Rap music is very popular now. Is this kind of rap music similar to the traditional rap art in China?

"Hip Hop" is a new music genre evolved from rap, which is a popular rap music in Europe and America, meaning a fast-paced music form of "talking like singing", while the traditional rap art in China mainly refers to "a rap segment" such as drumming and playing words, and there is no relationship between them.

Speaking of popularity, both kinds of "rap" have a very wide fan base, which is the only similarity. In particular, China's time-honored rap art has always had a huge audience, and it is the most popular art form besides drama.

"Say" in prose and "sing" in verse. The regional distribution of rap art is very extensive, such as Jingyun Drum and Tangshan Drum in the north, Suzhou Tanci and Wenzhou Drum Ci in the south and so on. Take Suzhou Tanci as an example. When performing, one person can talk and sing, and play multiple roles at the same time, or two or three people can cooperate with each other to play different roles and have a dialogue.

When singing with pipa and sanxian, different tunes and vocals have been formed in the long-term development. The content of rap is mostly folk stories loved by the masses, and it is widely loved by people with various humorous jokes.

This kind of rap art originated very early. Xunzi's Xiangcheng Pian can be regarded as a reflection of rap art in the Warring States Period to some extent. "Guci", "Songben" and "Zhu Gong Tune" in Song Dynasty are all mature rap arts. In Yuan and Ming novels, we can see that many story paragraphs are mixed with some semi-vulgar verse.

The literary level of these rhymes is not very high, but they are all records of rap literature. Even if the later vernacular novels no longer have such rhyming poems, rappers will still adapt some paragraphs in the novels into rhymes to sing, which is enough to reflect the strong vitality of this art form.