Death rap (aka. horrorcore) defines a style of hip hop music that focuses primarily around horror-influenced topics that can include cannibalism, suicide, murder and rape. The lyrics are often inspired by horror movies over moody, hardcore beats. According to rapper Mars, “If you take Stephen King or Wes Craven and you throw them on a rap beat, that’s who I am.” Horrorcore was described by Entertainment Weekly in 1995 as a “blend of hardcore rap and bloodthirsty metal.” The lyrical content of horrorcore is sometimes described as being similar to that of death metal, and some have referred to the genre as death rap. Horrorcore artists often feature dark imagery in their music videos and base musical elements of songs upon horror film scores.

It can also be used to describe death metal mixed with hip hop, such as the Six Feet Under song One Bullet Left, which features rapper Ice T.