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Frat rap (sometimes called campus hip-hop or keg rap) refers to a subgenre of hip hop rap music that revolves around college and suburban high school communities. The term derives from "Fraternity" Rap, as the lyrical content often revolves around drinking, drugs, and girls in the college party scene. The rappers, as well as their audience, are generally from upper-class high school and college student populations. This is a marked contrast to more conventional rap, which often offers commentary on personal and social issues, with extensive lyricism, and pays homage to the origins of rap culture in the Bronx.

History
White rappers have been in the hip hop industry since the 1980's, such as Everlast, 3rd Bass, Cage, Vanilla Ice, and the Beastie Boys. However, the Frat rap genre, which very specifically revolves and targets the college party scene, has become prominent only in recent years. A notable figure is MC Hot Karl, who was a student at USC and received some attention by rapping on Los Angeles station Power 106 in 2003. He was praised for his witty lines but most of all, he distinguished himself by rapping about and embracing his upper class background. He received contract deals with recording labels, like Interscope, but was eventually dropped

Asher Roth's hit single, "I Love College" was released in 2009 and instantly garnered wide spread success, being played on mainstream Top-40's radio stations, earning a spot on the Billboards Top 20’’s, as well as a spot on XXL’s annual Top 10 Freshmen list. He has since gone on tours with several mainstream artists, such as Blink-182.

Since the success of Roth, there has been a notable increase in young white rappers. Boston native, Sammy Adams, garnered much attention after he covered Asher Roth's "I Love College" song, sampling the beat and titling his version of the song as "I Hate College." As a growing genre of the 21st century, it goes without saying that the Internet has helped propelled the music to the masses. Youtube has played in a fundamental role in generating fan bases, as was the case with rapper Chris Webby, garnering him close to ten million views on videos. Many blogs have been dedicated to spreading news and updates about up and coming frat rappers, such as Fratrap.tumblr and Brobible.com. The founder of Fratrap tumblr, Cha Boy, explains, "This subgenre is more about the audience reached than the rappers themselves(...)You don't have to be part of a college fraternity to be considered frat rap and you don't have to be white either. You just have to make party music that suburban college kids relate to — music that teens around the country will push hard around the Internet."

Musicians
Some notable rappers that have often been included in this genre are Mac Miller, Sammy Adams, Chris Webby, Asher Roth, Aer, The Deans List, Hoodie Allen, Cam Meekins, Mike Posner, Kam Royal, Trey Palms, Huey Mack, Nate Walka, David Dallas, Matt Clark, Kyle Lucas.

Several aspiring rappers in this genre have celebrity roots. Actor Tom Hanks’ son, Chet Haze, for instance, released a tribute song to Northwestern University, sampling Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” and has since begun recording more songs. Rich Hill is the son of fashion designer, Tommy Hilfiger, and is now signed to Warner Brothers Records.

Criticism
Since the wide spread appeal of Asher Roth's single, many rappers have begun releasing similar songs. However, the recent rise has received much backlash. Hip-hop purists have criticized this type of music for its synthesized backdrops, excessive auto-tuning, and unoriginal lyrical content. Journalist and filmmaker Danny Gold has written, "Frat rappers are multiplying, like an incurable virus hellbent on killing hip-hop."

Much controversy derives from the question of cultural ownership when white rappers enter the music scene. Many white rappers publicly acknowledge rap as a cultural movement that originated from the Bronx and the African American community. Critics of frat rap argue that artists, like Asher Roth, are changing this dynamic and treating hip hop as something that they can claim in a post-racial America. Author and columnist for the Daily Beast, Toure, explains, “Hip-hop, like America, is anything but race blind, but Asher doesn't consider hip-hop a black thing—likely because he's from a generation of white kids that thinks black culture belongs to them, too.” Toure argues that Asher Roth’s fame as a white rapper may inspire other white rappers to make a presence, which is feared by many Hip-hop purists because they feel cheated of their own culture’s achievement in music.

The lyrical content and upbringing of these new wave of young rappers is a great contrast to the low socio-economic struggle of traditional gangster rap. Some believe that while this change is inevitable, it doesn’t make the music any less authentic. While most of these artists come from privileged background, columnist Andrea Rojas, believes that these young rappers understand the importance of story-telling in hip hop and how relatable it is to the audience. The artists themselves seem to hold a similar mentality. Up and coming artists like Myles "Skizzy Mars" Mills and Geoff "OnCue" Sarubbi believe that it is unnecessary to portray a tough crime-filled persona to be a rapper and to sell albums. Instead, they stress the importance of rapping about things they know and how their audience can relate to them.