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Difference Between Hip Hop And Rap

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Charis E. Kubrin and Erik Nelson have differentiated between the two terms hip-hop and rap, which are conventionally used as synonyms, by citing Cheryl Lynette Keyes’ definition of rap as a musical form of hip-hop “that makes use of rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular, which is recited or loosely chanted over a musical soundtrack” (187); in doing so, they clarify that the term hip-hop “refers to a much broader artistic and cultural movement that took shape in the early 1970s and included rap but also other elements such as graffiti, break dancing, DJing, and double dutch” (187). Since hip hop culture “arose out of the ruins of a post-industrial and ravaged South Bronx, as a form of expression of urban Black and Latino youth, who politicians and the dominant …show more content…

Kubrin and Nelson 190, 195, 197). That kind of marketing strategy by taking advantage of gang culture is such a two-edged sword: On the one hand, gangsta rap has turned out to be a profound commercial success and made hip-hop by far a multibillion dollar industry ; the mainstream success has enlarged hip-hop’s popularity far beyond the underground scene and transformed it into a popular culture in the world (191). On the other hand, the global popularity of hip-hop with the appropriated images of rappers as violent men on the street gang makes the music genre, instead of being the community’s expression as originally, nowadays “muffled and suppressed for things that sell” by such as CEOs of alcohol companies, clothing companies, sneaker companies and major record labels which are mostly white-based (Salmons

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