In order to understand what pop-rap is all about, it’s
best to start with a pop rap music definition.
Pop-rap, in a nutshell, can come from any genre, so long as it becomes
popular enough to be considered mainstream. Although pop-rap is frequently
less aggressive than most rap genres, gangsta rappers could also be classified
as pop rap music if they’re popular enough; Eminem, Dr. Dre, and
Snoop Dog are good examples.
To get a clearer picture of the pop rap music definition, it helps to
know who some of the biggest stars in pop rap music are. LL Cool J, The
Beastie Boys, P. Diddy, and Will Smith are four artists whose names are
synonymous with pop rap music. Some past pop-rap artists who have enjoyed
mainstream success are Coolio, MC Hammer, and Vanilla Ice. Though Snoop
Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Eminem could fit into the pop-rap music genre, it’s
only because of their mainstream success that they are classifiable as
pop-rap.
Keeping the pop rap music definition in mind, it becomes
easy to see how any rap, regardless of the genre, can be considered pop-rap.
What classifies one genre of hip hop as pop-rap, over another, are the
number of record sales – however, in order for something to become
that successful, it has to be accessible to a wide group of people.
“Accessibility” is a big part of the pop rap
music definition because the number of record sales is frequently in direct
proportion to its accessibility. With the number of record sales being
a deciding factor in what makes something pop rap music, it almost seems
that free pop rap songs would be antithetical to pop rap music’s
entire existence. However, this is not the case.
To get a better idea of how free pop rap songs help promote
pop-rap, we must look back to the pop rap music definition. If the pop
rap music definition states that more record sales are one of the things
crucial to the success of this genre, then free pop rap songs serve as
an excellent promotional tool. In fact, some of today’s biggest
pop-rap stars like P. Diddy offer free pop rap songs on his own record
label’s website.
While artists’ websites might be a good place to
find free pop rap songs, other sites like
EZ-Tracks have a huge variety of free pop rap songs. On EZ-Tracks, there
are free pop rap songs available from a variety of famous pop-rap artists,
regardless of their label.
So, summing up the pop rap music definition, we find
that pop-rap music is not only defined by its amount of record sales,
but how accessible the music is to its fans.
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