Mojo Rising: Cavs vs Timberwolves, Behind the Box Score
February 1, 2017Ohio State football signs one of its best recruiting classes ever
February 2, 2017Hi, Cleveland! How’s everyone doing? Hanging in there? Overwhelmed by Cavs dissention and snow and our country’s current political state? Me too.
In all honesty, I’ve taken to avoiding a lot of social media as of late. I’m (vocally) quite liberal and also incredibly emotionally charged. One too many posts involving the actions and effects of President Cheeto Monster, and I find myself weeping over my iPad. Lately, the Cavs haven’t been there for me to serve as a happy little distraction. It’s just horrible news bite after horrible news bite—with about a foot of snow on top.
Taking a step away from inundating myself with all that awfulness has been pretty wonderful… except when it hasn’t been. I’m talking about the times I miss all the other stuff we come to the internet for: Corgi videos, shocking pregnancy announcements (I see you, Bey), and general, all-around amazing stuff shared by our friends and family members.
Such was the case Tuesday afternoon when a co-worker stopped by my office. “Oh. My. God. Have you seen this?!” she squeaked, laptop in hand. She shared with me then what I’ll share with you now, an interactive infographic that measure who has the largest vocabulary in hip-hop:
It’s important to note that I work in the creative department of a marketing-communications agency. We create infographics every day, and often share amongst ourselves other interesting and inspiring examples we find. Never have I seen anything this cool.
Check the full version here. It’s amazing.
Created by Matt Daniels for Polygraph, the infographic measures how many unique (i.e. different) words were used within 85 rappers’ first 35,000 lyrics. From Daniels:
I used each artist’s first 35,000 lyrics. That way, prolific artists, such as Jay-Z, could be compared to newer artists, such as Drake. 35,000 words covers 3-5 studio albums and EPs. I included mixtapes if the artist was just short of the 35,000 words. Quite a few rappers don’t have enough official material to be included (e.g., Biggie, Kendrick Lamar).
I used a research methodology called token analysis to determine each artist’s vocabulary. Each word is counted once, so pimps, pimp, pimping, and pimpin are four unique words. To avoid issues with apostrophes (e.g., pimpin’ vs. pimpin), they’re removed from the dataset. It still isn’t perfect. Hip hop is full of slang that is hard to transcribe (e.g., shorty vs. shawty), compound words (e.g., king shit), featured vocalists, and repetitive choruses.
Matt Daniels, you are doing the Lord’s work. Not only does he offer the option of viewing the results color-coded by region, Daniels also includes plot points for William Shakespeare and Herman Melville as benchmarks. I know what you’re thinking… what?!
Let’s examine some interesting finds among the rappers measured, from the obscure to the expected to the big surprises:
No. 1 – Aesop Rock
I’ll confess two things immediately: I’ve never heard of Aesop Rock before this, and I’m incredibly uncool. I’m assuming those two facts are intertwined. I was intrigued, though, after reading from Daniels that he had originally excluded Aesop Rock from the study, assuming he was too obscure. The Reddit hip-hop community quickly clamored for Aesop Rock’s inclusion, and they were right—he actually scored so far to the right, Daniels claims that the 40-year-old, Portland-based freestyle rapper would be off the chart.
A sampling from Aesop Rock’s “Daylight,” 2001:
Yoput one up shackle me, not clean logic procreation
I did not invent the wheel I was the crooked spoke adjacent
While the triple sixers lassos keep angels roped in the basement
I walk the block with a halo and a stick poking your patience
Nos. 2, 6, 7, 9, 20, and 23 – Wu-Tang Clan
I think the key finding here is that nobody should challenge the vocabulary of any Wu-Tang Member EVER. Four of the top 10 rankings being given to members of the Wu-Tang collective. Raekwon and Method Man, whose averages are lower than other Wu-Tang members, still exceed most artists in hip-hop. One could assume that, given all the time they spent collaborating, members of Wu-Tang exposed each other to their vocabularies, including new words and ideas, gradually building a more sweeping shared vernacular. Ghostface Killah, I had no idea you were so well read.
Nos. 26 and 33 – Busta Rhymes and Twista
Though more often recognized for their speed, Daniels points out that both Busta and Twista are just as lyrically diverse—if not more so—than many of their peers. Unrelated, but I’ll point out the Busta Rhymes leads all rappers for having been spotted by me at The Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach. He also ranks No. 1 for having his body guard yell at me for taking a photo of him.
A sampling from Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See,” 1997:
Hit you with no delaying so what you sayin yo
Silly with my nine milli, what the deally yo
When I be on the mic yes I do my duty yo
Wild up in the club like we wild in the studio
No. 67, 68, 71, 72, and 83 – Snoop Dogg, 2PAC, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Drake
What I found most interesting about Daniels’ research is what became obvious after spending a little time with it: some of the most popular artists in hip-hop were in the bottom 20 percent for lyric differentiation. As Daniels points out, no one celebrates Lil Wayne for the complexity of his word choices. But I expected other names, especially guys like Yeezy, to rank far above average. No matter what West thinks of himself, however, numbers are like buckets: They don’t lie.
A sampling from Kanye West’s “Touch the Sky,” 2005:
Take ’em back to the plan…
Me and my momma hopped in the U-Haul van.
Any pessimists I ain’t talked to them,
Plus, I ain’t have no phone in my apartment.
No. 85 – DMX
Someone has to come in last, right? I wasn’t super surprised to see good ol’ DMX ranked toward the bottom of the list, but I’m not sure I would have expected him to be dead last. I hadn’t considered it, but Daniels points out that though lyrically simple, DMX’s music is memorable for its “raw energy and honesty,” and I definitely think he’s right. Listen to “Party Up” and don’t find yourself enjoying it, I dare you. And to be honest, when it came to DMX, the only thing I thought about was that Vine of the llama hopping to the beat of “Party Up.”
A sampling from DMX’s “Party Up,” 1999:
Y’all gon’ make me lose my mind
Up in here, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me go all out
Up in here, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me act a FOOL
Up in HERE, up in here
Y’all gon’ make me lose my cool
Up in here, up in here
As we get ready to take on this Thursday, let’s look to the energetic wisdom of DMX for a little motivation, Cleveland. No matter what happens today, don’t lose your mind. Don’t act a fool and definitely, whatever you do, don’t lose your cool. But if you want to go all out? I say go for it.
Have a great day up in here, you guys.
72 Comments
Unless I missed him, I wish Del the Funky Homosapien was included in this. I have to believe he would rank pretty high on this list.
As for Kanye, well, the fact that ICP ranks higher on this list than him is just hilarious to me.
Meh.
Five-dollar words coming out of two-dollar mouths.
What, exactly, makes these 84 individuals “two-dollar”?
I wonder how much Kanye was knocked down on this by the “first 35,000” criteria.
Del absolutely has to be high on the list. I’d venture MC Paul Barman (though I’m guessing he may not crack the 35,000 word threshold) as well. And no Pharoahe Monch?
No consideration to the fact that some of these “artists” don’t write their own lyrics?
https://media.giphy.com/media/dXICCcws9oxxK/giphy.gif
To suggest, based on word count, that any of those “artists” are on par with, or surpass Shakespeare is preposterous.
From the link:
Literary elites love to rep Shakespeare’s vocabulary: across his entire corpus, he uses 28,829 words, suggesting he knew over 100,000 words and arguably had the largest vocabulary, ever.
Note that he used a small subsection of Shakespeare’s works above to narrow the vocabulary focus for better use in the comparison. He is decidedly not stating such.
I’m not big into hip-hop/rap by any means, but writing their own lyrics has always been a principle factor for most of the serious ones.
I’m sure there are many of the pop artists who don’t, but scrolling through the ones on the right I think you’ll find the more serious about their craft.
It is an odd utilization of having different word forms of the same word count as multiples, but there is going to be something inexact into a venture like this one. I applaud the detail.
Probably a bit, but ICP was probably knocked down by it, too. First 35k harkens back to their days of going chicken huntin’ before they started pondering the mysticism of magnets.
If that’s the defining trait of “artist”, then a whole lot of successful/popular/iconic acts would be disqualified across the musical spectrum. I admit that I tend to give more credit to those who do it all themselves, but I’m not going to argue that someone like Sinatra wasn’t an artist.
ICP being ahead of Tupac on this list is Exhibit A of “less is more”. And “It’s Dark and Hell is Hot” remains one of the great albums from its era of rap, lyrical simplicity notwithstanding.
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Hip Hop or Shakespeare? from a TED Talk (https://youtu.be/DSbtkLA3GrY)
1) To destroy the beauty from which one came.
2) Maybe it’s hatred I spew, maybe it’s food for the spirit.
3) Men would rather use their broken weapons than their bare hands.
4) I was not born under a rhyming planet.
5) The most benevolent king communicates through your dreams.
6) Socrates’ philosophies and hypotheses can’t define me.
This makes me very happy to see because GZA is my main guy. His lyrics are TIIIIGHT!!!
Beneath The Surface is amazing.
https://genius.com/Gza-beneath-the-surface-lyrics
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Indeed. It’s such a misconception that rappers don’t write their lyrics down. Of course they do. It’s like the misconception that gangsters rap. They don’t. Except for Eazy-E.
I guess this disqualifies Beethoven as an artist.
7) Cocaine for my breakfast, hold that pistol ambidextrous.
Othello…no, wait: Merchant of Venice!
Well they named the movie after him, but I’d argue that Charles Grodin was the true artist
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“President Cheeto Monster”
Aarrrggh. I’m sure it feels good, but this kind of thing doesn’t help.
My point is: If some kid rapped The Odyssey who gets credit for that vocabulary? The rapper or Homer?
The study author acknowledged that in his methodology at least.
It helps a lot more than Bannon replacing the Joint Chiefs.
We’ll find you a safe space to get over it.
Is the person rapping in ancient Greek? Does Homer deserve credit for vocabulary he never spoke/wrote and wouldn’t understand?
It’s the public relief to be allowed to make fun of the president’s appearance again.
Yes. There’s no perfect way, so detailing the caveats is good.
Homer, of course. But anyone who could figure out how to rap that in an enjoyable way–turn it into something hot for the streets, as the kids (might still) say–would be an artist to me.
Worth noting that Shakespeare has chronically been plagued with accusations of plagiarism. I’m not educated enough to know exactly where that academic debate is at.
The right spent eight years devolving this country’s political process into one of personal attacks and ad hominems, and the current commander-in-chief was at the front of the charge. I find it incredibly rich that anyone on that side needs a safe space from that kind of talk now.
See Richard Prince’s work – and lots of other modern artists – if you’re looking for the re-appropriation of old work. That’s partially what art is.
Not entirely sure comparing Trump to a snack food is quite on the same level as what some folks were likening Obama to for the past 8 years.
I spend enough time watching Fox News – we should try to keep it sports here, right? (for the record, I’m a Tzu-ist).
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Matt Damon played a zooist once. The animals were majestic. As was his hair.
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Methinks the WFNYer doth protest too much.
Where does the article claim that? It’s just purely an exercise in counting words. It’s clear about its (flawed) methodology and makes no judgements about artistic merit.
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If someone could find a way to read me the Odyssey (through rap, country, spoken word, whatever) that I enjoyed I would instantly dub them the greatest artist of all time.
But this infographic is predicated upon a falsehood that all the rappers on the list wrote their own songs.
But it does make judgments and false assertions, it asserts that these rappers have a vocabulary that may or may not be theirs. (Setting aside Shakespeare comparisons). See conversation with B-bo about the Odyssey.
https://waitingfornextyear.com/2017/02/hip-hop-vocabulary-infographic-wu-tang/#comment-3134166584
French author and Prix Goncourt winner Michel Houellebecq used whole, unattributed passages from wikipedia.fr in the book that won him the Goncourt. He didn’t even deny it, saying “this approach, muddling real documents and fiction, as been used by many authors. I have been influenced especially by Perec and Borges”.
If it is in ancient Greek then it is Homer’s vocabulary.
Any other version and the credit goes to the translator.
Question for you: If Busta Rhymes (one of my favorites) recited a verse he memorized in Japanese (which he does not speak) does that count as part of his vocabulary? Because this algorithm would give him credit for it.
Shakespeare used other people’s works too. So get him out of there.
‘Of the incident,’ Trench has said, ‘ there is almost nothing which he does not owe to Plutarch, even as continually he owes the very wording to Sir Thomas North; and he follows up this judgment with so detailed an analysis of the Julius Caesar that I shall not attempt to labour the same ground. As regards Coriolanus, it was noted, even by Pope, ‘that the whole history is exactly followed, and many of the principal speeches exactly copied, from the life of Coriolanus in Plutarch.’
I took the premise to be based simply on the words they used, which does not necessarily demand that they be the writer. At least that’s how I understood the article while reading it. So these results would be representative of their “work vocabulary”, though not necessarily their personal working vocabulary, if that makes any sort of sense. It does in my head, but that doesn’t mean I’m explaining myself well.
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I’ve seen it. None of which has anything to do with artistic merit. If it claims anything, it’s that some of these guys have vocabularies that rival Shakespeare’s. And as I said there, if we’re disqualifying people for using the work of others, Shaky has to be removed as well.
Also, Melville and Moby Dick should be disqualified as many of the passages detailing the technical aspects of whaling were lifted from works by other authors. I think at least Melville attributes them to those authors, though I can’t really remember.
I’m surprised DMX didn’t score higher just based on the variety of dog barks in his songs that must have led to an array of interesting transcriptions.
I agree, as do most of our commenters that words are meaningless and GIF is the preferred defamation tactic.
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Ohhhooo hhoooo….. yeah. the comments.
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