Rapping (or emceeing,^[1] MCing,^[1] spitting bars,^[2] or rhyming)^[3] is "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics".^[4] The components of rapping include "content", "flow" (rhythm and rhyme), and "delivery".^[5] Rapping is distinct from spoken-word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat.^[6][7] Rapping is often associated with and a primary ingredient of hip-hop music, but the origins of the phenomenon can be said to predate hip-hop culture by centuries. It can also be found in alternative rocksuch as that of Cake and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rapping is also used in Kwaito music, a genre that originated in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is composed of hip-hop elements.

Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing. The word (meaning originally "to hit")^[8] as used to describe quick speech or repartee predates the musical form.^[9] The word had been used in British English since the 16th century, and specifically meaning "to say" since the 18th.^{[citation needed]} It was part of the African-American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that in its present usage as a term denoting the musical style.^[10] Today, the terms "rap" and "rapping" are so closely associated with hip-hop music that many use the terms interchangeably.