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A few years back as I chilled in the crib of my homey Tahir he asked me how did I think rap songs could be quantified for their level of craftsmanship. Firstly, rap is all about the word. Fux a flow, swag or anything else that doesn’t deal with the word first and foremost. If a rapper doesn’t have the mastery and command of an extensive vocabulary they aren’t going to be a great emcee. We all know that Rakim is considered one of Hip-Hop’s G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) rappers, but why does he have that distinction while you will hardly ever hear someone give that distinction to 50 Cent?

Tahir took the time to create a database that hosts 50K songs so that you can do the empirical investigation for yourself and see why Rakim, KRS, or whoever you choose is a master lyricist. The Hip-Hop Word Count is the first scholarly attempt at analyzing rap music. You can create graphs and charts from the databases info that expand your knowledge of rap music and the periphery info that the culture contains. Think about doing an actual statistical analysis of Jay-Z compared to Ice Cube, or Eminem?

Start yourself off with the Jay-Z Rap Data Pack. This is the collection of Jay’s entire catalog along with the word counts of each song and all of their relatable information. This is the most comprehensive study you will ever find on rap music. If you really love Hip-Hop this will give you hours of enjoyment as you study the lyrical component of the culture. Will Jay-Z still be considered a G.O.A.T. candidate after you analyze his rhymes? That all depends on what you value in your emcees.

Rap nerdism is the new Star Trek fanboy occupation.

Beam up with the Hip-Hop Word Count.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 10:18 am and is filed under Features. Tags: Eminem, hip hop word count, Ice Cube, Jay-Z, Rakim