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Rap Stats: Breaking Down The Words in Rap Lyrics Over Time
- davydka 13y agoI think they mean watch as MySpace holds on for dear life, not Twitter.
- jaredandrews 13y agoIs there a way to see what song the word is used in? I'm interested in knowing what hip hop artist was rapping about eBay[0] all the way back in '94. [0] http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=ebay http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=ebay
- ptmx 13y agoI'm also dying to know who was rapping about web development from ~2003-2009: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=html%2C%20javascript http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=html%2C%20javascript
- pinwale 13y agoJust throw the terms in the RapGenius search bar: http://rapgenius.com/search?hide_unexplained_songs=false&q=html%2C+javascript http://rapgenius.com/search?hide_unexplained_songs=false&q=h... Javascript is mentioned in "White & Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic. Also, looks like there are non-songs that are being counted into the rap stats.
- michaelt 13y agoI'd like to see some rap from before champagne overtook ale in popularity: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=champagne,%20ale http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=champagne,%20ale
- Jach 13y agoAnyone found another word that peaks past 0.53%? http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch
- dangerlibrary 13y ago"get" is over .65, and "up" peaks above .7: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch%2C%20get http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch%2C%... http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch%2C%20up http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch%2C%...
- selectout 13y agothe is around 5%
- mauro_oto 13y ago'like' peaks at 1%
- michaelt 13y agohttp://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=a,%20the,%20my,%20in,%20of,%20is,%20be,%20nigga http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=a,%20the,%20my,%20in,%20of,%... nigga gets up near 'be' and 'is' but it's well short of 'a' and 'the' Incidentally: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigger,%20nigga http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigger,%20nigga
- drawkbox 13y agoBasic words do: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=get%2C%20we%2C%20i%2C%20is%2C%20you http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=get%2C%20we%2C%20i%2C%20is%2... I + you is 3%, we and is are close around .5-.8%.
- api 13y agoThe money vs. bitches graph made me LOL.
- dangerlibrary 13y agoI guess it never really took off... http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=smash%2C%20bang%2C%20smang http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=smash%2C%20bang%2C%20smang
- dopamean 13y agoI came here hoping someone searched for smang. Thank you.
- thehigherlife 13y agoAre you guys using Splunk for the data crunching and graph builds?
- muratmutlu 13y agoIf anyones interested - we made http://www.tuner.io http://www.tuner.io at a hackday in SF last year. It reorders the Billboard top 100 based on lyrics, so top 5 songs with the most profanity etc. After the hackday the API access to the services expired, but check it out anyway!
- nathancahill 13y agoAPI access expired? What kind of hackday is that?
- skipchris 13y agowell, i guess that settles it: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=emacs%2Cvim http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=emacs%2Cvim
- byoung2 13y agoSadly, vim matches a lot of Portuguese lyrics: http://rapgenius.com/search?q=vim http://rapgenius.com/search?q=vim
- telephonetemp 13y agoDoes RapGenius index nerdcore lyrics?
- bdon 13y agoNice! What data source are you guys using for song years?
- jsomers 13y agoIt's crowdsourced by our users, and vetted/edited by our moderators (also part of the community).
- ZanderEarth32 13y agoLove this. I had a similar idea a few months ago except I wanted to map the number of times certain popular phrases were mentioned in different rap songs. For example, how many rap songs have the lyric "if it don't make dollars it don't make sense (or cents)"
- emhart 13y agoNice to see them getting back to their roots. :)
- zmitri 13y agoThis is great work. Would be cool to see some songs that contribute to each data point. Eg. I would love to know how much http://rapgenius.com/Migos-versace-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Migos-versace-lyrics and variations contributed to this http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=versace http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=versace
- yardie 13y agoHow did facebook get a bump before 2005? Also, you might want to add blackplanet, migente, and asianavenue to the Social networks graph. I know a few southern rappers were namechecking them before 2005.
- eCa 13y agoFacebooks existed before facebook: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book
- yardie 13y agoFirst time I've heard of this. Then again I went to a land grant university of 25000 undergrads. I'm assuming these are more common at smaller colleges.
- ameoba 13y agoFacebook started at Harvard, a 20k student school. It might be more of a tradition at the old East Coast institutions - growing up on the West Coast, I've never heard any reference to anything of the like.
- walshemj 13y agoWell back in the 70's I had an American teacher and in one 6th form general studies class (on American culture) she mentioned the concept.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- danso 13y agoWow, rappers were surprisingly prescient in predicting the fall of newspapers and the rise of the Internet: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Newspaper%2C%20internet http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Newspaper%2C%20internet
- christoph 13y agoTraditional media still rules though: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=radio,tv,internet http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=radio,tv,internet
- madsushi 13y agoI have always been a big fan of rap vocabulary, and I've already lost an hour poring over different results. What would be amazing would be a cross-reference to the Google Trends results for the same words. You could try to see the difference between cultural events (global) and specific events in the rap community (local) that caused certain words to spike or ebb.
- cing 13y agoI'd like to see a more thorough analysis of "big words" in rap songs. I started manually compiling examples in a blog a while back, http://rapwords.tumblr.com/ http://rapwords.tumblr.com/
- emiljbs 13y agoCheck out the lyrics of Death Grips.
- DotSauce 13y agoWill it ever end? http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Turn%20Up http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Turn%20Up
- BrianEatWorld 13y agoWhere is the chart for "ugh"s (sp?)?
- aestra 13y agoWhat rappers think about video game consoles: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Nintendo%2C%20Xbox%2C%20PlayStation%2C%20Wii%2C%20Sega http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Nintendo%2C%20Xbox%2C%20Play...
- concernedctzn 13y agoThat can't be right, xbox didn't come out until 2001. Might be matching something else?
- jlgreco 13y agoI have to suspect that "Sega" is matching something else too. It is such a thing of the past that I wouldn't have even thought to include it. Searching a little on their site doesn't turn up any obvious alternative usage though... maybe Sega is just easier to rhythm with.
- aestra 13y agoRecent songs that mention Sega: http://rapgenius.com/The-cool-kids-a-little-bit-cooler-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/The-cool-kids-a-little-bit-cooler-lyric... http://rapgenius.com/Snow-tha-product-cookie-cutter-bitches-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Snow-tha-product-cookie-cutter-bitches-... http://rapgenius.com/Logic-30000-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Logic-30000-lyrics
- dmix 13y agoRegarding the NBA chart: "Jordan, Kobe and Lebron": > Rap and professional sports have always gone hand in hand, and we can see the evolution of rappers’ favorite basketball players: "Jordan" keyword for example would more often be used in reference for Nike shoes, so not a direct representation of the sports players popularity. /pedantic rant
- mbrameld 13y agoUsually the shoes are referenced with the plural "Jordans", whereas the player is referenced with the singular "Jordan".
- golergka 13y ago> not a direct representation of the sports players popularity And how exactly did these shoes got their name?
- joenathan 13y agoHow did the Teddy bear get its name? The popularity of plush bears doesn't much reflect the popularity of Theodore Roosevelt.
- rhlahuja 13y agoNot really the same thing. Those bears weren't named after Roosevelt and thus don't reflect his popularity whereas Jordans were clearly named after MJ himself.
- bostonpete 13y ago> Those bears weren't named after Roosevelt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_bear#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_bear#History
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
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- muratmutlu 13y agoSpotify & Napster http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=napster%2C%20spotify http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=napster%2C%20spotify
- kin 13y agoI wish the lyrics distinguish between the word la and the abbreviation L.A. Then I can accurately compare New York vs. L.A. mentions, 'cause no rapper says Los Angeles.
- cgdangelo 13y agoVery cool. I think an interesting feature would be to plot songs along the graph as nodes you could hover over. You could see the artists' and songs' information, maybe the word frequency in those songs. I suppose you could look for radical changes in slope to figure out where to place each node, too.
- ChrisNorstrom 13y agoI never liked rap and I can finally explain my reason: http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=woman%2C%20women%2C%20girl%2C%20ho%2C%20hoes%2C%20bitch http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=woman%2C%20women%2C%20girl%2... And I've heard a lot of rap. My highschool bus driver always played rap on the bus's radio every time we had him as a driver. Honestly, I went to school angry every morning. Similar to how you feel when you try to listen to Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh.
- nilved 13y agoThat isn't a good reason.
- rza 13y agoIf by rap you mean commercial rap, then I don't blame you. But keep in mind rap is a very diverse genre with many hard-working artists, and a large, passionate subculture. You will not hear that on the radio because it doesn't sell, in the same way you don't hear metal, classical, or experimental music on the radio. I hate to say it, but your school bus driver exposed you to very little "rap". Source: I was in the breakdance community for several years, where you'll meet all sorts of wonderful hip-hop heads. And yes, such a thing still exists and it is not the tacky stuff you see in commercials and in movies.
- jlgreco 13y agoI'd love to see the same chart for, say, classic rock.
- CoachRufus87 13y agoDon't paint the remaining 99.7% of wrap with the same brush as that 0.3%.
- eulerphi 13y agoHahaha, what an awful reason. Keep white knighting and see how your life turns out.
- PhasmaFelis 13y ago
- zjgreen 13y agoDemocract vs. Republican Who. Will. Win. http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=democrat%2C%20republican http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=democrat%2C%20republican
- dcre 13y agoReminds me of Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg's talk at Eyeo Festival. They visualized use of body part words across different genres. http://hint.fm/projects/listen/ http://hint.fm/projects/listen/ And here's their talk: http://vimeo.com/69497902 http://vimeo.com/69497902
- yesbabyyes 13y agoThis is great! We actually built something very similar to this for the 2011 Node Knockout, we called it Rapminder (as a nod to Gapminder, and serendipity had it that I met Hans Rosling just outside our office the day before the hackathon). We mined the lyrics from OHHLA [1], matched the metadata from Discogs [2], built a word structure in Redis and drew the graphs with D3. We built it with an eye to Rap Genius, but sadly we haven't kept it online after the Knockout. I'll look into setting it up again. [1] http://ohhla.com/ http://ohhla.com/ [2] http://discogs.com/ http://discogs.com/
- hawkharris 13y agoGangsta rap is like PHP: I enjoy it because I grew up with it, but it's getting hard to defend intellectually.
- Larrikin 13y agoRap is extremely diverse, but why do you even need to defend it? Can't a song just be fun to listen to?
- hawkharris 13y agoHaha. I agree that rap diverse, and I was just having some fun comparing the genre to programming. Setting aside jokes, I've listened to many different types of rap, but I don't like rap that's intellectual. I prefer the mainstream songs about drugs and partying (e.g. Rick Ross and Lil' Wayne) to the songs that try to start a dialogue about social issues (e.g. Common). I'm open to hearing about intellectual issues when I read articles or listen to talk radio, but I really don't like music that tries to make a point because I associate music with entertainment. Interesting how the medium can affect the message on a person to person basis.
- eulerphi 13y agoDoesn't have to be an issue about social issues to not be plain retarded in terms of linguistics. Point in case: Big L. Gangsta rap that had flow and cleverness. Lil Wayne and Rick Ross don't really cut that, but I do love that song 8 Ball by Rick Ross, he's just plain fun to listen to.
- hawkharris 13y agoBig L does have an amazing flow. I put Big Pun in the same category: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiwvPmRTv6M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiwvPmRTv6M Sometimes when I'm stuck in traffic I'll say to myself, "Dead in the middle of little Italy little did we know that we riddled some middle man who didn't do diddly." Girlfriend: "What was that?" Me: "Oh...uhhh..nothing."
- beloch 13y agoMoney and bitches dwarfs pretty much every other thing I've tried, and both are trending upwards. It's nice to see that rap is becoming a deeper, more intelligent genre.
- flycaliguy 13y agoDon't pretend that other genres of popular music would reveal anything more "intelligent".
- zebra 13y agoRock and metal aren't that shallow.
- flycaliguy 13y agoI think for this argument to be sound we have to define what artists would be included. Is it a survey of popular music? All music? There is a lot of intelligent hip hop out there. There is a lot of shallow rock out there. Generalizing about any genre is pointless. Edit: And I put intelligent in quotes because who is to say that using the word money or (less so) bitch even means there is not an intelligent point being made.
- beloch 13y agoI admit I was trolling, but the amount of rap out there that plays into the macho-gangster-materialist-misogynist stereotype is obscene. Decent rap does exist, but gangstacrap still dominates the genre. Other genres of music have their own dominant stereotypes that are equally vapid, but seldom as scummy.
- eulerphi 13y agoI'd agree but there are shades of grey where gangsta rap can actually be quite enlightening to listen to. Big L was very very _hard_ yet still had a real story to tell, and real perspective. Ie. Street Struck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwff61MTOUo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwff61MTOUo
- dmak 13y agoWow, this is really fast. Anyone have insight on how they can provide stats like this so fast? Is it precalculated?
- zalew 13y ago> Lil Wayne wasn't being hyperbolic -- money really is over bitches: But Biggie apparently was wrong http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=money%2Cproblems http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=money%2Cproblems
- RaSoJo 13y agoMoney over bitches..but "The Bitch" over Money!!! O_O http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=bitch%2C%20bitches%2C%20money http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=bitch%2C%20bitches%2C%20mone...