rap music

[ rap myoo-zik ]

noun

1. a style of popular music, developed by disc jockeys and urban Black performers in the late 1970s, in which an insistent, recurring beat pattern provides the background and counterpoint for rapid, slangy, and often boastful rhyming patter intoned by a vocalist or vocalists:

   the hottest new talent in rap music today.

Word History and Origins

Origin of rap music¹

First recorded in 1980–85

Example Sentences

At a time when innocuous rap music videos incite weeklong, brain-melting culture wars between the right and the left, one can easily visualize the combative morning-after takes this event will inevitably spur on social media and in the news.

From The Daily Beast

When it’s time for pitcher Marcus Stroman’s turn in the rotation, he runs to the mound to throw his warmup pitches, rap music blasting over the PA system to get him hyped up.

From FiveThirtyEight

When he didn’t have money for the bus, he’d spend almost an hour walking to campus, writing rap music in his head and often arriving late.

From ProPublica

For example, Ed explained to me that while a sampling a beat is a well-known device in rap music, he samples colors.

From The Daily Beast

The young men had been drinking, and an argument erupted over who was better schooled in rap music.

From The Daily Beast

The commercials are going to show both sides of me, what I like to do off the court, like listen to my rap music.

From The Daily Beast

Medusa-emblazoned harnesses, stylish rock concert tees, and blaring rap music.

From The Daily Beast

Cillizza once took a dig at Cohen for a “viral video” of the congressman “‘dancing’ to rap music” at a campaign event.

From The Daily Beast

Sex, drugs, rap music, and membership in cults or gangs are part of their contradictory profile.

From Project Gutenberg