Rap vs. Hip-Hop (Cezar Montemayor)

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An Age Old Struggle: Rap vs. Hip-Hop.
A young man comes across a flyer for a hip-hop show. His name is Rap Aficionado. He takes a look at it and checks for names that he may find familiar (50-Cent, Jay-Z and etc.) To Aficionado’s disappointment, he doesn’t find any recognizable artists, nor is the venue a recognizable place to him. Regardless, he decides to check out the show and heads home to prepare. Before he makes his way out of his apartment door, he checks himself out in front of his bedroom mirror and runs down his checklist: oversized G-Unit t-shirt with matching jeans, timberland boots, backwards sports team hat, and a platinum chain with complimenting diamond, “get that money” medallion. According to his personal checklist, everything seems to be in order and with an exhale of satisfaction he utters the word “check.” After Rap gives himself another glance, he finds himself fully equipped for his hip-hop show and walks out the door.
Aficionado arrives at the venue and it wasn’t what he was expecting. Rap found himself in front of a warehouse in an objectionable area of town. Subsequently, he was a bit disappointed, but he wouldn’t let this daunt him. He makes his way through the door and encounters things he has never seen before. Rap was used to the allures of high profile clubs. The modern club motifs he was accustomed to were replaced with a warehouse walls adorned with graffiti masterpieces and a few couches. He expected scantily-clad women gyrating to the latest top-forty rap song. Instead, they are replaced with break dancers accompanying their acrobatic body language with the rhythms of Lonnie Liston Smith’s “Expansions.” Lastly, he expected a rapper spitting out simple rhymes that speak of material wealth, violence and selfish gain. On the other hand, he gets a brilliant emcee, accompanied by a DJ who delivers classic funk tracks and poetic, stylish lyrics pertaining to social issues, self-motivation and hip-hop culture. He took a look at himself. Rap thought of himself as someone who was “down” with hip-hop. He listened to it on the radio and saw it on television. Accompanying this, he modeled his clothing after those same radio and television celebrities. Rap was bewildered by the sights before him, so he decides to ask a random passer-by where the hip-hop event was at. The person replied “You’re at it, why do you ask?” Rap thought to himself “maybe I’ve been wrong all this time.” Aficionado makes his way out the door in disappointment. Eventually, he came to realize that Rap Aficionado wasn’t a rap aficionado but a Hip-Hop Amateur.
This narrative illustrates a scenario of an individual’s view of hip-hop. The character Rap Aficionado portrays an individual that coins views what he experiences on television and radio as hip-hop. He later goes on to realize that there are more components to hip-hop than the shallow rap he was always accustomed to. In relation, Aficionado is a metaphor for the masses of individuals who believe rap and hip-hop are a singular entity. These are the individuals that only recognize hip-hop as rap music. The search for the distinctions between rap music and hip-hop is an age old struggle. Rap and hip-hop share similarities, but to label rap underneath one singular banner would be incorrect. Despite their shared components, I feel that these two entities are different from one another. In order to understand the distinctions between rap music and hip-hop they should be viewed in terms of culture and context.
To begin understanding the differences between rap music and hip-hop one must acknowledge rap as much more just a musical genre, but rather acknowledge hip-hop as a cultural movement. The musical form of rap is merely a component to an entire subculture known as hip-hop. Hip-hop could be viewed as the Renaissance of the present generation. The inner city youths of the South Bronx in New York gave rise to an intellectual and artistic culture that brought about a positive movement amongst the rampant violence and poverty seen at the time. It was a voice that allowed youths with nothing to express themselves artistically and non-violently. Hip-hop culture encompasses four major components: graffiti as art, b-boying or break dancing as the dance, and DJing (musical production) and Emceeing (rapping) as music. In the present day, rap is the most widely known form of hip-hop. In the days of its origin, hip-hop music “articulates the experiences and conditions of African-Americans living in a spectrum of marginalized situations ranging from racial stereotyping and stigmatizing to struggle for survival in violent ghetto conditions” (Best and Kneller). Hip-hop songs such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” illustrate some of the socio-economic conditions not portrayed by mass media. The following passage is the first verse along with the chorus to “The Message.”
“Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkie's in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far
Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car”
Chorus:
”Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to loose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under”
Incidentally, rap is only the medium in which these situations were expressed, but as a whole hip-hop was the term for a movement that empowered the individuals of the time to take their stand. “Overall, rap is something you do and hip- hop is something you live” (DeCastro). Hip-hop is a cultural phenomenon that “offers a generational worldview that encompasses the shoes you choose to whether you're inclined to vote or not to how you understand the issue of race” (Chang). In essence, hip-hop has elevated from simple rap music to an entire lifestyle.
In this day and age, rap music has mounted itself as a form of popular commercial media. Rap music is using the label of hip-hop used to promote commercialism and not the culture in which it came from. Personally, when I hear the word rap, the following word I think of is industry. At the forefront of this industry are record labels such as Rocafella, Def Jam and Death Row. I’m not against artists making money from their intellectual properties, but I think that is a certain etiquette that should be considered before doing so. Rap as popular music is populated by artists that use the imagery of sex, violence, drugs and material gain to capitalize on the general public. Artists such as 50-Cent and Jay-Z are among some of the most popular rappers today and their song lyrics portray such imagery. The following verse is from 50-Cent’s “In Da Club”
You can find me in da club
With a bucket full of bub mama
I got the “ex” if you’re into taking drugs
I’m in to fucking, not into making love
So come give me a hug
If you’re down with getting bug

The scenario is within a club setting drinking champagne and using ecstasy and concluding the night off with drug-induced inebriated sex. This is an example of how hip-hop is portrayed by big record labels. It attracts consumers with an appeal to prominence and uses rap as the medium for doing so. Referring back to the aspect of culture, hip-hop wasn’t created as a marketing tool for rappers to pollute the masses and make money. In essence, the term hip-hop is a monicker for an empowering cultural movement and it shouldn’t be used in describing the works of artists who use rap for their own selfish ambition. The following verse from Qwel’s “Honestly” is a response to the flamboyant way that hip-hop is portrayed today.
“Pepsi loves hip-hop honestly
MTV loves hip-hop honestly
Because it’s clothes and it’s hoes and it’s frozen in gold
And its soul is being sold for bottom fiends”


This song illustrates metaphors for big businesses and big media using fashion, women and material items as the basis for hip-hop. The last verse is a metaphor stating that the true meaning of hip-hop is being lost to popular media. How can we determine the difference between hip-hop and rap music? The answer is within the context. The following is taken from an interview with Flynn from the hip-hop group LA Symphony.
“I think hip hop is more the cultural element of the expression itself. Hip hop is the subculture of what the music has birthed. Rap is what came as a product of the hip hop culture. Rap is rhyming. When I think of rap, I think Snoop Dogg. When I think of hip hop, I think Mos Def or Common, or people who are a little more involved in the cultural roots. Not saying Snoop isn't, but rap definitely has the more commercial connotations, and rap is more about the rhyming. Hip hop includes the whole culture, the beats, the rhymes, the lifestyle, the graffiti. All of that is enveloped in the meaning to me.”