Music has gained a whole heap of new categories in the past 10 years. People who aren’t “in” on whatever underground thing that’s poppin’ may get a lil’ confused.
An easy question would be - whats the difference between Drum & Bass and Dub Step? Or Roots Music and Dance Hall?
When it comes to Rap and Hip Hop, there are very different opinions. Here are ten of mine regarding the difference between the two.
10. Hip Hop is creative while Rap is predictable.
From the classic song The Message by Grandmaster Flash, to what’s known as the “Golden Era”, Hip Hop music has always championed the street poet. To be recognized as a real MC meant your skills were that of a Jedi or gladiator’ king.
To survive was to out wit, out rhyme, out perform, and out shine. In an art form where the language and slang is constantly changing, MCs pushed even further and **** near created new languages. Das Efx, and the Fu Schnickens are great examples of that.
When Rakim dropped Follow the Leader, stating -
“I can take a phrase thats barely heard/ Flip it/ Now its a daily word”
He was stating the truth.
And that’s a powerful statement. Rap lyrics on the other hand never seem to push any limits. The chorus structures are made in order for 3 year olds to sing along to, but the topics are adult and usually focus on a woman’s ***, the popular brand of “Ak Aka Aka Alchohol”, ego, clothes and money.
9. The production in Rap music is better than in Hip Hop.
Kanye West is a dope producer. A real producer is someone who creates a song with a purpose. They usually have the chorus and idea of the song and only pass it to the lyricist when its ready for the final touch. They might sample a sound here and there but mostly they create from scratch and layer with live keys, horns, etc.
With the exception of a few masters like DJ Premier, most Hip Hop producers sample some ****, loop it, throw an effect on top, and hand it over to the “rapper” who has to come up with the idea, write the chorus, get the singer and the Mexican tuba player all on his own.
Production for Rap music on the other hand, is made to mimic what ever is hot at the moment like, auto tune. If you want to shoot your radio every time you hear a grown *** man whining into a box about cheap love, you’re not alone. But if that’s what sells, that’s what Rap Music is doing. And with big money involved, record labels hire “real producers” to make it.
8. The difference is, Rap sells more.
See above.
7. Rap is about bull**** like money and cars. Hip Hop is about bull**** like how good you can rhyme.
Mike Jones! Who? Mike Jooooones! I wouldn’t know a Mike Jones lyric if it fell on top of me from a Martian space ship. BUT - i know his name.
Why?
Because its simple. So are his songs.
This leads real MC’s to say- “Wat-Da ****?”, and start going hard with samurai-like precision about how that **** sucks and they stop writing songs with substance. Instead they get stuck in “battle mode” and write songs about writing songs. Lyrical as he is, Cannibus is a good example.
6. Rap is the way young kids do Hip Hop.
Soldier Boy. I don’t get it. But its not made for me to get. I get THAT. So I can’t judge or diss. Who knows what kind of artist Soldier Boy will become. If he has been blessed with success, maybe it’s for a reason. Maybe he’ll open a youth center, or start a label for kids or become a great producer or the mayor of where ever. The future belongs to the youth so all we can do is lead by example and know some will recognize and “Carry on Tradition.”
5. Hip Hop is a lifestyle, Rap is something to dance to.
See any KRS ONE lecture. Anything I say on this subject would only sound like him.
4. In Italy they innocently just call it “Black Music”.
I got lost in Milan once. I left the venue during sound check, noted there was a park across the street and decided it was an easy landmark to get back. After roaming aimlessly for an hour I realized there were parks everywhere. Little ones, big ones - everywhere.
When I started asking people where the venue was I realized no one spoke English - no one. So I’m stopping people in the street and going into cafe’s doing an insane sign language trying to find the place we are performing that evening. Its hard to explain how frustrated, lost and stupid I looked. After miming my question people would say- “Ohhh Black Music!” “Yes!” I would say - “Black Music! Where?”
Three hours later I saw a poster with our picture on it. I waited by it until two Africans walked by and told me how to get back to the venue. I learned that to Italians, Rap, Reggae, Hip Hop, Jazz, etc was innocently called Black Music.
And their eyes lit up like Christmas lights when they said those words. They couldn’t really tell the difference and probably didn’t see a need for one.
3. Hip Hop has messages. Rap Music has commercials.
Although Jamie Fox isn't a rapper, R&B and Rap have been merged through production and his song Blame is the perfect example of commercialism.
Now, it may be possible that like St Ides (who actually payed rappers to promote their poison), Jamie Fox could be getting money from Patron, Hennessy, and Grey Goose - but I doubt it. Hip Hop is more likely to have you tear down the department store while rap will inspire you to shop there.
2. Hip Hop is dead. Rap is its ******* child who inherited the estate.
Nas wasn’t the only one saying Hip Hop was dead. People who have migrated to the electronic music scene have known it for years. It may not be dead, but it is being swallowed, and drowned out by the ocean of “new artists” who fall into the rap category. See example #6. This fact brings us forward to a strange conclusion. The number one difference between Rap and Hip Hop…
1. Hip Hop dosen’t get air play. Rap does.
There is a famous quote by J. Edgar Hoover who said,
“There will be no more Black Messiah’s unless we create them.”
When the uninitiated hear the name Tupac Shakur, they think of a trouble maker gangsta’ rap star. Most don’t calculate the reason Tupac turned up this way. His earlier works are filled with the philosophy and attitude of the Black Panther and Street Soldier mentality shared by his mother and step father Matula Shakur as well as his famous aunt Assata Shakur.
His songs like Trapped -
“thinking about what tha streets do to me, cause they never talk peace in tha black community
all we know is violence, do tha job in silence
walk tha city streets like a rat pack of tyrants
too many brothers daily heading for tha big penn
*****s commin’ out worse off than when they went in..”
Notice the subtle twist how “brothers” go into the penn and “*****s” come out.
Is a great example of the message Pac had in his music, until he was sent to prison. That’s when Suge Knight appeared out of nowhere to offer the million dollar bail on one condition. That was, Tupac was to deliver 8 albums worth of Hard-Core Gangsta Rap.
Now, who was really behind Suge and Interscope Records to green light Suge’s infamous deal? None other than Edgar Bronfman of the Bronfman Family- an Illuminiti business dynasty who made its money off alcohol (like the Kennedy family) during the prohibition. The Bronfman Family own’s the Seagram Co. which owns 80% of MCA
MCA owns RCA and Universal Studios. And they also own 50% of Interscope Records. These are the people who were behind Death Row Records and the posters of your favorite rapper drinking St.Ides in your local Liquor store.
It’s obvious they do not have the best interests in mind for the people. Through radio and Hollywood we are being manipulated directed and mis-educated. The ****ery on the radio serves a purpose. Its easier to control a dumb population than an intelligent one. Here is a sad yet comical example.
Have the radio stations been taken over by followers of Edward Bernays where only the base and sexual subjects are aired to manipulate and control the people?
I’m asking you.
Is there a conspiracy between the illuminati and entertainment? Rap and Hip hop? If there is, what should we as artists do about it?
Do we write about the dumb-ing down of the art form, and the people, or, do we bow our heads and do the Stanky Leg Dance like everybody else?
Obey and consume? Or Rebel? Blue Pill or Red?
For more on Bernays, check out The Century of The Self.
I live in the DMV.....could have taken you to the studio or sumthin. 
