There's about a million different ways to distinguish the two. The only one that is universally correct is that rap is a vocal style, and one of the Elements, whereas hip-hop is a cultural movement and a meme, and within that it is a style of music. And to expand upon that, a piece of music that incorporates a rap may not necessarily be hip-hop, and likewise a piece of hip-hop music might not necessarily contain rapping. Anything besides that is usually just based upon different interpretations of the semantics of the two terms. The first one that comes to mind is "rap = pop music" which isn't necessarily true.
Rap= 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, The Game, Etc... Hip Hop = Fort Minor, Lupe Fiasco, Etc... To me you see more of a gangster presence in "Rap" usually and I HATE HATE HAAAATE to be stereotypical, but Hip Hop is more....ehh.."Respectable."
I think you might as well just call 50 Cent and Lil Wayne and whoever else pop music or pop rap if you want to distinguish them from more "respectable" musicians, as opposed to just using the whole "rap as opposed to hip-hop" reasoning. I mean, Downset have elements of rap in their music but they aren't much like those artists, and at the same time they aren't necessarily hip-hop. The same applies to Let Them Eat War by Bad Religion which includes a rap by Sage Francis, and that new single by Hillary Duff where sheher producer and/or writer ripped off Personal Jesus and then had some random guy rap on it. And someone toasting at a party or freestyling wouldn't be the same as that either, but both cases could still come under rap. Not to mention that a fair few of the things the former two artists, amongst others, are criticised for are prevalent in pop music in general anyway. So yeah, it probably requires a more specific term than just "rap" as opposed to "hip-hop". I'm not trying to start on anyone, that's just what makes sense to me. I'm sorry if I'm taking the thread OT.
No, I get you. I just hate thinking about differences, blaah. This thread..Onward!! Overrated: Metallica The Beatles (Yeah, I said it and I DO have every album) Assholes Underrated: The Invisible (Movie) Releasing your own music without a label (Making your own EP) Nice Guys
Here's someone I think is overrated: Hayden Panettiere Also: Family Guy Coldplay Crying Underrated: Drinking water "Thank you" and "sorry" Neon green Honesty Can't really think of anything else at the moment.
Overrated: The "stop global warming" Trendiness. The "Drunk! HELL YEA!" Movies. The mall Social lifes. Being Conformly Unique. Group mentality Underrated: The Truth. Independant thinking. Independent research. Honesty. Generosity. Kindness. Social life.
You're the only person in the world who thinks that. Overrated: Saying the Dark Knight is overrated. Watching the Dark Knight just for Heath Ledger. Saying Heath Ledger wasn't really that good in the Dark Knight. Underrated: Batman Begins
Yeah, I rock. But really, what's so great about her? I will never understand. You know, she's only one day older than I am. "that's got absolutely nothing to do with the way I feel about her, of course, lol".