’ing, MC’ing, graffiti, and break-dancing. The MC part is what became rap music, although it’s kind of used interchangeably with hip-hop, because rap is the music of hip-hop, if you get what I’m saying. R&B vs. rap is a pretty simple comparison- generally speaking, R&B is more about the melody, and rap is about the lyrical content. It’s hard to define and categorize music, so there will always be stuff in between, and there’s a lot of shades of gray, but that’s the basic difference. If they’re singing, it’s R&B. If they’re rapping, it’s rap, which is part of hip-hop.