Chopper stunting flexing snitch / Rapper shooter pimping sh*t.

September 25, 2017 9:20 AM

The post title could be the most hip-hop lyric ever. No doubt you've all sat on your stoop on a long summer's evening and wondered... just what is the most hip-hop word? Which specific item of vocab is found more often in hip-hop lyrics than elsewhere? Your ramblings probably started to wander into questions of how the vocabulary of different hip-hop artists and groups compared. Someone obviously segued into the question of hey, how similar are all of the Wu? And of course, one nerd wondered whether Aesop Rock should be considered or if he was an outlier just because he has too many words.
posted by giraffeneckbattle (12 comments total)

This is very well done - presentationally, at least. I can't really speak to their hip-hop and/or machine learning bona fides. Lays out some interesting ground for an up-and-coming youngster to claim some unique lyrical space by spitting rhymes about sailing alone, crying and sighing, broken-hearted, on an empty sea.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:38 AM on September 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

What I'm getting from this is that the least hip-hop genre is old Irish folk songs.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:49 AM on September 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

In addition to being very interesting, this data visualization has quite the sexy interface.
posted by merriment at 10:48 AM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

15 years taking perscriptions
now shrink's like "I dunno maybe get a kitten"

-- Aesop Rock

[content warning: kitten]
posted by Groundhog Week at 11:38 AM on September 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

thank you groundhog week that is the epitome of the internet and I was #blessed to experience it
posted by numaner at 12:20 PM on September 25, 2017

Vanilla Ice
---Most Similar---
Ice-T




hmmm.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:03 PM on September 25, 2017

The list of top 10 central words could be the centre of a fun game for hip-hop heads; reveal words from the top 10 one by one - you get a point for each word you reveal without the other person guessing the name of the artist. For example:
Rhymer... believes... waves... lookout... agent... revolution... terminator... chuck... flav... pe
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 2:08 PM on September 25, 2017

What I'm getting from this is that the least hip-hop genre is old Irish folk songs.

Lyrically, sure. They're not always a million miles apart otherwise.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:19 PM on September 25, 2017

Sigh. I like that they do this work, but each time all it does is make me question the data. Central to KRS's lyrics is "woop"? Really? Or is it just said in Sound of Da Police as the refrain? Ling? Really? It seems they don't take into account words repeated in a refrain. It's so easy to have pitfalls in big data. I love that they try stuff like this, but the results are pretty much always more cool to imagine, than to come up with.

But A+ on the interface absolutely. Could have just been Lorem Ipsum and it would have been just as good of a link, since the content is pretty useless. But I'm just one asshole hip hop head, so whatever.

I don't know why, but in rap and basketball, people try to use big data, and in both cases the assumptions end up being wrong and only marginally useful on their own. But just like in basketball, these analyses will continue, for sure. It is what it is, I guess.
posted by cashman at 3:28 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Central to KRS's lyrics is "woop"? Really?

Yeah, similarly, "aiyo" is central to various members of the Wu... because they say it a lot and other rappers don't as much. What would be really interesting is some thematic analysis, not just particular individual words.

You get some of that from this... Kanye's list of central words includes "celebrity" and "embarrass", Jay-Z's includes "reminder", Chance the Rapper's include "praises" and "wonderful". But for the most part my reaction is more "duh" than "huh that's interesting".
posted by AceRock at 7:59 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Could he be the Vance of Rap?

(I know nothing of Rap and have only read <20% of Vance's output so the above question is probably answerable as "No.")
posted by Homemade Interossiter at 4:02 AM on September 26, 2017

I like the Certificate of Completion. Very official-looking. Suitable for framing!
posted by Bob Regular at 5:23 AM on September 26, 2017