What's the difference between rap and hip hop?

Answer 1

oh oh I know this one - I asked an expert on this a week ago on my talk show - Rap is a form of music - hip hop is more like a lifestyle - hip hop goes beyond music into dance - art - clothing etc.

Answer 2

There is a big similarity. But Hip Hop is the jam, the movement, the dance. The feel good, get down music. Anything in that sense can be hip-hop. Rap can be movement and of course a jam. But it deals with more deeper hardships. More raw lyrics including violent activities, it may seem negative but It's not at all. Plus it describes the stories of how we live, struggles, memories of those that used to surround us. How good it is to make a better life when we work hard. Certain things like that. My preference and I love it. Some may say it's whack, that's okay that is their right to their opinion. But I love my rap and hip-hop.

Answer 3

Depends on who you ask. Many will say that hip hop is a lifestyle/culture consisting of four elements: MC'ing (rapping), DJ'ing, B-boying (break dancing), and Grafitti. Or as KRS-One said in Hip Hop vs. Rap, "Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live."

However, once corporate America and the record industry realized there was money to be made by promoting this culture, they have manipulated it's orginal meaning to encompass anything that relates to young, urban culture. That's why you see groups/singers who are clearly r&b referred to as hip hop artists.

Others will tell you there is not a difference and see the two as interchangeable terms.

There is not really a right or wrong answer. Your answer will depend on what your personal experience and connection is to the music.

Answer 4

Rap holds its origin in hip-hop. In Afro-American slang, freestyle street dancing, quite different from the contemporary disco dance moves, was called hip-hop. The DJ would provide the beats sampled from other songs, and the MC would slide in and encourage the people to participate. This form of talking rhythmically with a background beat later became more stylized and took shape of complete anecdotes, often semi-biographical, which the bronx people would relate to. Rapping essentially meant having the flow to create rhyme on the fly to a beat.

Rap of late is taking a more aggressive "gangsta" outlook, examples galore, while some artists like K-OS, Gnarles Barkley, Black Eyed Peas etc. are going back to the hip-hop roots.

Answer 5

I would guess how words affect it. Isn't rap more a battle of the words and hip hop it is not the main focus?

Answer 6

well hip-hop is sung and has beats kinda like rap but rap is spoken.

here's how u tell the difference, if you can take away the beats and it still sound like singing, then its hip-hop, but if it just sounds like someone speaking, then its rap

Answer 7

Rap has alot of crap lyrics and Hip-Hop is music you can freestyle too,i think.I'm not a Rap nor Hip-Hop person.Rock is my kind of music.

Answer 8

well rap really comes from the hip-hop culture. but i think rap is kinda like the songs that got like drugs, violence, demeaning someone (like making yourself better than another person), and sex-related words in it like t.i., ja rule, and paul wall. but hip hop is sometimes like that but can be listened to by little kids (like lupe fiasco, kanye west, and common.)

Answer 9

rap=crap and hip hop is just as bad...

Answer 10

Now HERE'S a good question! I thought the two were the same myself.