Love 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)"
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.
First 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.
Facebook 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.
I 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.
I'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/
Not 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.
Michael Jordan doesn't much factor in, that is why no rappers are wearing his jersey or his number(23). Jordans, the shoes, are mentioned in rap songs because of the status(very expensive and hard to come by) and fashion of the brand, like other brands mentioned in rap, Gucci, Prada, Fendi, etc.. Rappers don't know and don't care about the people who started or who are behind those brands, they are only mentioned for the high status and fashion associated with those brands.
> Rappers don't know and don't care about the people who started or who are behind those brands
This is...incredibly not true. The crossover between basketball and rap and hip-hop is significant and the cultural awareness of, uh, Michael Jordan is certainly there. Kendrick Lamar, Kurtis Blow, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Drake--the group of major rappers who've written songs about Jordan (Lamar) or have written songs that draw heavily from basketball and its history (the rest of that list) is huge.
I see what you are saying, he is acknowledged and recognized as one of the greats, but most probably never even think of him when talking about the shoes. Michael Jordan doesn't much factor in when rappers are talking about Jordans, his person is very separate from the fashion and status the shoes have come to represent.
Very 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.
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.
If 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.
Not trolling, you're assuming that all those words are used in a derogatory manner and discarding the actual content of the music so you can "defend" women. You're a pathetic white knight.
Bahaha. I don't care about rap one way or the other, and neither do you. "White knighting" is just as made up as "fake geek girls" and the Tooth Fairy, and we both know it. Therefore: fuck off, troll.
I do care about hip hop. White knighting is as made up a word, as any words are. You have the mentality that if you bend over to defend women, it will somehow make you more righteous of an individual. Women don't need defending. And those terms can refer to men as well.
Let's just put this in perspective Robert. You're a KFC nerd who plays video games, knows a little programming from modding them, you don't shave your neck, hang out with your cat, and defend women's social justice with respect to rap, through some poor analysis of word frequency on supposedly derogatory "demeaning" words on women. Somehow, hoping this ill-formed sickness of a view, helps women recognize your sentimental romance toward their engendered cause. Ain't gonna happen Jack. Be a man and stop playing internet politics. And lay off the Hollandaise sauce.
Interesting! But far from accurate, I'm afraid. For example, my neck is as smooth as a baby's ass.
But let's do put things in perspective. Don't you have better things to do than try to dox people who disagree with you on Hacker News? I'd like to think we have a higher quality of discourse than that.
96 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 182 ms ] thread"if it don't make dollars it don't make sense (or cents)"
Eg. I would love to know how much http://rapgenius.com/Migos-versace-lyrics and variations contributed to this http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=versace
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.
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Newspaper%2C%20internet
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=radio,tv,internet
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=Nintendo%2C%20Xbox%2C%20Play...
Searching a little on their site doesn't turn up any obvious alternative usage though... maybe Sega is just easier to rhythm with.
http://rapgenius.com/The-cool-kids-a-little-bit-cooler-lyric... http://rapgenius.com/Snow-tha-product-cookie-cutter-bitches-... http://rapgenius.com/Logic-30000-lyrics
> 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
And how exactly did these shoes got their name?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_bear#History
This is...incredibly not true. The crossover between basketball and rap and hip-hop is significant and the cultural awareness of, uh, Michael Jordan is certainly there. Kendrick Lamar, Kurtis Blow, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Drake--the group of major rappers who've written songs about Jordan (Lamar) or have written songs that draw heavily from basketball and its history (the rest of that list) is huge.
Hell I spent $200-$300 4-5 years ago and bought a pair of the Spike Lee Jordans http://images.freshnessmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ai... - I bought them purely for the fashion.
-I never like replying on a subject too much like this; this topic isn't that important, guess I must be bored :-/
http://rapgenius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-wing-lyrics
[0] http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=ebay
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=html%2C%20javascript
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.
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=champagne,%20ale
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch%2C%...
http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=nigga%2C%20yo%2C%20bitch%2C%...
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=smash%2C%20bang%2C%20smang
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!
Then I can accurately compare New York vs. L.A. mentions, 'cause no rapper says Los Angeles.
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.
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.
Let's just put this in perspective Robert. You're a KFC nerd who plays video games, knows a little programming from modding them, you don't shave your neck, hang out with your cat, and defend women's social justice with respect to rap, through some poor analysis of word frequency on supposedly derogatory "demeaning" words on women. Somehow, hoping this ill-formed sickness of a view, helps women recognize your sentimental romance toward their engendered cause. Ain't gonna happen Jack. Be a man and stop playing internet politics. And lay off the Hollandaise sauce.
But let's do put things in perspective. Don't you have better things to do than try to dox people who disagree with you on Hacker News? I'd like to think we have a higher quality of discourse than that.