The Rap Metal Thread

Anthrax - "I'm The Man" E.P. (1987)

I picked this release up on vinyl shortly after I first discovered Anthrax in the late 1980's. It includes a censored, an uncensored & a live version of the title track, a cover version of Black Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" & two other live tracks taken from the tour for the "Among The Living" record from the same year. Despite being pretty silly, I've found that I still enjoy the title track which is one of the first genuine rap/metal hybrids & is infused with an undeniable sense of fun, although it has to be said that it's more of the high school fart-joke variety than anything more sophisticated. The question has to be asked as to why I need three versions of the same song though, particularly the live version which suffers from a poor radio-quality production job. The other two live cuts are equally poorly produced but are much stronger tracks to begin with so they still add a lot of value to the release. Arguably the most valuable inclusion though is the chunky rendition of Black Sabbath which receives a bit of healthy thrashification along the way. Perhaps it's mainly through nostalgia but I still get some enjoyment out of "I'm The Man". It just doesn't really work as an E.P. because it's definitely more of a single or a compilation.

3.5/5

Rap metal is never really a favorite genre of mine, though the combination of hip-hop and metal works out well for that Anthrax song "I'm the Man" and bands like Attila, Limp Bizkit, and the more rapping side of Linkin Park. It's when a metal band adds in rapping out of nowhere that I find quite infuriating ("The Session" by Veil of Maya, "And We Run" by Within Temptation, etc.). Anyway, is rap metal a legitimate subgenre? I would say yes. It's the best way to describe bands like Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, and Stuck Mojo, adding in rapping and even some of the instrumentation you would find in hip-hop. Then there's trap metal, a subgenre that adds metal elements to the hip-hop genre trap, though according to RYM, it's a descendant of hardcore/industrial trap, not metal. It would be interesting for us to experiment with trap metal in this site, but for another day....

My top 5 rap metal releases:

1. Attila - About That Life (2013)

2. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (EP) (1999)

3. Bloodywood - Rakshak (2022)

4. Linkin Park - Collision Course (2004)

5. Limp Bizkit - Significant Other (1999)

So for the sake of discussion Andi, if you remove the rapped vocals from the equation, would you say that you could still identify rap metal just from the instrumentation? Could you with Rage Against The Machine or would they simply be labelled as Alternative Metal? My suspicion is that it's just about the vocals which doesn't constitute a new subgenre in my opinion. I mean, Hacktivist don't sound anything like Rage Against The Machine for example. If you took a band that was purely death metal from an instrumental point of view & added rap vocals to the whole album, is it then rap metal rather than death metal? And, if so, would it feel right to lump it in with Rage Against The Machine?

And let's be honest, Anthrax only have two rap metal songs & one of them was essentially an existing rap song with thrash riffs added.

Well for releases that have hip-hop instrumentation mixed with that of metal, a couple prime examples of that are Limp Bizkit's Significant Other and Linkin Park's Collision Course remix EP with Jay-Z. Though you do make a good point about Rage Against the Machine, Daniel, despite rapping being an important aspect for that band. Now if you take an extreme metal song and add rap vocals to it, then it's more of a remix instead of a rap metal song. Viper (the RAPPER, not the band Andre Matos was in before Angra), has done that before with Burzum's "Dunkelheit". Someone in a Discord server I was in (I don't use Discord anymore due to toxicity there, by the way) shared this and to be honest, it's kind of an interesting mix, although I'm never really a fan of both artists:

Also Andi, does nu metal not cover the hip hop/DJ elements with some of these releases given that it allows for these components by its very definition:

“The rhythm section frequently displays elements of Funk Metal, Hip Hop, and various types of metal; it often eschews techniques more prevalent in extreme metal such as double bass drumming in favour of a more groove-oriented sound. Some bands also employ a DJ on turntables as part of their lineup to further emphasize these elements. The genre does have some crossover into other styles. Most notably is the blending with Rap Rock and Rap Metal, as nu metal often has rapped vocals and a similar aggression like the other two.”

You missed my point about death metal. I wasn’t referring to a remix. I was talking about if a death metal band actually had a rapper for a vocalist, would it be labelled as rap metal?

That would be another interesting combo, Daniel, but no, it's just death metal with rap vocals.

That is quite the problem there. If a band that isn't hip-hop or alt-metal has a song that has rapping, people can easily think they've gone rap metal. That's one reason why I don't like it when a metal band adds in rapping out of nowhere. It's very likely that anyone who has first heard "And We Run" by Within Temptation would wrongly think, "This band is rap metal now! Who knew!?"