Table of Contents
What rap subgenres are
A rap subgenre is a regional or era-specific way of making rap: the same core form, a voice over a beat, built on a different drum sound, tempo and set of reference records. Rap itself is the rhymed vocal side of hip-hop, the culture that came out of Bronx block parties in the early 1970s. This page maps 22 types of rap, from 1980s gangsta rap and boom bap to drill, rage and drift phonk.
Four things tell the subgenres apart, and every entry below gives them:
- Drums and tempo. Boom bap’s acoustic kick and snare, trap’s rolling hi-hats over a long 808, drill’s sliding bass.
- Region. Rap is a local music first, and most subgenres were born in one city.
- Era. When the sound broke, and what it grew out of.
- One record to hear first. The fastest way to learn a sound is to play it.
Where the sources disagree on a year, the entry says so. Entries are grouped by region. For the long view of each decade, see the eras hub, and for city-by-city lineage, the scenes hub.
Southern subgenres
The South has produced the most rap subgenres per square mile, and most of today’s mainstream sound traces back to it.
Trap
Atlanta, 1990s to early 2000s. Tuned 808 bass, hi-hats in double or triple time and sparse synth melodies, usually in half-time around 140 BPM. The name is Atlanta slang for a house where drugs are sold. T.I. put the word on a record with Trap Muzik, released August 19, 2003 on Grand Hustle (NPR), and has claimed he coined the genre. Others push the roots back: DJ Booth points to UGK in 1992, and Complex credits producer Shawty Redd with the sound (DJ Booth, Complex). I think the honest answer is that Atlanta built the sound and T.I. named it.
Lex Luger hardened it around 2010 and 2011, and Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” took it to No. 1 in 2017. Today most chart rap runs on trap drums, which makes it the biggest tent on this page. Start with: T.I., Trap Muzik (2003).
Chopped and screwed
Houston, early 1990s. Records slowed to roughly 60 to 70 beats per minute, with skipped beats, scratches and stop-time added. DJ Screw pioneered it and died on November 16, 2000. Start with: DJ Screw, 3 ‘N the Mornin’ (Part Two) (1995 by most counts; Crack Magazine gives August 1996, and the tape exists in several editions).
Miami bass
Miami, mid-1980s. Booming TR-808 kick, fast dance tempos, and sexually explicit lyrics. It is also called booty music. MC A.D.E.’s “Bass Rock Express” is often credited as the first record, and Kurtis Mantronik’s “Bass Machine” (1986) is called pivotal. Start with: 2 Live Crew, “Throw the D” (1986), which the same source calls the blueprint for later Miami bass songs.
Bounce
New Orleans, late 1980s. Call-and-response party chants over the “Triggerman” beat, which comes from a Queens record, The Showboys’ “Drag Rap” (1986). Kevin “MC T. Tucker” Ventry brought the single south from New York in 1986. Start with: MC T. Tucker, “Where Dey At” (1991), an early bounce hit built on that beat.
Phonk
The sound has two lives. The first is Memphis-rooted: cassette-era Memphis rap, with DJ Spanish Fly and Three 6 Mafia as touchstones, revived in the early 2010s. SpaceGhostPurrp coined the term, and his debut album Mysterious Phonk: Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp (2012) is the key early release. The second is drift phonk, which emerged in Russia in the late 2010s with faster tempos and cowbells, and spread through TikTok around 2020. Start with: SpaceGhostPurrp, Mysterious Phonk (2012).
Mumble rap
Atlanta, early 2010s, spread by SoundCloud later in the decade. Melody, mood and tone over lyrical clarity. The term began as a pejorative and mostly still is one; Justin Charity of The Ringer calls it reductive. Future’s “Tony Montana” (2011) is often cited as the first. Start with: Future, “Tony Montana” (2011), cited as the first mumble rap song, though some sources date earlier releases to October 2011.
Rage
United States, late 2010s. Distorted 808s, screamed Auto-Tune, and short looping synth leads. The producers who shaped it include Pi’erre Bourne and F1lthy, and the name comes from Trippie Redd’s “Miss the Rage” (featuring Playboi Carti, 2021). Start with: Playboi Carti, Whole Lotta Red (2020).
East Coast subgenres
Boom bap
New York and the Northeast, late 1980s to early 1990s. Hard acoustic kick, snapping snare, dusty loops, mixed so the drums lead. The word is onomatopoeia for the kick and snare, first recorded by T La Rock on “It’s Yours” in 1984. KRS-One’s Return of the Boom Bap (1993) popularized the term; DJ Premier and Pete Rock are the producers to know. Start with: KRS-One, Return of the Boom Bap (1993), which reached No. 37 on the Billboard 200.
Jazz rap
New York area, late 1980s. Rap built on jazz samples and live jazz players. Gang Starr’s “Words I Manifest” (1989) sampled Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,” and Guru’s Jazzmatazz series began in 1993. Start with: A Tribe Called Quest, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990).
Conscious rap
Lyric-first rap, usually on sample-based beats that keep the message audible. New York, 1980s. Rap about poverty, policing and power, drawing on The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron. Public Enemy was influential in establishing it in the late ’80s. Start with: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, “The Message” (released July 1, 1982 on Sugar Hill), the first hip-hop recording added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, in 2002.
Horrorcore
United States, early to mid 1980s, with Detroit, Houston and Memphis among its local scenes. Rap built on horror imagery: death, psychosis, the occult. Wikipedia calls Jimmy Spicer’s “Adventures of Super Rhyme” (1980) proto-horrorcore, and the term itself first appeared on KMC’s 1991 album Three Men with the Power of Ten. Start with: Gravediggaz, 6 Feet Deep (1994), one of the artists most important to the genre.
Brooklyn drill
New York, from about 2014. Chicago’s menace, later run through a UK filter: sliding 808s and skipping drums. The style emerged around 2014, with Bobby Shmurda’s breakout single and Rowdy Rebel among the early names, and it turned toward UK drill around 2018 and 2019. Start with: Pop Smoke, “Welcome to the Party” (2019), produced by 808Melo. Chicago and UK drill follow below.
Jersey club
Newark, New Jersey, around 1999 to 2000, where it was first called Brick City club. Strictly it is dance music that rap borrowed: a stuttering, triplet-leaning kick pattern at roughly 130 to 140 BPM, chopped vocal samples and a bed-squeak sound, grown out of Baltimore club. Rappers took it to the charts from 2021, and Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock” (October 2022) peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100. Start with: Lil Uzi Vert, “Just Wanna Rock” (2022).
West Coast subgenres
Gangsta rap
Hard drum-machine or sample-driven beats under blunt, first-person street narratives. Mid-to-late 1980s, spread across Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Oakland and New York. Rap about gang and street life, narrated from inside it. Schoolly D put out “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?” in 1985 and Ice-T followed with “6 in the Mornin'” in 1986. N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton made it a national story and was the first gangsta rap album to go platinum; it was released January 25, 1989 (the copyright reads 1988) and certified platinum on July 18, 1989. Start with: Schoolly D, “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?” (1985).
G-funk
Los Angeles, 1992. Gangsta rap slowed down and smoothed out: P-Funk samples, a whining synth lead, melodic hooks. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic (December 15, 1992) is usually treated as the start. Britannica notes that Cold 187um of Above the Law had been working with similar sounds, and he felt under-credited (Britannica). Start with: Dr. Dre, The Chronic (1992).
Hyphy
Frantic, bass-heavy party rap with stuttering, energetic drums, made for dancing and shouting along. Oakland and the Bay Area, late 1990s, rising to prominence in the early 2000s. “Hyphy” is Oakland slang for hyperactive, and Keak da Sneak is credited with coining the term. Mac Dre’s death in 2004 helped spread the culture. Start with: E-40 featuring Keak da Sneak, “Tell Me When to Go” (February 1, 2006), produced by Lil Jon.
UK subgenres
Grime
East London, around 2002. Sparse electronic beats at roughly 140 BPM, square-wave bass and MCs trading bars in London accents, built in pirate-radio studios and crew clashes. It grew out of UK garage rather than American hip-hop. Wiley’s instrumental “Eskimo,” first pressed on vinyl in July 2002, set the template, and Dizzee Rascal’s Boy in da Corner won the 2003 Mercury Prize. Start with: Dizzee Rascal, “I Luv U” (2003).
Midwest and the drill family
Chicago drill
Chicago, South Side, early 2010s. Slow, ominous trap production with blunt, first-person violence. Pac Man’s “It’s a Drill” (2010) is the first use of the word tied to the music, and Chief Keef is called its primary progenitor. Start with: Chief Keef, “I Don’t Like” (2012), produced by Young Chop. Release-date sources vary by a few days in March 2012. It reached No. 73 on the Hot 100.
UK drill
Brixton, South London, from 2012 to 2013. Chicago’s attitude, sliding 808s and skippy, syncopated drums. 67 and 150 were among the early names. Start with: 67 featuring Giggs, “Let’s Lurk” (2016), produced by GottiOnEm and Mazza.
Three drills, one word
Three scenes, one word. Chicago drill is a rap style, UK drill is a beat style, and Brooklyn drill borrows London’s beat for New York voices.
Latin American and African-diaspora subgenres
Reggaeton
Panama in the late 1980s, then Puerto Rico in the 1990s. Spanish-language vocals over the dembow, a syncopated drum loop that traces back to Jamaica and the Steely & Clevie riddim behind Shabba Ranks’ “Dem Bow.” Puerto Rico’s underground cassette scene gave it its shape, and the name itself is disputed. Daddy Yankee’s Barrio Fino took it global in 2004, and Un Verano Sin Ti debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in May 2022. Start with: Daddy Yankee, “Gasolina” (2004), produced by Luny Tunes.
Latin trap
Puerto Rico. The start date is argued: Ozuna dates it to 2007 with “El Pistolón,” and De La Ghetto says he was doing it around 2005 or 2006. Spanish or Spanglish vocals, rapped and sung, over trap drums. The global moment was 2018: “Te Boté” (April 2018) became the first song with Latin trap elements to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs, and “I Like It” by Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin was the first Latin trap song to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100. Start with: “Te Boté” (2018), Nio García, Casper Mágico, Darell, Ozuna, Bad Bunny and Nicky Jam.
Afro-rap (Afro trap and afroswing)
“Afro-rap” is a loose label, and two different scenes sit under it. In Paris, MHD coined “Afro Trap” in 2015 with the freestyle “Afro Trap Part. 1,” which he recorded over a P-Square instrumental; sources date the upload to August or September 2015. It is only loosely influenced by American trap. In London, afroswing blended afrobeats, dancehall, trap and grime in the mid-2010s, with J Hus’s “Dem Boy Paigon” (2015) the first notable song. Start with: MHD, “Afro Trap Part. 1” (2015), then J Hus, “Dem Boy Paigon” (2015).
SoundCloud-era and internet-born subgenres
Cloud rap
Late 2000s, named around 2010. Hazy, dreamlike, reverb-heavy production on chopped, ethereal samples. Lil B and Clams Casino were working together as early as 2008, and blogger Walker Chambliss coined the term in 2010 to describe Squadda B of Main Attrakionz. Start with: A$AP Rocky, Live.Love.A$AP (2011), with production partly from Clams Casino.
Hyperpop
London’s PC Music circle in the early 2010s, then the internet at large. Pitch-shifted vocals, bitcrushed distortion and pop hooks pushed past good taste on purpose. It draws heavily on SoundCloud rap, and its rap-facing branch is called digicore. 100 gecs’ 1000 gecs (May 2019) was the breakout, and a Spotify playlist launched that August gave it a name listeners could follow. Start with: 100 gecs, “Money Machine” (2019).
Emo rap
United States, with roots dated to 2012, when members of Thraxxhouse formed GothBoiClique, and a mainstream peak in 2017 and 2018. Trap beats, sung hooks, and lyrics on depression, loneliness and heartbreak; instrumentals often borrow from indie rock and samples from 2000s emo. Start with: Lil Peep, Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1 (August 15, 2017).
Faith-based rap
Christian rap
Standard rap forms, from boom bap to trap, carrying faith-based lyrics. United States, 1980s. The earliest commercial record the sources name is McSweet’s The Gospel Beat: Jesus-Christ (1982), from Queens. Stephen Wiley’s Bible Break (1985) is the first notable full album. Lecrae’s Anomaly (2014) debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 88,000 first-week sales, per Nielsen SoundScan (Billboard). Earlier dates are from Wikipedia. Start with: Stephen Wiley, Bible Break (1985).
How the subgenres relate
Names collide, and that is where most confusion starts. Drill means three things at once (see above). Phonk now means a Memphis revival and a Russian-born drift sound. Mumble rap and cloud rap get used for each other, though one is a vocal delivery and the other a production texture. Trap is both a rap subgenre and, in electronic music, a dance style that borrowed its drums.
The lineage runs in a few clear lines. Boom bap led to jazz rap. Gangsta rap led to G-funk. Southern trap led to drill, mumble rap, rage and Latin trap. Chicago drill led to UK drill and then back to Brooklyn.
FAQ
How many rap subgenres are there? No authority counts them. This page covers 22 entries, and the real number depends on how finely you slice a scene. I would call drill three subgenres, not one, which is why the list keeps growing.
Is trap a subgenre or a genre? A subgenre of hip-hop. It is also large enough to have subgenres of its own, and its drums now sit under pop.
What’s the newest rap subgenre? In my read, rage and drift phonk are the newest to break through at scale. Both were born online in the late 2010s.
How do I tell what subgenre a song is? Check the drums and the tempo first. Hard acoustic drums and chopped loops point to boom bap. Rolling hi-hats and a long 808 point to trap. Sliding 808s with skittering drums point to drill. A cowbell loop points to phonk. Then ask where the artist is from.
If you have one hour, play one record from each region group above, in the order they appear. You will hear the whole family tree. Tell me what I missed.
— Davood Tavakoli, Cyphlore