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anime rap

Anime Rap

United States · 2010s
EpicIntenseDancingSentimentalHappy
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Description

Anime rap is a hip hop microgenre that fuses contemporary rap flows and production with lyrical themes, imagery, and aesthetics drawn from Japanese anime and manga.

Typical tracks reference specific characters, arcs, and tropes—especially from shōnen series—while using modern trap or boom-bap frameworks, energetic hooks, and cinematic, "anime opening"-style melodies. Producers often incorporate timbres reminiscent of anime soundtracks and J-pop, such as bright synth leads, string swells, choir stabs, and occasional quotations or re-compositions of anime motifs.

The scene grew natively on YouTube and streaming platforms through cyphers, character-themed singles, and AMV-style visuals, creating a global, internet-first community that overlaps with nerdcore but focuses specifically on anime narratives and fandom.

History
Early seeds (2000s)

Nerdcore and internet-born hip hop in the 2000s laid the groundwork for rap that embraced fan culture. While anime references appeared sporadically in Western rap and in Japanese anison (anime songs) that included rap passages, the idea of consistently centering entire rap tracks on anime characters and storylines was still taking shape. A notable precursor outside the English-speaking world was Spain’s Porta, whose viral “Dragon Ball Rap” (2008) showed the mass appeal of anime-themed bars.

Formation as a distinct scene (2010s)

With the rise of YouTube, SoundCloud, and AMV culture in the 2010s, creators began releasing regular, high-production singles and cyphers focused on popular series like Naruto, Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, One Piece, and Attack on Titan. This period solidified the sound: trap-driven drums, heavy 808s, double-time flows, and hooks styled after anime openings, paired with lore-heavy verses. Community-driven features and weekly release schedules helped the genre coalesce, with channels amassing large, dedicated audiences.

Expansion and professionalization (2020s)

In the 2020s, anime rap broadened internationally and improved in production quality. Artists adopted more diverse sub-rap palettes (emo rap, drill, melodic trap), expanded into multilingual releases, and collaborated frequently across borders. Streaming platforms, conventions, and social media pushed the style into a sustainable niche where singles, cyphers, and theme packs (e.g., entire arcs or teams) became standard. While still internet-native, the genre increasingly interacts with the broader hip hop ecosystem and the official anison world through shared audiences and aesthetics.

How to make a track in this genre
Concept and lyrics

Start by choosing a specific character, rivalry, or arc, and write from a clear point of view (first-person as the character or third-person narrator). Embed signature references (moves, quotes, items) and thematic motifs (resolve, training, found family) so fans recognize the lore immediately. Use dense multisyllabic rhyme, internal rhyme, and punchlines that twist canon details into wordplay.

Tempo, rhythm, and drums

Common tempos are 70–90 BPM (or 140–180 BPM in double time). For trap-flavored tracks, program crisp hi-hat rolls (1/16 to 1/32 with occasional stutters), snappy claps/snares on 2 and 4, and tuned 808s with slides for impact hits. For boom-bap variants, swing the drums, layer a tighter kick, and keep the hat pattern more restrained.

Harmony, melody, and sound design

Write in minor keys for intensity, but borrow J-pop/anison traits: soaring, anthem-ready choruses; bright synth leads; string or choir lifts into hooks; and occasional key or mode shifts for drama. To evoke an anime feel without sampling, re-compose motifs using Japanese-leaning colors (e.g., pentatonic yo or in-style flavors, or HirajĹŤshi-inspired lines). Layer pads, bells, and short plucks; sidechain the bass for openness during hooks.

Sampling and legality

If you reference anime OSTs, re-record or re-harmonize motifs to avoid direct sampling issues. Alternatively, design new melodies that suggest the vibe of a series through instrumentation and intervals rather than literal quotes.

Vocal delivery and arrangement

Use dynamic, character-specific deliveries (calm strategist vs. raging brawler). Build songs around a memorable hook (often the character’s core creed in one line). In cyphers, assign each rapper a character and keep 12–16 bar segments tight. Add ad-libs that echo signature attacks or callouts fans shout at shows.

Mixing and presentation

Push the lead vocal forward with clear de-essing and fast compression. Carve space for 808s with low-end EQ and saturation; brighten hooks with parallel compression and subtle stereo widening. Pair releases with anime-styled visuals or AMV edits timed to drops for maximum impact on video platforms.

Main artists
Influenced by
Hip Hop
Hip hop is a cultural and musical movement that emerged from Black, Latino, and Caribbean communities, centering around rapping (MCing), DJing/turntablism, sampling-based production, and rhythmic speech over beats. It prioritizes groove, wordplay, and storytelling, often reflecting the social realities of urban life. Musically, hip hop is built on drum-centric rhythms (from breakbeats to 808 patterns), looped samples, and bass-forward mixes. Lyrically, it ranges from party anthems and braggadocio to political commentary and intricate poetic forms, with flow, cadence, and rhyme density as core expressive tools. Beyond music, hip hop encompasses a broader culture, historically intertwined with graffiti, b-boying/b-girling (breakdance), fashion, and street entrepreneurship, making it both an art form and a global social language.
Nerdcore
Nerdcore is a hip hop microgenre defined by lyrics that celebrate and satirize nerd and geek culture—video games, programming, sci‑fi and fantasy, tabletop and anime fandoms, internet life, and academic or technical in‑jokes. Musically it ranges from classic boom‑bap to contemporary trap and electro inflections, often folding in 8‑bit/chiptune timbres and samples that evoke retro consoles and PC soundcards. Performances and recordings often embrace a DIY ethos, with home‑studio production, direct fan engagement online, and shows at gaming and comic conventions. The tone can be humorous and self‑deprecating, but it also includes sincere autobiographical storytelling and community anthems. The scene grew alongside web culture, MP3 blogs, and early social platforms, helping establish a template for internet‑native rap communities.
Trap
Trap is a subgenre of hip hop that emerged from the Southern United States, defined by half-time grooves, ominous minor-key melodies, and the heavy use of 808 sub-bass. The style is characterized by rapid, syncopated hi-hat rolls, crisp rimshot/clap on the backbeat, and cinematic textures that convey tension and grit. Lyrically, it centers on street economies, survival, ambition, and introspection, with ad-libs used as percussive punctuation. Production is typically minimal but hard-hitting: layered 808s, sparse piano or bell motifs, dark pads, and occasional orchestral or choir samples. Vocals range from gravelly, staccato deliveries to melodic, Auto-Tuned flows, often using triplet cadences.
Boom Bap
Boom bap is a foundational East Coast hip hop style defined by hard, punchy drums—“boom” for the kick and “bap” for the snare—laid under sample-based loops from jazz, soul, and funk records. It typically runs around 85–96 BPM, favors gritty, minimally processed textures (often associated with SP‑1200 and early Akai MPC samplers), and foregrounds lyrical skill: multisyllabic rhyme schemes, internal rhymes, storytelling, street reportage, and battle bars. DJ techniques such as scratching and cut‑choruses are common, and arrangements emphasize head‑nod grooves, sparse basslines, and tight bar structures that give MCs room to “sit in the pocket.”
Cloud Rap
Cloud rap is a hip hop microgenre defined by ethereal, reverb‑drenched textures, soft pads, and minimal drum programming that creates a floating, dreamlike atmosphere. Beats tend to be sparse and space-conscious, with airy synths, distant vocal samples, and gentle 808s supporting raps that are often introspective, deadpan, or emotionally detached. The sound crystallized online in the early 2010s through platforms like DatPiff, Tumblr, and SoundCloud, pairing Southern rap rhythms with ambient and chillwave aesthetics. Rather than virtuosic density, cloud rap prizes mood, negative space, and a sense of weightlessness, translating internet-era solitude and nostalgia into hazy, pastel-toned hip hop.
Emo Rap
Emo rap blends the confessional lyricism and melodic sensibility of emo and pop‑punk with the rhythms, production techniques, and flows of contemporary hip hop and trap. Songs often feature sung‑rap deliveries, heavy use of Auto‑Tune, minor‑key progressions, guitar loops or samples, and 808‑driven drums. Themes typically center on heartbreak, loneliness, anxiety, substance use, and self‑reflection, presented in direct, diary‑like writing. The sound crystallized on platforms like SoundCloud, where artists embraced lo‑fi aesthetics, short song lengths, and highly personal cover art and branding. Emo rap’s crossover appeal brought rock textures back into mainstream rap and helped pave paths for a new wave of genre‑fluid pop, punk‑rap energy, and internet‑native micro‑scenes.
J-Pop
J-pop (Japanese pop) is a broad umbrella for mainstream Japanese popular music that blends Western pop/rock, dance, and R&B with distinctly Japanese songwriting, vocal delivery, and industry practices. It is characterized by strong hooks, polished production, bright synths and guitars, frequent key changes and modulatory bridges, and chorus-first or chorus-centric structures. J-pop spans idol groups, singer-songwriters, band-oriented pop-rock, electronic dance-pop, and R&B ballads, while remaining closely tied to television, advertising, video games, and anime tie-ins (anisong).
J-Rap
J-rap (Japanese rap) is Japan’s interpretation of hip hop culture and MCing, performed primarily in Japanese and shaped by local sensibilities. It blends the rhythmic delivery and beat aesthetics of American hip hop with Japanese language prosody, pop sensibility, and occasional traditional or city-pop sampling. Since the early 1990s, J-rap has spanned boom-bap, jazz-rap, pop-rap crossovers, and modern trap, while sustaining a strong DJ and club culture alongside lyrical scenes focused on social commentary and wordplay.
Vocaloid
Vocaloid is a music genre and production culture centered on songs performed by synthesized singing voices, most famously the virtual singer Hatsune Miku. Producers compose and arrange tracks, then program lyrics and melodies into voicebanks to create lead vocals that sound like human singers. While the repertoire spans many styles, Vocaloid is strongly associated with Japanese pop, rock, and electronic dance music aesthetics. Songs are often released online with striking illustrated artwork and animated "PV" videos, and they are disseminated through platforms such as Nico Nico Douga and YouTube by independent creators and labels. The genre’s hallmark is the combination of catchy, hyper-bright melodies, energetic rhythm sections, and expressive vocal programming (tuning) that leverages timbral artifacts unique to synthesized voices. A vibrant fan community drives remixes, covers, live concerts with virtual avatars, and continual evolution of stylistic norms.
Future Funk
Future funk is an internet-born dance microgenre that fuses the sample-heavy ethos of vaporwave with the upbeat grooves of disco, funk, and Japanese city pop. Producers typically chop and pitch up catchy hooks from late-1970s and 1980s records, loop them over four-on-the-floor drums, and apply filter sweeps and sidechain compression in the spirit of French house. The result is a sparkling, high-energy sound that feels both retro and forward-looking. Visually and culturally, the scene leans into neon-soaked, anime-tinged aesthetics and nostalgic party energy, turning classic pop and boogie flavors into compact, danceable edits tailored for the web era.
Lolicore
Lolicore is an internet-native offshoot of breakcore and speedcore that collides ultra-fast, hyper-edited breakbeats with "kawaii" (cute) Japanese pop-culture aesthetics. Tracks typically feature frenetic Amen breaks, harsh distortion, sudden BPM swings, and dense sample collages of high-pitched vocals sourced from anime, denpa, or Vocaloid, often cut, timestretched, and repitched to comic or chaotic effect. The result is a deliberately maximalist, irreverent, and noisy sound that juxtaposes sweetness and sonic violence. The genre grew within netlabel and forum cultures, where DIY production, meme-driven artwork, and tongue-in-cheek titles were as central as the music itself. While musically rooted in breakcore’s editing ethos, lolicore emphasizes cute/otaku imagery, playful shock value, and fast, dance-adjacent rhythms that can veer into speedcore-level intensity.
Nightcore
Nightcore is a remixing style that speeds up and pitch-shifts existing songs—most often Eurodance, trance, and pop—creating a brighter, higher-pitched vocal timbre and a faster, energetic groove. Typical edits raise the tempo by roughly 20–35% and increase the pitch 2–4 semitones, giving the vocals a youthful, "chipmunk-like" sheen. Born from a Norwegian DJ duo’s party edits in the early 2000s and later amplified by YouTube communities, Nightcore functions both as an aesthetic and a technique. It emphasizes momentum, euphoria, and emotive immediacy, frequently paired with anime or fan-art visuals that reinforce its internet-native, youth-centric identity.
Hyperpop
Hyperpop is an internet-native pop movement known for its maximalist sound design, pitch-shifted vocals, and frenetic genre collisions. It exaggerates pop tropes—ultra-bright synths, hard-clipping drums, sugary hooks—then smashes them together with elements of club music, trap, and experimental electronica. The style favors hyper-synthetic timbres, extreme processing (auto‑tune, formant shifting, heavy sidechaining, distortion), and abrupt structural left turns. Lyrically, it swings between irreverent internet humor and disarmingly sincere confessions, often reflecting online identity, queerness, and hyper-modern life. Although diverse, the common thread is a playful, self-aware push of pop to surreal, high-saturation extremes.
Kawaii Future Bass
Kawaii future bass is a Japanese-born microgenre that blends the sidechained, chord-heavy drops of future bass with the cheery melodies, cute sound design, and pop sensibilities of J-pop, anime music, and game-inspired chiptune. It typically features bright supersaw stacks, bell and mallet plucks, high-pitched vocal chops (often from Vocaloid or J-pop/utaite sources), and sugary melodies in major or Lydian modes. Drums follow a half-time trap groove with crisp snares on beat three, while heavy sidechain compression creates a buoyant, bouncy feel. The aesthetic emphasizes “kawaii” (cute) culture—pastel tones, playful samples, and whimsical ear-candy—resulting in upbeat, feel-good tracks that are as much about personality and texture as they are about harmony and rhythm.
Anime
Anime (often called "anisong" for vocal themes) is the umbrella term for songs and scores created for Japanese animation, including opening/ending themes and background music. It blends contemporary J‑pop/J‑rock songwriting with dramatic orchestral scoring and modern electronic production, aiming for instantly memorable hooks and emotionally charged climaxes tailored to a show's narrative and characters. Stylistic hallmarks include high-register, expressive vocals; tight, hook-forward structures (especially 90-second “TV size” versions); bright, polished production; and frequent late-song key changes. Arrangements often hybridize rock bands, strings, brass, and EDM textures to deliver cinematic impact, while lyrics favor aspirational, metaphor-rich imagery that mirrors the series’ themes.
Nerdcore Hip Hop
Nerdcore hip hop is a lyrical subculture of hip hop defined by its unabashed embrace of geek and fandom subjects—video games, programming, sci‑fi and fantasy, comics, anime, tabletop gaming, internet culture, and academic topics. Musically, it uses the production vocabulary of hip hop—boom‑bap drums, sample‑based loops, or modern trap‑leaning beats—often flavored with chiptune textures and retro game samples. The delivery prioritizes clear diction, dense wordplay, humor, and deep‑cut references that reward knowledgeable listeners. The genre emerged online in the early 2000s as independent artists shared MP3s, built communities on forums and webcomics sites, and toured fan conventions, making it one of the first internet‑native rap movements.
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