History Main / BoastfulRap

[[IAmGreatSong Boastful, self-aggrandizing songs]] really occur in all genres, but it's particularly common for [[HipHop Rappers]] to rap about how they're [[BadassBoast badass/what they can do]], about their possessions, homies, and stuff, about who they are, or a combination of all of the above. Rapping about [[SelfDemonstratingArticle how good they are at rapping]] is also a popular subject.

UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop was full of these kinds of songs.

Compare BraggingThemeTune and AWildRapperAppears. 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.

* Music/KanyeWest and Estelle - "American Boy", in which Kanye brags about his fame and fashion sense, with Estelle complimenting him for good measure.

* Music/{{Ludacris}} - "Stand Up", bragging about his various club antics and including the memorable line "Watch out for the medallion, my diamonds are reckless, feels like a midget is hanging from my necklace"

--> Giant robot make you feel very low shank
--> I am so hot, in my skills there be propane
--> Why I'm gon' squash them and kill every poor thing
--> Cause I'm a huge, Pillsbury dough mane

* Let's be honest here - hip-hop itself largely consists of this trope, especially in TheEighties and TheNineties. Artists like Rakim, the various members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Big L, and more perfected the Boastful Rap. Doesn't stop a lot of it from being SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic, though.

** "Castle Made of Sand" from Planet Pit does come close to averting this trope - it does have a few brags but is much more about his past, his mother and how he grew up without a father.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI6CfKcMhjY Jack Sparrow]]" starts out as one of these, but is derailed by Music/MichaelBolton, who's been marathoning the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movies. The boys attempt to regain control of the song - and fail. Though getting him to change the subject to ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' makes it mildly more appropriate.

** Gangnam is a wealthy part of Seoul, South Korea. The main line is "Oppan [Big brother is] Gangnam Style" - the song is effectively from the viewpoint of a man who thinks he's hot stuff because he lives like someone there, but really doesn't have what it takes. (South Korea has some of the highest credit card debt on the planet; living way beyond your means is a regular problem.)

--> I’m just a regular everyday normal guy…Nothin’ special bout me motherfucker.
-->I’m just a regular everyday normal guy…When I go to the club I wait in line motherfucker.
-->I’m just a regular everyday normal guy…I got $600 in the bank motherfucker
-->I’m just a regular everyday normal guy…And my sexual performance is average.
** As well as the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXi8WmQ_WM MC]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvjDr8KKtsE Vagina]]" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC03hmS1Brk videos]]
-->"I buy a lot of expensive thing because I have a lot of money. You cant afford expensive things because you don't have a lot of money"
-->"When I show women my money they want to have sex with me and they always have orgasms because my penis is so big, [[BiggerIsBetterInBed 25 inches long]] and [[BlatantLies 12 inches wide]]"

* Spose's song, fittingly titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYws8biwOYc "I'm Awesome"]], talks about how he still lives in his mom's basement, only made friends online because he's way too shy in real life but talks to himself on his Facebook wall despite that, never works out, is too poor to eat at Subway, his lyrics are ghostwritten - by his little sister nonetheless, can't roll blunts despite smoking weed all the time, has a dead-end job, is horribly out of fashion, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking drinks light beer.]]

* There are mock rap battles in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' ([[JustForFun/TropeOverdosed of course]]), including the lamest [[spoiler: and best]] in the history of [[TimeyWimeyBall Paradox]] Space.

* Both "A Lot of Stick" and "Doubting Me" by [[http://www.myspace.com/kareeminal26 Kareeminal]] start off very much like {{True Art is Angsty}} but by the end they turn into this trope.

* ''I'm Cappin'' by [=Mon$ter] and Big Flock

Never use curse words\\

And a 5 minute ride equals 5 leg cramps\\

-->-- "All About The Pentiums", '''Music/WeirdAlYankovic'''

** At one point, Tavros attempts to troll Dave by performing a Boastful Rap ("'Cause I'm your bully, and you're not in charge"), but unintentionally keeps making it [[MistakenForGay homoerotic]], much to Tavros's chagain.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has an [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/follow-the-keter epic rap battle]] between [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-076 SCP-076-2]] and [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-682 SCP-682]].

-->'''Bart''': "Party Posse, we rule the earth, / The greatest band since music's birth?"\\

* Music/TheMidnightBeast's song "Medium Pimpin'" effectively amounts to them boasting about how ''average'' they and their possessions are.

-->6 deep ridin' with a broken window (it's hot)\\

* ''Theatre/PokemonTheMewsical'' has Brock's song, which is a rap about how he's a chick magnet using Pokemon-themed words. It's ... not entirely accurate.

* Spose's song, fittingly titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYws8biwOYc "I'm Awesome"]], talks about how he still lives in his mom's basement, only made friends online because he's way too shy in real life but talks to himself on his Facebook wall despite that, never works out, is too poor to eat at Subway, his lyrics are ghostwritten - by his little sister nonetheless, can't roll blunts despite smoking weed all the time, has a dead-end job because of that, is horribly out of fashion, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking drinks light beer.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "New Kids on the Blech," where Bart is reading aloud from the song they're to sing (sort-of rap, like the {{Boy Band}}s do):

** Another from ''TheSimpsons'' is Poochie's introduction when he first appears on Itchy and Scratchy.

* Subverted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3imnxCmR7bw "Surface pressure"]] from Disney's WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}. Luisa starts out rapping about how strong and though she is, but quickly reveals that she is breaking down from the pressure of having to fix everything in the village and fear of failing her family.

* The Flobots' "Handlebars" is a deconstruction of boastful rap, starting with childlike bragging ("I can ride my bike with no handlebars") and culminating in some pretty scary stuff ("I can end the planet in a holocaust").

* Music/ChildishGambino's "Freaks and Geeks", "Bonfire", "Sunrise", and "Sweatpants". "Worldstar" is set up like one
, but is actually about the sadistic aspects of web culture.

** More from Kanye: Oh, yes...

* Music/KanyeWest: Oh, yes...
** DON'T LET ME INTO MY ZONE! DON'T LET ME INTO MY ZONE! DON'T LET ME INTO MY ZONE! I'M DEFINITELY IN MY ZONE!

* There are mock rap battles in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' ([[TropeOverdosed of course]]), including the lamest [[spoiler: and best]] in the history of [[TimeyWimeyBall Paradox]] Space.

* ''All over the place'' in ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}''. George Washington gets one ("Right Hand Man"), John Laurens gets a couple of verses (in "Aaron Burr, Sir" and "My Shot"), Hercules Mulligan and the Marquis du Lafayette get a verse in those two plus a few more (in "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" and "Guns and Ships" respectively), and Alexander Hamilton himself gets nearly ''three full songs'' ("My Shot", "Non-Stop", and "Hurricane").

* The song "Legend Has It" by rap duo Music/RunTheJewels is entirely made up of these, even cracking a joke about it when the tail end of one of El-P's boasts is abruptly cut off by a bored female voice (actually that of his wife) telling him to stop.

* The Binary Star song "Honest Expression" is largely a reaction to this trope; an extended tirade about how everybody who makes BoastfulRap songs is a poser who is killing hip-hop.

* Let's be honest here - hip-hop itself largely consists of this trope, especially in TheEighties and TheNineties. Artists like Rakim, the various members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Big L, and more perfected the BoastfulRap. Doesn't stop a lot of it from being SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic, though.

** Subverted by Robbie who gets knocked unconscious by an angry crowd member before he can make a presumably poor attempt of a BoastfulRap.

* Music/TinieTempah's "Pass Out" is half straight example, half AffectionateParody. The hook is standard if arguably lame BoastfulRap 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.)

** At one point, Tavros attempts to troll Dave by performing a BoastfulRap ("'Cause I'm your bully, and you're not in charge"), but unintentionally keeps making it [[MistakenForGay homoerotic]], much to Tavros's chagain.

* Music/ChildishGambino's "Freaks and Geeks", "Bonfire", "Sunrise", and "Sweatpants". "Worldstar" is set up like one initially, but is actually about the sadistic aspects of web culture.