Pop Rap
Pop rap blends rapped verses with the catchy sung hooks, bright production and radio-friendly structure of pop music.
Songs usually pair rapped verses with a sung chorus, clean production and lyrics about parties, love or success rather than street life. The style broke through in the late 1980s and early 1990s with acts such as LL Cool J and MC Hammer, and it has stayed on the charts ever since. It is lighter and more melodic than hardcore or gangsta rap.
Artists it is known for: LL Cool J, MC Hammer, Drake.
- Family
- Hip-Hop & Rap
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United States, late 1980s
- Also called
- pop hip hop, hip pop
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 32%
About 26,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have pop rap among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Pop Rap artists
Tory Lanez
Young Thug
Pitbull
Lil Wayne
50 Cent
Black Eyed Peas
Migos
Outkast
Avicii
OffsetThe pop rap artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.