Does rap music have to have lyrics to be considered rap?

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I am wanting to compose a score for a film project, and the project deals with a street gang type plot and feel. I was thinking rap music, but not sure if I want lyrics though.

Now in rock music, you can tell that it's rock without lyrics. Or in metal music, you can tell that it's metal without lyrics. Same with jazz and folk, etc. But with rap, do you need to have lyrics to get a rap music feel from it though, compared to other genres? Or will audiences not get that feel if they do not have lyrics to go with it?

Thanks for any advice on it! I really appreciate it!

Without lyrics it would be considered hip-hop but not rap. Instrumental hip-hop is a genre. If the instrumental sounds like hip-hop, people will understand the connection.

Oh okay. Would instrumental hip hop work then for that type of genre of story then?

Yes.

Oh okay thanks. I have been listening to instrumental hip hop samples, and it sounds very relaxed, and like relaxed lounge-ish type music. When it comes to a story of gang violence, I want a more aggressive hip hop for sure, but in order to get ideas and inspiration of what that would sound like, are their any instrumental hip hop tunes that are more aggressive like that?

Like there are some rap artists who make their music quite aggressive, but are there any aggressive hip hop tunes like that but without the lyrics, to get ideas from?

I don't know a lot since I don't listen to instrumental hip hop but there is probably some stuff that's more aggressive. You could search "aggressive instrumental hip hop" or try to find instrumental versions of aggressive rap songs. If you want something heavy you could look into trap or industrial instrumentals.

Oh okay thanks. Well when listening to pure instrumental hip hop without lyrics, the music does sound very synthesized, and I am not the biggest fan of synthesized instrumentalization. Would it be okay to use acoustic instruments more, or would it just not be hip hop then, even if the rythym was still a hip hop rythym?

Do what you think sounds good and fits the scene. Creativity isn't about following rules.

Oh okay, but even live though it seems like they use a lot of synth instruments. For example in this concert, the only real instruments they look like they are using are a guitar and drums but everything else is synth, unless I'm wrong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_h75JXBnSo

drum machines . Just use drum machines. Beating out a hip-hop beat, at whatever tempo you want. Fast and aggressive to slow and relaxed.

By the way most rap hits come in both vocal and instrumental versions. So could just buy a 12 inch vinyl and use the inst version of any rap hit you want.

Ironically when rap started in the Seventies it was vocalists rapping over the sampled beats of prexisting records- funk by James Browns back up band, or instrumental breaks in other hit songs.

Oh okay thanks, but I don't want to use ones that are already on copywritten though.

Oh okay thanks, I guess a lot of it just sounds more synth to me for some reason. Well I am trying to tell the difference between hip hop and other genres, but it's difficult to tell with the lyrics removed. For example, here is an instrumental version of a hip hop song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvlKmQOsp9Y

And here are two musical numbers from the Dirty Harry soundtrack, before hip was invented I think. At 0:32 into this clip, doesn't it sound very much like hip hop music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKi3vB7 ... wB&index=2

And at 1:50 into this clip, doesn't sound like it could be a hip hop tune more so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QMgi1t ... wB&index=5

But if those Dirty Harry tunes are not considered hip hop, how do you tell if it's hip hop instrumentally then, without lyrics, if that makes sense?