The fusion of Punk Rock and Hip-Hop falls into three distinct categories:
Type 1: Rappers and groups who incorporate punk elements into their Hip-Hop music via sampling and/or some live instrumentation.
Type 2: A band that plays Rap Rock music that features the vocalist(s) rapping over punk instrumentation.
Type 3: When the band fuses rapping with Hardcore Punk, it's called "Rapcore". Not to be confused with Nu Metal, which is also sometimes called Rapcore. Although some albums are definitely both. Example: Limp Bizkit's Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ and The Unquestionable Truth albums.
Type 2 was more common in the 1990s and early 2000s with bands such as Beastie Boys (a Ur-Example of the genre who started off as a Hardcore Punk band in 1979 before becoming a Hip-Hop group), (həd) p.e. and Zebrahead (Band).
Type 1 is more common in the current wave of "Punk Rap" originating in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but has it's predecessors in some 90s-era artists like Kottonmouth Kings (whose music was basically a smooth blend of G-funk Psychedelic Rock and Punk Rock with songs that occasionally dipped into other genres, like Hardcore Punk, Rap Rock, Reggae, Blue Grass, Dubstep, Jam Band and more), and 80s Ur-Example Public Enemy, who recorded songs that set the ground for both Punk Rap and Industrial Hip-Hop.
Since the late-2000s to early 2010s, Punk Rap is more frequently associated with Trap artists who combine punk and metal samples with lo-fi recordings and short, repetitive rap verses sometimes tempered with screaming.
Type 3 was killed by it's association with Nu Metal, though it has slowly started to creep back, as artists like Fever 333 (as well as letlive., who had prominent hip-hop elements in their music), Show Me the Body, and Soul Glo have found some success in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
Examples:
- 311 has a very distinct style which is a blend of Punk Rock, Reggae and Hip-Hop.
- Abdu Ali
- Asian Dub Foundation
- Backxwash
- Beastie Boys (a Ur-Example; mostly a Hip-Hop group but has some clear Punk Rap songs, most notably "Sabotage")
- 1986 - Licensed to Ill
- Biohazard (also Hardcore Punk and thrash metal)
- Bloodhound Gang (comedy band that originally started as a Hip-Hop group, then added live musicians to their line-up and changed their sound to mostly Rapcore)
- Butterfingers
- Candiria (mixed Rapcore with Progressive Metal and Jazz Fusion)
- Charlie Brown Jr.
- Chronic Future
- Cities Aviv
- City Morgue
- Death Grips
- Deez Nuts
- Denzel Curry
- Downset
- E.Town Concrete
- Fever 333
- H-Blockx
- (həd) p.e. mixes Rapcore and Reggae
- Ho99o9 (also Horrorcore)
- JPEGMafia
- Kevin Abstract
- Kid Rock (on "Forever", he describes his music as a mix of Punk Rock, Hip-Hop and Southern Rock)
- 1998 - Devil Without a Cause
- 2001 - Cocky
- Kottonmouth Kings
- letlive.
- Limp Bizkit (also Nu Metal)
- 1997 - Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$
- 2005 - The Unquestionable Truth, Part 1
- Mad Capsule Markets (also Industrial Metal and Hardcore Punk)
- MC Lars
- Mudd the Student
- Nothing,Nowhere
- Pleymo
- Public Enemy (a Ur-Example)
- Rage Against the Machine
- Rico Nasty
- Senser
- Show Me the Body
- Slowthai
- Soul Glo
- $UICIDEBOY$ (also Horrorcore)
- Sum 41 (early work)
- Time Zone
- The Transplants (Rancid side project)
- Travis Scott
- Waka Flocka Flame
- Kanye West occasionally falls into this
- 2013 - Yeezus
- XXXTentacion
- Zebrahead (Band)
