A Beginner's Guide to EDM From a Rap Fan's Perspective

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What You Need to Know: One of the most important genres in dance music, born from the dance scene post-disco.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Zedd - "Clarity"

Artists You Should Check: Zedd, Breach, Gorgon City

House music started in Chicago, IL, as a name for the music played at this club called The Warehouse. It was basically the evolution of disco music, and is one of the most common forms of dance music. If you're old enough to remember tracks like "Percolator," or the Jungle Brothers' "I'll House You," those are examples of house music from back in the day. House sounds different these days, with tracks either going down the more "electro house" realm with huge pop hits like Zedd's "Clarity" or the more club-banging sounds like Breach's "Jack," which is one of the biggest songs of 2013.

What You Need to Know: This genre will either have you hooked with it's intensity or annoy the shit out of you.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Skrillex's remix of "Cinema" by Benny Benassi

Artists You Should Check: Kutz, Benga, J:Kenzo

When Skrillex first came out, he made a name for himself with dubstep music. Running at 140BPM, it sounds a lot like hip-hop at 70BPM, aka shit that's kind of slow. You'd actually be surprised at how easily some of the more trippy dubstep tracks fit when mixed with rap lyrics, to the point where some DJs like DJ Paul from Three 6 Mafia or DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill dipped into dubstep, to varying degrees of success. A$AP Rocky put the Skrillex-produced "Wild For The Night" on his debut album, and that's a perfect example of a dubstep track, although most of the shit that people associate with dubstep have freakier sounds, and at times the bassline can be all over the place, sounding like you threw a toaster into the dryer and hit the button.

What You Need to Know: This genre sounds like rap you've already heard (and love).

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Baauer - Harlem Shake" / Major Lazer - "Original Don (Flosstradamus Remix)"

Artists You Should Know: Baauer, UZ, RL Grime

Um, if you love rap, you already know what trap sounds like. The sound of Southern hip-hop acts like Rick Ross, Waka Flocka, Gucci Mane, and T.I. are practically the basis of the trap music in the EDM scene. It's all about the 808, and the beginnings of what these EDM cats call "trap" was full of samples from some of your favorite Trap-A-Holics mixtapes. Diplo and his Mad Decent label were instrumental in putting trap on the map, with Flosstradamus being a key component with their remix of Major Lazer's "Original Don." The structure of EDM's trap scene is a bit different, as they incorporate a lot of the chrods and structure of dance music, with the build-ups and club-ready chords, but once that shit drops, it's just like something T.I. would spit on... without T.I.. These days, producers like araabMUZIK and Double-0 (from Kidz in the Hall) are examples of producers from the rap world getting some trap shine, with everyone from Just Blaze to Play-N-Skillz doing their thing as well.

What You Need to Know: Trance is one of the stereotypical sounds of "drug-induced raves."

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Darude - "Sandstorm"

Artists You Should Check: Above & Beyond, BT

If you think about the music you're likely to hear at a rave, it's either house music or trance. Trance is the shit that Tiesto got famous off of, and it's name is a great definition of what it sounds like: being put into a trance.

What You Need to Know: This UK form of breakbeat-heavy dance music is closer to hip-hop than you might realize.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Roni Size - "Brown Paper Bag"

Artists You Should Check: Rockwell, Calyx & Teebee

Are you a fan of The Roots? Do you remember their song "You Got Me?" There was that part in the end where the drums speed up, but everything else is pretty much at the same tempo? That's what drum & bass is. Born in the UK, drum & bass was the evolution of the UK hardcore sound, but with edited breakbeats (you know, the shit b-boys would get down to before people discovered drum machines) thrown into the mix. With tempos ranging from 160-180BPMs, drum & bass sounds faster, but for DJs who know how tempos work, you're essentially working with hip-hop with way more oomph. That takes care of the drums, though; one of the other components of drum & bass is the reggae/dancehall roots that many of the creators of this sound grew up with. They started playing with frequencies, crafting bass that you could feel in the middle of your chest, and with such an emphasis on the drums and the bass, the name stuck. Many hip-hop MCs have dabbled in this genre, including KRS-One, Redman, Bahamadia, Method Man, and others, and many of the world champion battle DJs started dabbling in the sound, from DJ Q-Bert to DJ Craze, who had a pretty strong run within the scene for a few years.

What You Need to Know: It started in Detroit, went global, and is still one of the biggest genres in electronic music.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Cybotron - "Clear"

Artists You Should Check: Richie Hawtin, Redshape

Chicago is the home of house music, but not too far away from there, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May were in Detroit crafting the sound that's now known as techno. You know how "Planet Rock" sampled Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express?" That song also influenced DJs in Detroit to take a more soulful approach to the emerging electronic sound at the time. If you remember Missy Elliott's "Lose Control," Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back," or Danny Brown's "Whatupdoe," you've heard some pretty solid samples from the world of techno.

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What You Need to Know: Moombahton is a combination of Dutch house and reggaeton. Seriously.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Major Lazer's "Watch Out For This (Bumaye)"

Artists You Should Check: Munchi, Nadastrom, DJ Sabo

You remember the moombahton craze, right? N.O.R.E. with the "Oye Mi Cante" and all that, Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina?" Well, that sound was blended with an Afrojack remix of a track called "Moombah" and BLAM, an entirely new genre was born. With labels like Mad Decent and T&A Records hopping on the sound early, the style grew rapidly as producers and DJs started remixing all kinds of tracks into moombahton bangers. If you're a fan of Azealia Banks, her track "Esta Noche" (which ended up not being put out as a single due to conflicts with the track's producer, moombahton pioneer Munchi) is a prime example of the sexy moombahton style.

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What You Need to Know: This sounds like music a cheerleader squad (or a stripper) would get hype to.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: DJ Snake's "Bird Machine"

Artists You Should Check: TWRK, DJ Snake

Oh, you thought twerking was just a dance that jumped from the strip clubs to Miley Cyrus' hot pants, huh? There's actually been a surge of tracks that sound oddly enough like uptempo records from the '90s, things you'd hear Uncle Luke make to blast at the Freaknik. It's really just the EDM form of trap music, but at around 100BPM to give it a faster pace. Guys like DJ Snake, who did some production on Lady Gaga's album and recently scored production credits in commercials for Target and Radio Shack, is a prime example of this new scene.

What You Need to Know: It might sound annoying, but hardstyle is poised to be the next big thing in American EDM.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Ralph Novell - "Back" (or something that sounds eeriely familiar)

Artists You Should Check: Headhunterz, Wildstylez

We're not sure too many rap fans will be trying to mess with hardstyle. This genre has evolved from the hardcore sounds of European dance music, with emphasis on the "hard." The four-to-the-floor kicks bear huge bass and oomph, with wild melodies thrown over top. It's been the rage in Europe for a while, and one of the early examples of it coming to America was on Flosstradamus' X release from 2012, where they sampled a number of hardstyle producers' material for their trap tracks... those melodies are catchy as hell, we must admit.

What You Need to Know: One of the hottest scenes in the UK underground, taking the bright sounds of UK garage into darker territories, both lyrically and sonically.

Tracks You've Probably Heard: Dizzee Rascal - "Fix Up, Look Sharp"

Artists You Should Check: Darq E Freaker, Wiley, Footsie

Grime is a mixture of a number of different sounds. It can be pretty agressive, and is one of the driving forces of the UK underground scene. Fans of Danny Brown have heard him spit over grime a few times, from 2012's "Blueberry (Pills & Cocaine)" to the recently-leaked "Hand Stand" from his forthcoming album, Old. Previously, one of grime's superstars was Dizzee Rascal, who you definitely heard working with the likes of Bun B and El-P over the last decade.