A genre of music where poetry is delivered verbally in tune with a beat, sometimes music, that includes many other techniques such as wordplay, repetition, paradoxes, onomatopoeia's, metaphors and many other figurative languages.
Rap tends to not follow the rules of many other genres of music. It sometimes doesn't have a chorus or a hook like other genres of music do and it's one of the only genres where vocals (such as singing) aren't really used.
It's also a genre that is disliked by many (mostly non-African Americans) for many reasons. Many say it's stupid and only talk about money, bitches, ho's, cars and etc. But that's mainly because the majority of the population tends to listen to
mainstream music and don't
understand the truth behind record producers and the deals they put out regarding topics a certain individual must make a song about.
If you listen to many underground rappers,
independent rappers or rappers that have deals that give them freedom to rap about what they want (i.e. Ice Cube, Tyler, the Creator, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, J. Cole, Tupac), you'll notice the change in their lyrics from many mainstream rappers (i.e. Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka, OJ the juice man).
In my opinion rap is
one of the most difficult forms of music genre to create the music for because of how much figurative language is actually used
in the music, the continuous flow of words with long verses, and the many rhyme schemes it must follow, unlike many other genres.
Wordplay: "Put her in a 'lake, her' body sinks great,
Now it's time to 'fish her' like Derek" ~
Tyler the Creator, Tron Cat
(Derek Fisher plays for the Laker's basketball team)
Metaphor: "Will I make if from
student loans to a ben-zo
Like old folks pissing I guess it all depends" ~Kanye West, Late
(Depends is a brand of adult diapers)
Symbol: "Ay Salle, I know I ain't been answering your calls, but shit, let me explain-
It's because times been hard, been runnin around trynna find a job
I hear my phone ringing
in the morning, 9 o'clock
And it's you, can't even front I press ignore..." ~J. Cole, Dollar and a Dream II
(Throughout this whole verse in this song, Salle actually symbolizes a form of college Loan that J. Cole took out for college. He makes it seem like
it's a girl when it's really the bill collectors for the Sallie Mae loan he took out)
Paradox: Tyler, the Creator- "Green paper, gold teeth, and pregnant gold retrievers, all I want,
Fuck money, diamonds and bitches don't need 'em" - Yonkers,
"I'm not a rapper, nor a rapist or a racist,
I fuck bitches without permission and tend to hate shit" - Tron Cat.
(Green paper is often used as slang for money, gold teeth are grills which usually contain diamonds and a pregnant gold retriever is
obviously a female dog, which is the true definition of a bitch.
Obviously Tyler is a rapper, fucking woman against their will is a rapist and hating things could mean hating a certain race, something racist do.)