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Gratuitous Rap

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Spitting bars on the witness stand might just earn you a rap sheet.

"You know there's something you should know, so I'm gonna tell you so! Don't sweat it! Forget it! Enjoy the show!"
Fritz, opening the "Party Time" number in Titanic: The Legend Goes On

Basically, things like characters performing brief rap numbers in stories where it isn't the primary subject.

Compare Piss-Take Rap and A Wild Rapper Appears!. Not to be confused with Gratuitous Rape.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • That one episode of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo with the roller coaster.
  • DEVILMAN crybaby has a few scenes where a gang of delinquents does freestyle raps about current events or about society. Though the raps are rather good, given that the voice actors of the delinquents are real-life rappers.
  • Gintama: Katsura and his "Katsurap." Even more gratuitous are the recaps for the Thorny Boys arc.
  • All versions of the ending theme Marukaite Chikyuu of Hetalia: Axis Powers anime contain rap sections, even for characters like Japan whom you'll not expect to rap.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has a chapter where Fujiwara suddenly busts into a rap number when she, Kaguya, and Shirogane are playing a "word guessing game". Shirogane thinks Fujiwara's lost her mind while Kaguya sits and smiles, hoping that her silent composure will help her win the game. They both lose.
  • Killer B from Naruto has a tendency to do this, even when others say it's not all that good.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Ringmaster in the Doctor Who serial "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy".
  • Degrassi Junior High constantly. The worst was Rick's environmental rap.
  • Champion ice skater Katerina Witt suddenly and bizarrely breaks into a full-on rap during one of the Christmas TV specials she made in the early '90s.
  • Odd Squad:
    • "Is There a Doctor in the House?", Dr. O's theme song, is an example of this. It plays at the end of "Oscar of All Trades" and also serves as a Boastful Rap, as it's about Dr. O being an expert "in everything that you don't know".
    • "A Likely Story", the duet between Olympia and Otis in "The Cherry-on-Top-inator" as they tell their story of how the eponymous gadget helped them to Oona, has one that's smack-dab in the middle of the song as Otis, Olympia, and the chef at the restaurant they're disguised at try to figure out what the Puppy Master's favorite dish is.

    Pinballs 
  • Each of the stiffs do this in Class of 1812 whenever they are dug up.

    Theme Parks 

    Video Games 

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • Dinosaur Comics frequently breaks out into gratuitous rap, due to T-Rex's love of fresh rhymes. At one point, God busted it out to philosophically prove His existence.
  • Homestuck, with GameBro, which doesn't seem to have any specific character performing it, but is a rap about an obscure plot element that resurfaces a negligible amount of times in the massive comic.
  • Minion Comics features a Teddy Ruxpin-esque stuffed turtle singing a rap song entitled "Punch Your Bitch In The Mouth" advising schoolchildren about how to treat their girlfriends.

    Web Original 
  • Commentary! The Musical, "Neil's Turn": in the middle of a song he suddenly starts rapping.
    I'll charm the chicks (Are those real? Ha!)
    Do magic tricks (Was it the three of spades? Ho!)
    Lay down some tap
    And I can rap
    My name is Neil and I'm here to say, [random rapping noises]
    No I can't rap
    That was painful...
  • Final Fantasy VII Abridged: Rude communicates entirely through rapping.

    Western Animation 
  • Dexter's Laboratory features an episode where Dexter raps about the "reality" behind Santa Claus.
  • Donkey Kong Country: "Hold it now, hold it now, hold it, hold it right there! You wouldn't drop, couldn't drop [Diddy], you wouldn't dare!"
  • The conclusion of an episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ("World Wide Wabbit") saw Harriman make a rap video to promote the house on its "spider-web".
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Testing, Testing, 1 2 3", Pinkie Pie tries to help Rainbow Dash learn about the history of the Wonderbolts by rapping about it. Complete with a '90s style Stylistic Suck video.
  • "It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown" features one. Yes, a rap in a Peanuts special.
  • Phineas and Ferb featured plenty of spontaneous musical numbers, and a few of these are rap songs:
    • "Picture This" ends with Candace doing a rhythmic Rapid-Fire "But!", which Ferb begins beatboxing over and Phineas doing some DJ scratching sounds and Baljeet raps "There is No Candy in Me", based on his panicked cries when Linda, blindfolded, chases him mistaking him for a piñata.
      Buford: Nerd ain't no piñata!
    • "Brain Drain" has the memorable and meme-able "There's a Platypus Controlling Me", in which Doofenshmirtz falls down a junkyard hill, gets some rubber glue on his hands, which stick to the records on a turntable, so Perry puts the mind control helmet on his head and makes him spin, and Doof starts rapping the song.
    • "Candace Gets Busted" has "Candace Party", in which Candace keeps insisting her party is actually an intimate get-together and raps while berating her guests for misbehaving.
      Don't spill your drink!
      Don't drop your food!
      Don't make the music in the house go boom!
      Hey, don't use my mom's good scissors,
      And please stay out of my room!
      Take your feet off the chair!
      No running in the house!
      Put a coaster under that drink!
      Hey, these tchochtkes aren't for juggling,
      And that's a toilet! Not a sink!
      It's not a party, it's an intimate get-together! (Candace party! Candace party!)
      Don't call it that! It's just a get-together! (Candace party! Candace party!)
  • The Simpsons:
  • South Park:
  • The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: "We're the Mario Brothers, and plumbin's our game! We're not like the others who get all the fame!"
  • Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School ends with Scrappy Doo rapping. It is exactly as horrendous as it sounds.

 
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Video Example(s):

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There is No Candy in Me

Candace sputters at being denied her foolproof bust, and the boys make a rap out of it.

How well does it match the trope?

4.33 (12 votes)

Example of:

Main / GratuitousRap

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