The real birth of the hip hop and rap trends of the modern music can be considered to happen in late 1970s when New York music community of the street bands and DJs of the popular night clubs began to distinguish this style from the others. Firstly, they just tried to insert the speech between the songs in order to keep the audience's attention; they cried something like greetings, jokes, told something in an interesting form. Thus, appeared rap.

Now it is characterized by the number of rhymes like poems chanted, made up, improvised and read with the using of different music themes. Rap musicians use such techniques as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and others. They often chart their own biographical stories using this method of self-expression, and sometimes in a rude way. The first person who used the term Hip Hop for describing the new trend, was DJ Kool Herc.

At that time only a small group of people was interested in rap music. But after a while more people of new generation caught the wave of rap culture and rap became spread worldwide, in spite of that the black Americans were involved in it from the beginning. Rap culture gave the road for creating such groups and pop rap musicians as IAM, Assassin, Doc Gyneco (France), Ming, Advanced Chemistry (Germany), Jovanotti, Articolo 31 (Italy), London Posse (Great Britain), Nas, Public Enemy. LL Cool J, Puff Daddy, 50 Cent (USA) and much more. This Afro-American nature of rap music occurred and created a sound that was very interesting and original.

During the several decades of rap history this genre changed its face. Old School of rap and hip hop music had the elements of disco and many Afro-American trends, such as Jazz, Blues, Funk, etc. In the New School that started in 1994 these genres were substituted mainly by Rock, Pop, Jungle, New Age, Country, etc. According to the type of the instrumental track that is put as a base for the rap song there are varieties of rap music. Rap song includes also other sounds that are synthesized, sampled and performed. Sometimes rap music may contain just lyrics chanted and bits or sounds played on the drums.

Thus, pop rap musicians use fragments of pop music in their tracks. Also they invite guest singers and record the songs together with pop performers. For example, Puff Daddy - very famous among pop rap musicians went this way. He had his own record company Bad Boy Record and helped with producing many famous singers and groups: Boys II Men, TLC, SWV, Aretha Franklin, and many others. But the latter decided to release solo album of rap style with elements of pop music sound. His debut took place in 1997 with the album No Way Out.

Pop rap music is considered to be friendly and positive in comparison, for example, with other trends of rap culture. Gangsta rap was one of them. In 1990s, rap music was crueler, with emphasis on violence, drug use, misogyny, and so on. This was connected with the rap nature of the urban street culture that caused the appearing of this style. In spite of this tendency rap music was popular, but later the situation changed, it could not be this way. Rap style became softer and more lyrical. Today pop rap musicians are the most popular between other rappers.