Pop Rap

Pop rap on vinyl: MC Hammer, OutKast and hits for the radio

In short: Pop rap combines rap with catchy choruses and pop production – hip hop for the charts. MC Hammer and Salt-N-Pepa made it big at the end of the eighties, OutKast and Nelly in the 2000s, and today Post Malone and Nicki Minaj stand for it. The Vinyl Room currently has 58 records in this style.

What is pop rap?

When rap reached the charts at the end of the eighties, artists such as MC Hammer and Salt-N-Pepa went for big choruses, dance beats and videos. In the 2000s OutKast with “Speakerboxxx / The Love Below” and Nelly took the style to the top, and later artists such as Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj blurred the line between pop, R&B and rap completely. Many pop rap albums come out on vinyl as double LPs.

What to look for

Some pop rap albums of the nineties and 2000s came out on vinyl only in small runs because the CD was the main format – so individual original editions are sought after. New albums, on the other hand, often come out in several colour variants.

From our stock

First pressings

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→ Hip hop on vinyl · Contemporary R&B · How to spot a first pressing · Grading explained

FAQ

What is pop rap? Rap with catchy choruses and pop production, made for the charts.

Who made pop rap big? At the end of the eighties MC Hammer and Salt-N-Pepa among others, in the 2000s OutKast and Nelly.

Why are some pop rap records from the 2000s sought after? Because some came out on vinyl only in small runs at the time.