Wow . . . and I found this post on a search engine . . . (I love ellipses) . . . I know this thread is a little old, but I still enjoyed its content. To put some personal perspective on the issue, I believe that in many cases other than this, genres are created and seen by each individually. Many music programs have Hip-hop and Rap labels for genre. Yet, some may argue that they are the same or Rap is not a genre. As a disc jockey, I feel that Hip-hop is more instrumental oriented rather than a beat. All songs have beats and Hip-hop creates more layers in its music than Rap. Rap is based more on the lyrical content than its musical content. But that is not to say that lyrics are not important in Hip-hop . . .