hip-hop

An alarming recent trend is seen in commercial music journalists, djs/vjs, etc. calling any music with a dj and mc "hip-hop." In doing this they obfuscate the distinction between rap and hip-hop. Rap is visceral; hip-hop is cerebral. Rap has its own integrity, equal to that of hip-hop, as was shown in the old school (78 - 83) and Golden Age (84 - 93) years (all dates are approximations). Rap is currently much more commercially successful and generally popular than hip-hop, and in its current expression has been watered down by the demands of commerce. (see: hip-pop). By contrast, hip-hop is undergoing a bit of a rennaisance, whose crystallisation was marked by the release of such albums Black Star by Mos Def and Talib Kweli in the late nineties.