What is rap?

Rap refers to folk art performances, and rap is rap music. Rap music is widely spread around the world.

Rap music is a folk art form of storytelling. After 1949 was founded, it was also called "Quyi Qu". Rap music is a unique folk art of the Chinese nation, with distinctive oriental artistic characteristics. It is a comprehensive art form integrating literature, music and performance. It pays equal attention to rhyme and prose in style, and combines narration with endorsement; In the performance, storytelling is combined with simulated characters (artists call it "jumping out" and "one person has many angles"); Musically, it is narrative and has a unique "language melody", which is the most closely combined and popular folk performing art form in folk music. The characteristics of rap music can be reflected in the comparison between folk songs and opera music closely related to it. The comparison between rap and folk songs is characterized by the lyricism of folk songs and the narrative of rap. Judging from the conditions of its formation, folk songs are not performing arts, but often the expression of the singer's own feelings, the self-expression of joy, anger, sadness and joy, or the singing of laborers in order to coordinate actions, stimulate enthusiasm and reduce fatigue. Therefore, most folk songs are short in length, and the lyrics are often concise, which is more poetic by comparison. Musically, lyricism is outstanding, with beautiful melody, full singing, fresh and lively tunes and strong life breath. The lyricism of folk songs is also manifested in the relative freedom of lyrics and tunes, and the lack of fixed programs. Different from folk songs, rap music is a form of storytelling by artists, which belongs to folk performing arts, and most practitioners make a living from it. The length of rap music works is often longer than that of folk songs, and the lyrics other than casual narration are not as concise as folk songs, but an easy-to-understand oral narrative. The description of the plot in the lyrics should be as detailed and specific as possible, and the time, place, characters and story development should be explained clearly. The colloquial lyrics of line drawing require that rap forms should also be narrative in music. There are a large number of narrative vocals, which are closely combined with music and language, emphasizing "singing with words". In addition, most rap music genres have their own "singing styles", such as the Pingqiang of Jingyun Drum, the Belly Class in Qin Shu, Shandong Province and the Zhuzi in Tianjin. The common characteristics of these reciting vocals are: more words and less cavities, generally no drawling, weak melody, almost slight sublimation of language and slight exaggeration of four tones. These voices are used for narration, which can clearly explain the plot and express the characters. This recitation aria has become a unique aria in rap music, which embodies the narrative nature of rap music. The comparison between rap music and traditional Chinese opera music can better reflect the characteristics of rap music. The obvious difference between them lies in the narrative of rap and the drama of traditional Chinese opera music, which is caused by their different expressions. Rap music is a combination of narration and endorsement, with third-person narration as the main expression. That is, one or two actors use music and language to simulate various characters to tell stories. Actors should imitate the tone, posture and personality of the characters in the book, and accurately and vividly depict the voices, faces and smiles of the characters. Actors engaged in rap art can't enter the role like opera actors, but can only "jump in and out". The rap of a large number of stories relies on the third-person narration, which forms the expression of rap music. The performance mode of China traditional opera art is that actors play roles, and the development of drama plot mainly depends on the solo (white), duet (white) and body movements of the characters. In order to portray characters and express dramatic conflicts, the structure and procedures of traditional Chinese opera music are more complicated and rigorous than rap music. The outstanding characteristics of rap in music are "recitation" singing and "language" melody, which is the need of rap art telling stories; The outstanding musical characteristics of traditional Chinese opera are the dramatic structure of "scattered, slow, moderate, fast and scattered", the rhythm of "beating and singing slowly" and the grand civil and military field, which is the need for traditional Chinese opera music to express strong contradictions and conflicts and shape characters. Therefore, on the whole, the outstanding features of folk songs, rap music and opera music can be summarized as lyricism of folk songs, narrative of rap and narrative of drama. 2. In the short ten years since China's modern rap culture was introduced to China, several groups of fans spread it and made indelible and outstanding contributions to the rap culture. Many people say that China people are not suitable for this kind of foreign music, but it turns out that music has no national boundaries. A good music can deepen the friendship between people of all countries, promote the unity and friendship of people all over the world, and sublimate their sentiments.