Glam Rap isn't so much a genre as it is a label for hip-hop with lyrical content about the rapper bragging about their expensive rich-person lifestyle, a style which originated in the '80s and became ubiquitously popular in the 2000s. Expect the music videos to feature the following motifs: sprawling mansions; long, luxury yachts; exotic, six-figure sports cars and luxury cars; pimped out cars with big DUB rims (which may or may not be spinning) and/or lowrider hydraulics; tons of stripperific models gyrating by the large infinity pool with glasses full of champagne; plus lots of big, gaudy jewelry and expensive watches.

Despite its reputation for being mindless party music, Glam Rap is not without social commentary. Many glam rappers are praised for writing thoughtful songs that link their wealth to their pride in overcoming oppressive poverty and racism, or to the rise of Hip-Hop culture overall.

Some rappers are also praised for using the subject matter as raw material for skilled wordplay — Rakim and Big Daddy Kane are pioneering and innovative rhymers who mostly wrote about getting money, Jay-Z spent a decades-long career building a drug-dealer-turned-Honest Corporate Executive persona with nuanced and clever writing, and Cash Money Records alum Lil Wayne uses a unique, improvised Hurricane of Puns style to write songs about cash and sex. Many female rappers (and pop stars inspired by hip-hop) that emerged in The New '10s use obsession with shopping and luxury goods to create Campy diva personas that appeal to an LGBT Fanbase.

From the "Shiny Suit Era" Sean Combs-mentored acts of the 90s, to the ringtone rap craze of the 2000s, to autotuned teens in The New '10s slurring about owning luxury items they obviously don't have, the subgenre attracts a lot of heat. A lot of listeners don't agree that materialism is something to celebrate (or, if they don't have any money, find the songs impossible to relate to), and may feel wealth-bragging has crowded out more socially conscious topics on the radio. While wealth-bragging is still a popular topic, the Glam Rap style became less dominant on the radio starting from the middle of The New '10s, with darker and more emotional topics like relationships and mental health becoming popular (although many artists did both these songs and glam rap, such as Juice WRLD).

There is a lot of overlap with Gangsta Rap, and Gangsta Rap's subgenres G-Funk and Trap Music, as many of these artists have a dark side. In fact, Glam Rap is arguably a Kinder and Cleaner version of Gangsta Rap that evolved to get through radio censorship — skipping over the controversial violence and political/religious/horror themes often found in Gangsta Rap leaves only the part of the story where the criminal is enjoying the spoils of their crimes. However, a lot of Gangsta Rap is unglamorous and concerned with survival, and a lot of Glam Rap is about getting rich from a legitimate music career.

The 2000s version of the genre can be seen as rap's analogue to the unapologetically commercial and hedonistic Hair Metal that dominated the metal scene (and rock music in general) in The '80s, and the antithesis to the old-school hip-hop that came out of that era. The names are even similar — one of the most common alternative names for hair metal (and which happens to be the one in use at The Other Wiki) is "glam metal".

Examples:

• Dr. Dre
• 50 Cent
• Big Daddy Kane
• Ja Rule ^note  He was originally a hardcore gangsta rapper, so this change was very jarring to some people.
• Jay-Z:
  • His song "Big Pimpin"
  • Watch The Throne, his album with Kanye West, was called "luxury rap" by the music press and is mostly about the two men indulging in the billionaire lifestyle.
• Eric B. & Rakim
  • Paid in Full (1987)
• Lil' Kim
• The Lonely Island's "I'm On a Boat" is a parody of this.
• Mars ILL's "Glam Rap" is the trope namer.
• Nelly: He has recorded a number of songs that involving living luxuriously and owning expensive items.
• P. Diddy, of course.
• This was Cash Money Records' whole shtick.
  • Lil Wayne
  • Nicki Minaj
• PSY, especially with his most popular song "Gangnam Style"
• Rick Ross
• The Notorious B.I.G. — primarily a Gangsta Rap artist but has some songs in this genre (due to the encouragement of Sean Combs). "Juicy", his Breakout Hit, is considered a masterpiece of the Glam Rap genre.

Tropes associated with Glam Rap:

• Billionaire Wristband — Watch brags are common.
• Conspicuous Consumption — Basically the entire point of the genre.
• Death by Materialism — While its serious version is a Gangsta Rap trope, funnier Glam Rap songs sometimes throw this in for hyperbolic punchlines about the sheer scale of the wealth involved (rappers wearing so much ice they freeze to death, and so on).
• Gold Digger — The materialistic girlfriend personas used by many female glam rappers.
• Hard Work Fallacy — A common way of justifying the consumption is that the rappers worked that much harder than anyone else, because if they hadn't, they wouldn't be richer than everyone else.
• Meal Ticket — Many a Glam Rap Misogyny Song has been written about the kind of women who go after rich men. But many female glam rappers play characters who see men this way, for laughs.
• Mock Millionaire — It's common that young rappers just starting out write songs full of money brags, because that's what they hear on the radio, while still a broke Burger Fool. Bhad Bhabie in particular was mocked for rapping about owning luxury cars while too young to drive.
• Money Fetish — Some songs are about getting money to the exclusion of the things that can be done with the money.
• Money Song — By definition.
• Only in It for the Money — Many Glam Rappers brag about only making music to get paid, but often with tongue in cheek.
• Rags to Riches — Even if not specifically mentioned in songs, this is the subtext that makes Glam Rap meaningful.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money! — Songs are often about rappers using their cash to get away with outrageous or criminal things... or, sometimes, to do nice things for other people.

Parodies: