If one is having trouble finding their way around the hip hop/rap genre, they may find the abundant rap styles available to be too much of a good thing. While there are no set regulations to determine what rap styles an artist is categorized to, there are some helpful guides.

If a person looks at the general history of music styles, they'll see that classifying rap styles may be simpler than originally thought. The subjects most helpful to determining what rapping style your preferred rapper fits into are the lyrical content, how it is performed, and the geographical location of the rapper.

For example, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg are all from California, hence they West Coast Rappers. On the other hand Busta Rhymes, Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z are all known East Coast rappers. Most of them could also be classified as Hardcore or Gangsta Rappers. While many rappers are recognized for at least one style, what helps verify which rap styles they fit into is made most clear by glancing into the overall history of their music styles.

Looking back, one will notice that although groundbreaking, the early rap styles were closely related. Early rappers like Grandmaster Flash, The Sugarhill Gang, and Run-DMC created songs by scratching records and looping drum beats. As time went on, rap styles developed along with the growing call for exciting new sounds. New methods and trends emerged as rappers were pushed to new limits. To deal with the ever growing need for something new, rappers invented rapping techniques that had never been heard before. By incorporating live instrumentation, sampling, electronic beats, and other made-up sounds which ranged from a gun shot to the pouring of champagne, rappers were capable of staying ahead of the fans and keeping them excited about future albums.

In some of these catchy new styles, the music itself helps dictate how a rapper rhymes. MC Hammer, P. Diddy, and Will Smith are clearly unusual artists, nevertheless, much of their upbeat rhythms and catchy tunes tend to downgrade them to Pop-Rap. On the flip side, hardcore rappers like DMX, Wutang Clan, Eminem, Ice Cube, and Ice-T breach from the history of music styles with their hostile approach, unequivocal lyrics, and in some instances a sense of humor. Like Pop-Rap, the music styles of Hardcore Rap help set the tone for the songs that will resonate the rapper's feeling, whether it be constructive or aggressive.

Fans of rap music span from the urban to the suburban, and even the rural. If the history of music styles has shown us anything, it's that fans and artists will not be bounded by man-made boundaries of style. Then again, the boundaries set by style often do help artists make choices about the style of song they want to write.