[Pepsione1]

I have a friend who's recording his own album right now and we got into a small discussion of what should be consider hip-hop and what should be rap.

 

[lojay]

I think the hardest thing is to define the "feel" of how the Hip Hop culture, or music, should be. Like finding the differences between Abstract Hip Hop and Instrumental, non-dance oriented Trip Hop is difficult. Differentiating rap and hip hop is an easier task.

 

[mustang]

Heh pretty tough question considering they almost seem one nowadays...

Personally, I think hiphop is music that I can shake my head to---much more beat oriented. Hiphop is what you'll hear in clubs, arenas, pep rallys, etc.

Rap, on the other hand, is more lyric oriented and has more meaning than hiphop. In rap, I look for the artist's flow whereas in hiphop, I look for the producer's beat.

 

[DJHK]

I've always interpreted hip-hop is the street culture lifestyle (Four Elements: Emceeing/DJing/Graffiti Writing/Breakdancing), with rap as the musical aspect of it.

 

[pandasonic]

hmm, there's a lot of controversy to this.

there's some who believe that hip hop is a life style or way of living (4 elements) and has nothing to do with the current "rap" scene that you see on MTV (all the bling bling, 20 in rims, hoes/bitches, etc.) there's even the distinction of being just a rapper and being an MC, even though both do what is basically the same thing. it's all in the ethics. compare performers like Madvillian or Blackalicious to P. Diddy. I guess you can call both of them rappers/MCs, but they are very very different in terms of what they believe, their motivations for doing what they're doing, and so on.


i guess you can say it's sort of like the contention between the indie rock scene and bands such as Linkin Park. what's the difference between indie rock and radio rock? the same can be said for hip hop and rap.

The mainstream music scene has used the term hip hop for almost everything though, it recently seems. so those who don't follow the scene too closely, they essentially are the same thing.

 

[pandasonic]

hopefully, this'll answer the question.

http://popmatters.com/music/features...8-hiphop.shtml