History Main / BoastfulRap

* "Amateur Wordsmith" by Creator/TheStupendium turns the concept on its head, with Stupes rapping all about how they can't write this kind of rap and that they really only see themselves as an okay rapper (the song having been written when they were still inexperienced).

Compare BraggingThemeTune and AWildRapperAppears. A lot of songs that may appear to be about other topics are really just braggadocio songs using UnusualDysphemism -- most commonly, [[GangBangers songs about gang violence]] as a metaphor for being the best at rapping. If sung by an antagonistic character, can be considered a {{Villain Song}}. Also compare BattleRapping, where boastful rapping is a component of the sub-genre.

* Every episode of ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'' involves at least some of this, with the notable exceptions of "Napoleon vs. Napoleon" and "Adam vs. Eve".

* A few of the Music/BeastieBoys' songs affirm their rapping ability, though it is at times so absurd that it's quite possibly parody ("Got more hits than Sadaharu Oh", from ''Music/PaulsBoutique'', indeed).

* A few of the Music/BeastieBoys' songs affirm their rapping ability, though it is at times so absurd that it's quite possibly parody ("Got more hits than Sadaharu Oh", from ''Music/PaulsBoutique'', indeed).
** On that note, Music/RunDMC did this pretty often too, but [[RuleOfCool no one really cares.]]

* Music/LilB has claimed to be God, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, the Devil, Paris Hilton, Hugh Hefner, Music/JustinBieber, Music/MileyCyrus, Creator/MelGibson, and Ellen Degeneres and to look like Jesus, Bill Gates mixed with UsefulNotes/BarackObama, and the pope. He also called himself "[[MemeticMutation The Based God]]," whatever that means.
* Music/LupeFiasco's "Superstar" was a surprising deconstruction of this trope. Though he wasn't parodying those who boast, it was definitely more about the insecurities and loneliness that come from 'gangsta' celebrity rather than the perks, fame, and money.

[[folder:Quasi-parodies, ironic boasting, and indeterminable]]

Run a small business, I don't sell drugs, to be honest, I'm pretty established\\

[[folder: Quasi-parodies, ironic boasting, and indeterminable]]

* Hot Chip's "The Warning" parodies it with a chorus that'd sound threatening, if only it weren't delivered in a mild-mannered voice more reminiscent of [[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} John Arbuckle]] than Music/JayZ...
-->Hot Chip will break your legs
-->Snap off your head
-->Hot Chip will put you down
-->Under the ground

* Every Wrestler in [=GLOW=] did this before every match, including the one that would become WWE's Ivory. The parody came from most of the roster being stock ForeignWrestlingHeel.

[[folder:Parodies]]

* Music/TinieTempah's "Pass Out" is half straight example, half AffectionateParody. The hook is standard if arguably lame Boastful Rap about partying and drinking and getting all the women, but the verses contain bizarre, uncool boasts like "I got so many clothes I keep them in my aunt's house" and "I'm pissed I never got to fly on a Concorde / I been Southampton but I've never been to Scunthorpe". (Note: for Americans unsure about those English towns, know that they are both desperately uncool.)

* The Music/DigitalUnderground song "The Humpty Dance" is a humorous example if not an outright parody.

* ''I'm Cappin'' by Mon$ter and Big Flock
-->I don't do none of that shit, I be rappin'\\
I just be cappin', I just be rappin'\\
I don't want smoke with a motherfucking soul\\
I ain't in the streets, bitch I don't get active\\
Fuck do you mean? I ain't got opps\\
Lil nigga stop, you niggas can have it\\
I ain't no drug lord, never seen a brick or bust open a motherfucking package\\
I don't do no crime, nigga no lie, to be real with you niggas, I'm average\\
Run a small business, I don't sell drugs, to be honest, I'm pretty established\\

"Facts Machine" by mat4yo includes the line: It's a fact the eternal fire in Iraq can't hold a candle to the fire in my raps."

->''I'm not sayin' I'm number one, uhh... I'm sorry, I lied\\
I'm number one, two, three, four ''and'' five!''
-->-- '''Music/KRSOne''', "Step Into a World"

The reason this is so important to hip-hop is because of the genre's origins as DJ chatter during live party entertainment -- a DJ would keep party-goers hyped up by reminding them that they're having the best time at the best party with the best DJ, and giving them as much evidence as possible to make them believe it. Hip-hop, particularly BattleRapping, is also a descendent of the traditional African-American [[YouFightLikeACow insult game]] known as "the dozens", in which players might defend themselves from an opponent's attack by boasting about themselves. The last reason for bragging's popularity is as a reaction to the racism that the working class Black Americans who invented hip-hop were subjected to -- bragging is a way of rejecting all the negative stereotypes placed on the rapper, and [[SelfEmpowermentAnthem affirming their power and greatness]]. Because of the racial element to braggadocio, white rappers often avoid it or [[PissTakeRap play it for laughs]] to avoid [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy cultural insensitivity]].

Compare BraggingThemeTune and AWildRapperAppears. A lot of songs that may appear to be about other topics are really just braggadocio songs using UnusualDysphemism -- usually, GangBangers songs as a metaphor for being the best at rapping. If sung by an antagonistic character, can be considered a {{Villain Song}}. Also compare BattleRapping, where boastful rapping is a component of the sub-genre.

* The ICP's fellow Detroit {{Horrorcore}} artist/rival Music/{{Eminem}} borrowed this trick, spending much of his early albums boasting about having multiple sexually transmitted diseases, [[AlcoholInducedStupidity drunk-driving]], being [[UndiscriminatingAddict addicted to every drug in existence]], having a drug-addicted, abusive slut as a mother, being mentally ill, and [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood being raped by his school teacher as a child]]. The GlamRap parodies he wrote during his writer's-block period in the mid-late 2000s also involve him boasting about his car being covered in so much candy paint that it's coated the neighbourhood, having rims instead of wheels that spin until the next morning, and kidnapping and sexually threatening women to get them to sing the pop hooks on his records.

[[IAmGreatSong Boastful, self-aggrandizing songs]] occur in all genres, but bragging songs in HipHop -- called ''braggadocio'' -- is a cornerstone of the genre, in a tradition stemming back to before UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop. It's ubiquitous for [[HipHop rappers]] to rap about how they're [[BadassBoast badass]], their [[GlamRap money]], their [[GangstaRap drugs and guns]], who they hang with, [[RagsToRiches how successful they are]], how good-looking they are, and how they're [[SelfDemonstratingArticle really good at rapping]].

->''"Yeah, paying the bills with my mad programming skills! Defraggin' my hard drive for thrills!''
->''Got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM! I don't feed trolls and I don't read spam.''
->''Installed a T1 line in my house! Always at my PC double-clickin' on my mizzouse!''
->''Upgrade my system at least twice a day, I'm strictly plug-and-play! I ain't afraid of [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]]!''
->''I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him 'money' for short. I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support! It's all about the Pentiums, what!"''
-->-- [[Music/RunningWithScissors "It's All About The Pentiums"]], '''Music/WeirdAlYankovic'''

The reason this is so important to hip-hop is because of the genre's origins as DJ chatter during live party entertainment -- a DJ would keep party-goers hyped up by reminding them that they're having the best time at the best party with the best DJ, and giving them as much evidence as possible to make them believe it. Hip-hop, particularly BattleRapping, is also a descendent of the traditional African-American [[YouFightLikeACow insult game]] known as "the dozens", in which players might defend themselves from an opponent's attack by boasting about themselves. The last reason for bragging's popularity is as a reaction to the racism that the working class Black Americans who invented hip-hop were subjected to -- bragging is a way of rejecting all the negative stereotypes placed on the rapper, and [[SelfEmpowermentSong affirming their power and greatness]]. Because of the racial element to braggadocio, white rappers often avoid it or [[PissTakeRap play it for laughs]] to avoid [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy cultural insensitivity]].

The reason this is so important to hip-hop is because of the genre's origins as DJ chatter during live party entertainment -- a DJ would keep party-goers hyped up by reminding them that they're having the best time at the best party with the best DJ, and giving them as much evidence as possible to make them believe it. Hip-hop, particularly BattleRapping, is also a descendent of the traditional African-American [[YouFightLikeACow insult game]] known as "the dozens", in which players might defend themselves from an opponent's attack by boasting about themselves. The last reason for bragging's popularity is as a reaction to the racism that the working class Black Americans who invented hip-hop were subjected to -- bragging is a way of rejecting all the negative stereotypes placed on the rapper, and [[SelfEmpowermentBallad affirming their power and greatness]]. Because of the racial element to braggadocio, white rappers often avoid it or [[PissTakeRap play it for laughs]] to avoid [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy cultural insensitivity]].