What’s the difference between rap and hip-hop?
Rap and hip-hop: the terms are often used as if they were synonymous with each other. But the truth is that there is a difference between them, with one being a subset of the other. All rap is necessarily hip-hop, but the same isn’t true the other way around.
When we talk about rap, we are referring to the musical practice of reciting words in an often fast, rhythmic way, usually over music. It is a type of vocal style typically more concerned with rhyming, cadence and story-telling than it is with melody. In terms of its lyrical content, it can be about pretty much anything, though there are thematic tropes that tend to appear again and again.
The term “rap” is quite specific, in other words, referring to a particular way of performing music vocally. “Hip-hop,” on the other hand, is much broader. Rapping forms a core part of hip-hop, but it’s not the only thing.
It seems that “rap” began to be used by the African-American community in a similar manner as it is used today around the 1950s, when it meant something like “an impressive verbal display,” according to Dictionary.com. It was also used to mean “to utter words sharply and suddenly” way earlier than that, around the 16th century.
Rap, and rappers, are obviously a significant force within hip-hop culture, but they’re not the only people who can claim to be a part of it. DJs can be hip-hop artists, but they don’t all rap. Breakdancers are a key part of hip-hop culture, but, again, they don’t engage in the specific practice of rapping. Certain graffiti artists fall within hip-hop culture and practices, but they’re not necessarily rappers, either.
But to speak only of graffiti artists and breakdancers as non-rapping members of the hip-hop community would itself be too limiting. Hip-hop has become a major cultural phenomenon through the decades, and it is evident within the worlds of fashion, film, business, politics, language and much, much more. Even hip-hop music doesn’t necessarily have to involve rappers.
The phrase “hip-hop” is widely traced to Keith “Keef Cowboy” Wiggins, who was a rapper in Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Legend has it that he came up with the term when one of his friends informed him that he intended to join the military. Keef Cowboy responded by mimicking the sound of soldiers marching: hip, hop, hip, hop, hip, hop.
The proto-rapper clearly liked how that sounded, and he started to incorporate it into his stage performances. His contemporaries picked up on it, and they, too, started using it and, eventually, “hip-hop” came to denote this entire cultural movement that had been birthed upon the streets of New York.
To help remember the difference between “rap” and “hip-hop,” KRS-One said it best. He made a track specifically dealing with the distinction, 1993’s ‘Hip-Hop vs Rap,’ in which he rapped, “Rap is something you do. Hip hop is something you live.” That’s as concise a way of putting it as any other.