rap music

American  

[rap myoo-zik] / ˈræp ˌmyu zɪk /

Also rap

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.

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Etymology

Origin of rap music

First recorded in 1980–85

Example Sentences

Rap music blared out around us at a campaign rally in the district of Chitwan, in Nepal.

From BBC • Mar. 2, 2026

Rap music videos produced by artists in African, Europe, Asia and South America often include beatboxers, breakdancers, graffiti and other elements of hip-hop.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 9, 2023

Rap music is a lot of things, but it includes quite a bit of reverence for literature.

From Salon • Oct. 17, 2022

Rap music, then still barely over a decade old, had only just begun to reckon with attention from outside the genre’s walls.

From New York Times • Aug. 5, 2021

Rap music is the musical equivalent of graffiti.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai