Rap-singing

Rap-singing (also referred to as sing-rapping or sing-rap) is a vocal technique that combines rapping with sung or pitch altered vocals. While melodic vocal performances have appeared in hip-hop since its inception, rap-singing became more identifiable in the late 1980s and 1990s amid the rise of R&B and hip-hop hybrid styles like new jack swing. Some writers have traced its roots to earlier traditions in African American music, such as scat singing and 1970s funk and soul.

Rap-singing rose to prominence in hip-hop, pop, and R&B by the 1990s and 2000s through artists such as Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, Beyoncé, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, André 3000, T-Pain, Nelly, and Ja Rule, expanding further in the 2010s through Drake, Future, Frank Ocean, Juice Wrld, and XXXTentacion, and in the 2020s with Bad Bunny, PinkPantheress, Don Toliver, and SZA. The technique has been influential in the development of several subgenres, such as hip-hop soul, melodic rap, trap soul, and alternative R&B, while also appearing in Latin subgenres like merenhouse and reggaeton. Rap-singing has sparked debates regarding genre classification of artists who have used it.

Etymology

One of the earliest known uses of the term "rap-singing" appeared in an August 1981 issue of Musician, where Jon Pareles describes The Treacherous Three as "rap-singing their own lyrics". In 1983, a Billboard writer used "semi rap-sung" to describe "Ladies Hot Line", performed by The Weather Girls and co-written by Diana Ross.

By 1990, related terminology appeared in radio trade publications. In an issue of The Gavin Report, the phrase "melodic rap" was used in promotional coverage, with the publication stating that "as hip-hop advances musically as well as lyrically, we're hearing more melodic rap compositions". By late 1994, rap-singing was officially recognized as a style of music in New York Magazine.