Pop rap (also known as pop hip-hop, pop hop, hip pop, melodic hip-hop or melodic rap) is a genre of music fusing the rhythm-based lyricism of hip-hop music with pop music's preference for melodious vocals and catchy tunes emphasizing on pop like productions and structure. The lyrics are often positive, with choruses similar to those heard in pop music. This genre gained mainstream popularity during the 1990s, though the influences and roots of pop rap can trace back to late-1980s hip-hop artists such as Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and Beastie Boys.
AllMusic describes pop rap as "a marriage of hip hop beats and raps with strong melodic hooks, which are usually featured as part of the chorus section in a standard pop-song structure."[2] Pop rap also tends to have less aggressive lyrics than street-level rap music.[2][3] However, some 1990s artists fused pop rap with a more aggressive attitude to defuse backlash on their own accessibility.[2] Music journalist Wilson McBee has strongly criticized pop rap, "A pop rapper is assumed to be a sellout – someone who has compromised artistic principles in order to fit commercial expectations. Or worse, it's someone who never had any artistic principles to begin with, who's guilty of bastardizing rap's social and political traditions just to make money." McBee also then went on saying "In labeling the likes of Flo Rida, Lupae Filius and other pop rappers, we blur the distinction between a 'pop rapper' and a rapper who is just really popular. Not every rapper who has a hit is automatically a sellout or deserving of the pop rap tag."[4] While some rappers from the 1990s with catchy hooks have been compared to pop music, McBee also said:
In 1994, both Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage" and Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa" were big hits. Both featured plush, synthesizer-heavy production, catchy hooks and lyrics about partying. But the songs are not even close to being siblings. Coolio's awkward verses are nearly void of internal rhyming, interesting metaphors or lyrical variation whatsoever. The imagery is tired, vague and familiar: “We’re going to a place where everybody kick it/ Kick it, kick it . . . yeah that’s the ticket.” Compare that with these vivid lines from Biggie: “So we can steam on the way to the telly, go fill my belly / A T-bone steak, cheese eggs and Welch’s grape.” "Big Poppa" may have a poppy melody and beat, but it is still the work of a masterful lyricist and storyteller.[4]
Pop rap songs often have lyrical content similar to that in pop with themes such as love and relationships.[4]
History
MC Hammer performing with Vanilla Ice in July 2009, who were both described as early pop rap artists for blending rap music with catchy hooks.
In the 1980s, rap artists including Run DMC and LL Cool J set up the blueprints and origins of pop rap as they suddenly broke into the mainstream.[2][3] LL Cool J has been described as the first "pop rapper" in history, when he rose to prominence on his 1985 debut album Radio. Paramount-owned music video channel MTV has described LL Cool J's 1987 single "I Need Love" as "one of the first pop rap crossoverhits".[5] Later, rap artists such as Tone Loc, Young MC, and Fresh Prince then made party tunes and used their storytelling abilities as they became popular. During the 1990s, pop rap began to expand even more as hip hop music also began to connect strongly with dance music and R&B.[2][3]
In the early 1990s, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice broke into the mainstream with songs such as "U Can't Touch This" and "Ice Ice Baby", respectively, but the two sampled from both songs of the 1980s.[6] They caused pop rap to be "derided (and, occasionally, taken to court) for its willingness to borrow" from best-known hit singles.[2] Another important moment was the remix of Mariah Carey's 1995 song "Fantasy" with Ol' Dirty Bastard.[7]
By the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, rappers such as Ja Rule fused gangsta rap themes with 1980s pop and soul elements; pop rap was dominated by many artists.[2] It then went back into the mainstream with the success of the Black Eyed Peas who had smash singles such as "Where Is the Love?" (2003) from their breakthrough album Elephunk.[1]
Most people who listen to pop rap do not call it pop rap, and simply consider it as rap.[9] When Spotify introduced the pop rap category in 2019, Twitter users were confused as to what this 'new' genre suggested. Some users were even bewildered when Spotify classified the genre for its users and suggested that they listen to pop rap.[10] Popular hip-hop rapper LL Cool J did not embrace the idea of labeling him as the "forefather of pop rap" and tweeted about it in April 2021.[11][12]
Stylistic differences
Street pop
Street pop, also known as street hop, emerged in Lagos, evolving from a blend of Nigerian hip hop, popular music, afrobeats, and Nigerian street sounds. Influenced by artists such as Danfo Drivers, Baba Fryo and Daddy Showkey well as the shaku shaku dance style, originally inspired by gqom and later evolving into its own music genre. Street pop is characterized by its lively tempos and incorporates elements from gqom, highlife, pop, hip hop, and EDM. While typically fast-paced, slower variations of street pop are also prevalent. It features a fusion of melodious arrangements, urban colloquial language, Pidgin, singing, indigenous and Western rap. Variants of street pop include neo-fuji, shaku shaku, zanku, fuji-fusion, and apala-fusion. Key figures in the street pop genre include Olamide, Slimcase, Mr Real, Idowest, Naira Marley, Zinoleesky, Mohbad, Balloranking, Reminisce, Rexxie, Zlatan Ibile, Sarz, 9ice, Lil Kesh, T.I Blaze, Asake, Portable, Terry Apala, Bella Shmurda, Seyi Vibez and DJ Kaywise.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
Latin hip hop is hip hop music that is recorded by artists in the United States of Hispanic and Latino descent, along with Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean, North America, Central America, South America, and Spain.
James Todd Smith, known professionally as LL Cool J, is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip hop acts Beastie Boys and Run-DMC.
East Coast hip hop is a regional subgenre of hip hop music that originated in New York City during the 1970s. Hip hop is recognized to have originated and evolved first in The Bronx, New York City.
Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Florida—often titled “The Big 5,” five states which constitute the "Southern Network" in rap music.
Hip hop music has been popular in Africa since the early 1980s due to widespread African American influence. In 1985, hip hop reached Senegal, a French-speaking country in West Africa. Some of the first Senegalese rappers were Munyaradzi Nhidza Lida, M.C. Solaar, and Positive Black Soul.
Radio is the debut studio album by American rapper LL Cool J. It was released on November 18, 1985, by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. It was also Def Jam's first full-length album release.
Jazz rap is a fusion of jazz and hip hop music, as well as an alternative hip hop subgenre, that developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AllMusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the past with a newly dominant form of the present, paying tribute to and reinvigorating the former while expanding the horizons of the latter." The rhythm was rooted in hip hop over which were placed repetitive phrases of jazz instrumentation: trumpet, double bass, etc. Groups involved in the formation of jazz rap included A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Gang Starr, The Roots, Jungle Brothers, and Dream Warriors.
The music of Nigeria includes many kinds of folk and popular music. Little of the country's music history prior to European contact has been preserved, although bronze carvings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries have been found depicting musicians and their instruments. The country's most internationally renowned genres are Indigenous, Apala, Aurrebbe music, Rara music, Were music, Ogene, Fuji, Jùjú, Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Igbo highlife, Afro-juju, Waka, Igbo rap, Gospel,Nigerian pop and Yo-pop. Styles of folk music are related to the over 250 ethnic groups in the country, each with their own techniques, instruments, and songs. The largest ethnic groups are the Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. Traditional music from Nigeria and throughout Africa is often functional; in other words, it is performed to mark a ritual such as the wedding or funeral and not to achieve artistic goals. Although some Nigerians, especially children and the elderly, play instruments for their own amusement, solo performance is otherwise rare. Music is closely linked to agriculture, and there are restrictions on, for example, which instruments can be played during different parts of the planting season.
The music of South Africa exhibits a culturally varied musical heritage in conjunction with the multi-ethnic populace. Genres with the greatest international recognition being mbube, isicathamiya, mbaqanga, afrofusion, kwaito, South African pop music, afro house, South African hip hop, Shangaan electro, bacardi house, bolo house, gqom and amapiano.
African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the enslavement of African Americans prior to the American Civil War. It has been said that "every genre that is born from America has black roots."
Emerging in the first half of the 1980s, Swedish hip hop originated in the cities of Stockholm and Malmö. Early on, most rappers in Sweden performed in English. Funkalics and The Latin Kings, two very different acts united by their innovative use of the Swedish language, debuted a decade later and paved the way for a second, and bigger, breakthrough for Swedish hip hop. Today, some of the most popular rappers use Swedish, often in different accents.
African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with Western popular music. Many genres of popular music like blues, jazz, salsa, zouk, and rumba derive to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by enslaved Africans. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock, and rhythm and blues. Likewise, African popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and recording studio techniques of the Western music industry. The term does not refer to a specific style or sound but is used as a general term for African popular music.
Todd Smith is the eleventh studio album by American rapper LL Cool J. It was released on April 11, 2006 by Def Jam Recordings. It includes collaborations with Jennifer Lopez, Pharrell, Juelz Santana, Teairra Mari, Jamie Foxx, Ginuwine, Mary J. Blige, 112, Mary Mary, Ryan Toby and Freeway. Producers on the project include Pharrell, Scott Storch, Bink!, Shea Taylor, Drumma Boy, Keezo Kane and Trackmasters.
European hip hop is hip hop music created by European musicians. Hip hop is a style of music developed by African American and Caribbean communities in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. Due to this success, it has gained worldwide popularity, especially in Europe where many diverse and unique styles of hip hop have been created. This diversity is especially apparent in the forms of hip hop music and culture emanating from settler communities from Europe's former colonies and peripheries.
Hip hop or hip-hop, also known as rap and formerly as disco rap, is a genre of popular music that originated in the early 1970s from the African American community, with notable contributions from Latinos and Caribbean immigrants. Hip-hop music originated as an anti-drug and anti-violence genre consisting of stylized rhythmic music that often accompanies rapping, a rhythmic delivery of poetic speech. In the early 1990s, a professor of African American studies at Temple University said, "Hip-hop is something that blacks can unequivocally claim as their own." By the 21st century, the field of rappers had diversified by both race and gender. The music developed as part of the broader hip-hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, breakdancing, and graffiti art. While often used to refer solely to rapping and rap music, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of the culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
The Trackmasters, also known as Poke & Tone, is an American hip hop production duo composed of music producers Poke and Tone, best known for their commercial hit records in the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s. Frank "Nitty" Pimentel joined forces with the duo to complete the success of "Trackmasters". Throughout their career, they have worked with various hip-hop and R&B artists including Destiny's Child, Nas, R. Kelly, LL Cool J, Mary J. Blige, Will Smith, Jay-Z, Cam'ron, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, The Notorious B.I.G. and 50 Cent.
Hip hop music in Washington, D.C., has been an important part of the culture of the area.
Gqom, gqom tech,sgubhu or 3-Step) is an electronic dance music genre and subgenre of house music that emerged in the early 2010s from Durban, South Africa, pioneered and innovated by music producers Naked Boyz, Rudeboyz, Sbucardo, Griffit Vigo, Nasty Boyz, DJ Lag, Menzi Shabane, Distruction Boyz and Citizen Boy.
Afrobeats, not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, in the 2000s. Afrobeats is less of a style per se, and more of a descriptor for the fusion of sounds flowing majorly out of Nigeria. Genres such as hiplife, jùjú music, highlife, azonto music, and naija beats, among others, were amalgamated under the "Afrobeats" umbrella.
Oluwafemi Oladapo better known as Slimcase, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, hype man, and actor. He is known for featuring on fellow Nigerian artist D'banj's single,"Issa Banger" and "Gucci Snake", by Wizkid with a new dance routine known as 'shaku shaku' and the street pop, genre.
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