Rapping is spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics performed over a beat. It involves elements like content, flow (rhythm and rhyme), and delivery. Rapping is distinct from poetry in that it is performed to music. It originated centuries ago and can now be found in every major language. Rapping draws from influences like James Brown's funk music and African American folk traditions. Successful rappers develop techniques like flow, rhyme schemes, rhythmic delivery, and breath control. Rap lyrics cover all topics and use literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and wordplay.

3. What is Rap?
Rapping is spoken or chanted rhyming
lyrics.
The components of rapping include
"content", "flow" (rhythm and rhyme),
and "delivery“.
Rapping is distinct from spoken word
poetry in that it is performed in time to
a beat.

4. Rapping is often associated with and a
primary ingredient of hip hop music,
BUT the origins of the phenomenon
can be said to predate hip hop culture
by centuries.
Since the early 21st century, it has
been possible to hear rap in every
major language of the world.

5. Rapping can be delivered over a beat
or without accompaniment.
Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area
between speech, prose, poetry, and
singing.
The word (meaning originally "to hit“)
as used to describe quick speech or
repartee predates the musical form.

6. Roots
One of the main influences on Hip
Hop artists was James Brown.
James Brown is credited for inventing
funk music in the middle '60s.
The characteristic funk drum beat is
the most common rhythm used for rap
music.

8. Related to the African American
community were items like
schoolyard chants and taunts,
clapping games, jump-rope rhymes,
some with unwritten folk histories
going back hundreds of years across
many nationalities.

9. Rapping
"Flow" is defined as "the rhythms and
rhymes” of a hip-hop song's lyrics and
how they interact.
Staying on the beat is central to rap's
flow.

10. Styles
"The Chant", which he says is used by
Lil Jon and Project Pat
"The Syncopated Bounce", used by
Twista
"Straight Forward", used by Jay-Z, Ice
Cube, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg
Etc

12. Rhyme
MCs use many different rhyming
techniques, including complex rhyme
schemes.
It has been noted that rap's use of rhyme
is some of the most advanced in all
forms of poetry.
Rhyme is often thought to be the most
important factor in rap writing... rhyme is
what gives rap lyrics their musicality.

13. Rhythm
Many of the rhythmic techniques used
in rapping come from percussive
techniques and many rappers
compare themselves to
percussionists.

14. Delivery / Performance
To successfully deliver a rap, a rapper
must also develop vocal presence,
enunciation, and breath control.
The ability to rap quickly and clearly is
sometimes regarded as an important
sign of skill.

15. Subject matter
Anything and everything.
Materialism has also been a popular
topic in hip-hop since at least the early
1990s, with rappers boasting about
their own wealth and possessions,
and name-dropping specific brands.

16. Literary technique
Rappers use the literary techniques of
double entendres, alliteration, and
other forms of wordplay that are also
found in classical poetry.
Similes and metaphors are used
extensively in rap lyrics.
Rappers, like Jay-Z, are known for the
metaphorical content of their raps.

17. Diction and dialect
Many hip hop listeners believe that a
rapper's lyrics are enhanced by a
complex vocabulary.

18. Though the majority of rappers are male,
there have been a number of female rap
stars, including:
Lauryn Hill, MC Lyte, Lil' Kim, Missy
Elliott,
Queen Latifah, Da Brat, Eve, Trina,
Nicki Minaj, Khia, M.I.A., Foxy Brown, and
Lisa Lopes from TLC, Iggy Azalea.
There are also some also hip hop artists
like Signmark.

21. Deaf Rap artists