Why? Because you thought you knew, for sure, what genre of music you belonged to and didn’t stop to think just what it meant to be apart of it and if you may be apart of three others that are curiously similar. Since terms in music have often gone undefined and re-defined during periods of time, let’s take a stab at re-defining a few.

One of the largest misconceptions, in my opinion, is that Hip Hop and Rap are the same yet two totally different music styles. This is not true and is rather confusing. Hip Hop is a culture, not just genre, and encompasses the collective expressions of DJing, Emceeing (MCing), Grafitti, and Breakdancing as well as the media and fashion it influences. The music you hear is Hip Hop music, designated as the marriage of DJing and MCing; what you may call, and should call, Rap. Both had quickly evolved and MCing became Rapping as can be done acapella (voice-only) or atop music.

So what’s the point of all this? Well, to be quite frank, the constant avoidance of proper definition has led people to believe the very term “Rap” is hardcore and the term “Hip Hop” is softer and more widely accepted. Notice the feeling you may get when you see the words Conscious hip hop, Alternative hip hop, and Gangsta rap, among others, as if created to pin Rap against Hip Hop, but that doesn’t even make sense. Too many times have artists continued to wonder if their genre is Rap or Hip Hop or both or maybe neither. Consequently, the word Rap has picked up a thicker coat of scrutiny and negative connotations from its hardcore sub-genre, gangsta rap, but really, this goes against Hip Hop all together.

Hip Hop music is a mix of all these new sub-genres and needs no specializations, but can use one distinct alias to lessen the confusion. The sheer fact that MCs have specialized themselves into these creative cubicals has only pushed them to further realize their fate as unidimensional stars, which turn out rather square. Quit falling into the holes and continue to break the sub-genre mold. These arts are already defined and do not need further dissection. I mean, will you be the queen/king of Hip Hop or the queen/king of Rap?

Considering I’m a believer in the Dignity of Simplicity, Pop Culture is to Hip Hop as Pop is to _ _ _. That’s simple even if you didn’t take the SATs. So decide; take Rap and bring it back to light as the official musical genre of Hip Hop culture but don’t restrict yourself to one form of it, because when your audience grows tired of it, consider it a wRap.

(official blog @ experience.com)