began to expand even more as hip hop music also began to connect strongly with dance music and R&B. In the early 1990s, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice broke into the mainstream with songs like "U Can't Touch This" and "Ice Ice Baby", respectively. They caused pop rap to be "derided (and, occasionally, taken to court) for its willingness to borrow" from well-known hit singles. Another important moment was the remix of Mariah Carey's 1995 song "Fantasy" with Ol' Dirty Bastard. By the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, rappers such as Ja Rule fused gangsta rap themes with 1980s pop and soul elements; pop rap was dominated by many artists. It then went back into the mainstream with the success of the Black Eyed Peas who had smash singles such as "Where Is the Love?" from their Elephunk album. During the late 2000s and early 2010s, many pop rap artists had emerged such as Drake, will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas, Flo Rida, Pitbull, LMFAO, B.o.B, Nicki Minaj, Macklemore and Wiz Khalifa. Social acceptance Most people who listen to pop rap do not call it pop rap, and consider it as rap. When Spotify introduced the pop rap category in 2019, Twitter users were confused as to what this 'new' genre suggested. Some users were even bewildered when Spotify classified the genre for its users and suggested that they listen to pop rap. Popular American rapper LL Cool J did not embrace the idea of labeling him as the "forefather of pop rap" and tweeted about it in April 2021. Citations Pop music genres Hip hop genres Fusion music genres 1980s in music 1990s in music 2000s in music 2010s in music 2020s in music