DEFINING RAP/ROCK

What is Rap/Rock?

Funk Metal takes the loud guitars and riffs of heavy metal and melds them to the popping bass lines and syncopated rhythms of funk. Funk metal evolved in the mid-'80s when alternative bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone began playing the hybrid with a stronger funk underpinning than metal. The bands that followed relied more on metal than funk, though they retained the wild bass lines. Like heavy metal, the genre became a way to showcase instrumental prowess.

Rap-Metal seeks to fuse the most aggressive elements of hardcore rap and heavy metal, and became an extremely popular variation of alternative metal during the late '90s. With few exceptions, rap-metal is far and away the domain of white musicians coming to the form from the metal side of the equation. Prior to the initial emergence of rap-metal, there had been several successful fusions of rap with hard rock guitar — Run-D.M.C.'s collaboration with Aerosmith on a remake of the latter's "Walk This Way," the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill — but the true birth of rap-metal was Anthrax's comic 1987 single "I'm the Man," which combined a heavy guitar riff (actually the melody of "Hava Nagila") with full-fledged, surprisingly competent rapping. Funk-metal outfits like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More dabbled in the style, but the intense hardcore tone commonly associated with '90s rap-metal was established by another Anthrax record, a 1991 remake of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise" that featured members of PE itself. Some metal bands had come to associate hardcore rap with the street-tough urban attitude they wanted to project, and after "Bring the Noise," they suddenly found it possible to experiment with fusing the two. Many of these efforts focused not on the linguistic and rhythmic complexity of rap, but on the cathartic intensity that could be achieved by sort of shout-rapping the lyrics instead of singing them. In spite of projects like 1993's much-hyped Judgment Night soundtrack — which featured all-star teamings of artists from the rap and rock worlds — crossover collaborations faded as the '90s wore on.

At the same time, rap-metal began to draw influences from alternative metal — specifically, bands like Helmet, White Zombie, and Tool, who relied on crushingly heavy sonic textures more than catchy songwriting or immediately memorable riffs. The thick sound and the lack of melodic emphasis fit rap-metal's concerns perfectly. With the exception of Rage Against the Machine's angry left-wing politics, most rap-metal bands during the mid- to late '90s blended an ultra-aggressive, testosterone-heavy theatricality with either juvenile humor or an introspective angst learned through alternative metal; the vocalists drew from hip-hop MC traditions in varying degrees. Some alt-metal bands, spearheaded by Korn, incorporated hip-hop beats into their music, but full-fledged rap-metal always featured a rapper as frontman. Limp Bizkit became rap-metal's most popular band during the late '90s.

Rap-Metal Albums:

Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory [2000]
Biohazard: Urban Discipline [1992]
Kid Rock: History of Rock [2000]
Esham: Bootleg: From the Lost Vault, Vol. 1 [2000]
Shootyz Groove: Hipnosis [1997]
Insane Clown Posse: Great Milenko [1997]
Rage Against the Machine: Battle of Los Angeles [1999]

Rap-Rock was a continuation of rap-metal, a hybrid of hip-hop and heavy metal pioneered by such bands as Anthrax. Rap-metal had big, lurching beats and heavy, heavy riffs — occasionally, it sounded as if the riffs were merely overdubbed over scratching and beat box beats. Rap-rock was a little more organic, often because it was a rock song where the vocalist rapped instead of sang. Nevertheless, there was certainly elements of hip-hop in the rhythms, too, since there was more funk to rap-rock than normal hard rock. At times, the difference between rap-metal and rap-rock may be minute, since they both favor loud guitars and beats, but the main difference is that organic, integrated sound, best heard on Kid Rock's 1998 rap-rock masterpiece, Devil Without a Cause.

Rap-Rock Albums:

Ice-T w/ Body Count: Body Count [1992]
Kid Rock: History of Rock [2000]
Brougham: Le Cock Sportif [2000]
311: Grassroots [1994]
Uncle Kracker: Double Wide [2000]
Insane Clown Posse: Great Milenko [1997]
Incubus: S.C.I.E.N.C.E. [1997]