Imagine a database of every word from every recorded rap song. Ever. Well, it is now a reality thanks to Hip-Hop Word Count.
“Who’s the best MC of all time?” Probably the most controversial question in hip hop (depending on who you ask). People can lose friends over questions like that. While there’ll probably never be a definitive answer, a Harvard student has been working his way towards helping the debate along with data. According to Fast Company, “to date, the Hip-Hop Word Count database includes more than 50,000 rap songs from 3,000 artists, from 1979 to the present.” That’s well over a million words. From the data, you can discover interesting information about the rapper, the culture and just how much name dropping they do. You can observe the popularity of products through the ages, for example, as wordplay changes according to pop culture of the time, ie. find out when Jay-Z changed his champagne preference. Rap data rules!