The band plays loud, distorted riffs while the vocalist raps instead of singing, sometimes with shouted choruses. It grew in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s from meetings between hip hop acts and metal bands, such as the 1991 version of "Bring the Noise" by Anthrax and Public Enemy. Nu metal borrows from it but adds singing, screaming and lower tunings.
Artists it is known for: Rage Against the Machine, Body Count, Limp Bizkit.
About 16,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have rap metal among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Rap Metal artists
Linkin Park
Deftones
Slipknot
System Of A Down
Limp Bizkit
Korn
Falling In Reverse
Rage Against The Machine
Disturbed
Papa Roach
The rap metal 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.