I’ll choose rap over hip hop any day: Rap lyrics keep it real

If you listen to rap music on a regular basic you will notice the stark differences between rap lyrics and hip hop lyrics. It is widely known that rap came up from the streets where the artists would use their rhyming skills to tell the world about their sense of isolation and not being part of the American mainstream.

Hip hop lyrics from the same place, but this time it was middle class children who did not like how they were treated as their families moved into the suburbs and edge cities.

So what happened?

Along the way, hip hop went mainstream as it was cleaner and dance friendly. Hip hop lyrics made their way from the streets, to the clubs, to MTV and finally to the top of the music charts. Rap lyrics remained where they began, as the music of the down trodden and this gives emerging artists the freedom to experiment without worrying about their best camera angle.

You can still get a good rap album onto the charts with very little time on MTV.

How do rap artists maintain such complete control over their music:

1. Rap lyrics are seen as more raw so the artists can get away with more explicit and sensitive subjects. Whether it’s gangs, drugs, homophobia, or domestic violence, rappers have total creative freedom to address taboo subjects with out turning off their fans.

2. Rap lyrics are mostly created by individual artist and not song writing committees. An artist could free style in person or on paper. It doesn’t matter because you don’t get the huge song writing teams that dominate pop, country and even hip hop music.

3. Rap lyrics are not music reliant. They actually sound better without huge overpowering beats behind them. Most professional rappers do their best work when they have mike without any musical accompaniment

4. Rap lyrics are not easily recycled since they are based on personal rather than universal experiences. The original lyrics can touch the audience but it is not easily transferred from one artist to another. Rappers can inject pieces of their personality, family history, educational background and more into their songs.

Of course, you can put samples into hip hop or pop songs, but it is very different for a middle class thirteen year old to remake your song and not sound like an idiot.

In the end, I still listen to all types of music. It’s just that when it comes to originality and raw musical styles, I’ll take rap lyrics over hip hop.