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

Jones wanted to save Powell from being associated with the negative publicity that surrounded rap music.

From BBC

Although he was in his 50s, he embraced rap music because he saw similarities with the energy of bebop jazz, and because may of its stars had risen out of hardship on the streets.

From BBC

And I realized how political it is, more political than gangsta rap music — like, you can’t have certain people working with each other!

From Los Angeles Times

Only last month, Cam & China performed before their biggest audience yet — at the rap music festival Rolling Loud, just a few blocks from where they grew up in Inglewood.

From Los Angeles Times

Raised by his mother, he was a flashy kid who loved rap music and played football for the school team.

From BBC