Essentiel Productions

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.

Rap is a vocal music style built on the rhythmic, rhymed, and often improvised spoken delivery of lyrics over a beat. It emphasizes flow, cadence, wordplay, and narrative, and is commonly performed over sampled or programmed drum patterns and loops. Emerging from block parties and sound-system culture in the Bronx, New York City, rap became the core vocal expression of hip hop culture alongside DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti. While it is closely linked to hip hop, rap as a technique and genre has also crossed into pop, rock, electronic, and global regional scenes. Musically, rap favors strong drum grooves (breakbeats, 808 patterns), sparse harmony, and loop-based structures that foreground the MC’s voice. Lyrically, it spans party chants and battle brags to intricate internal rhymes, social commentary, reportage, and autobiography.

Rap québécois is the French-language hip hop of Quebec, Canada, characterized by its distinct blend of local slang (joual), French, English code-switching, and influences from the province’s diverse diasporas (notably Haitian and Maghrebi communities). It places a strong emphasis on identity, language politics, and everyday urban realities, often folding in humor, sharp wordplay, and regional references. Musically, it spans sample-based boom bap and jazz-inflected beats to trap, drill, and club-ready hybrids. Crews and collectives have long driven its scene culture, while battles, cyphers, and a thriving live circuit in Montreal and Quebec City helped forge an unmistakable flow, accent, and attitude that set it apart from both U.S. and European francophone rap.