Entry · catalog no. 8214
rap
/ /ræp/ /RAP
verb / noun · Harlem, New York · 1960s
✓ Verified
1.
To talk informally and easily, to chat, or to speak persuasively, as in courting; also a conversation or a person's pitch. In 1970s New York the word came to name rhymed speech over a beat.
“Let me rap to you for a minute about what happened.”
Origin & Attribution
Etymonline records rap as \"talk informally, chat in an easy way\" from 1929 according to the OED, popularized around 1965 in African-American vernacular; the British sense of to say or utter goes back to the 1800s. H. Rap Brown took his nickname from the talking sense in the 1960s. The meaning \"to perform rap music\" is recorded by 1979, in New York City slang, the year of the Sugarhill Gang's \"Rapper's Delight.\" The talking sense predates the music by about fifty years.
1929
rap "talk informally" recorded, per the OED
1965
popularized in African-American vernacular
1979
"to perform rap music" recorded in New York slang
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem, New York · 1960s
Spoken by
Black Americans, then general speakers worldwide
$RAPThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady50 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
85/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1929
in the culture
Mainstream crossover
1979
search interest spikes
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Online Etymology Dictionary, entry "rap" (1929 OED; c. 1965 popularization; 1979 music sense)
online
■
+ Cite a sourceSugarhill Gang, "Rapper's Delight," Sugar Hill Records, 1979
1979
See also