The multi-talented poet and musician was spot on with his reasoning, covering every nation and some of the all-time greats in the process. We’re just two days away from kick-off and we’re getting excited. We already compiled a playlist to get you into the mood but now we have some more music-related football content for your enjoyment. Musa Okwonga is a modern polymath (“poet, author,…
Vox asked some of the greatest rappers ever how they made rhymes. We featured a Vox analysis on our sister site, Cultureface, a few days ago and now they return for more. But this time it’s all about rapping. How do the finest rappers ever to grace the mic come up with their rhymes? Emcees such as Rakim, DOOM and Biggie get their rhymes studied…
A group of Finnish programmers have come up with “DeepBeat”, an algorithmic program that learns how to rhyme based on the analysis of nearly 10,000 songs. It’s unlikely to generate the words of Shakespeare or Rakim, but DeepBeat could give you some “rhymespiration”. The machine-learning algorithm has been cultivated by a team of computer scientists from Finland and what makes it particularly unique is its…
We interviewed Philly’s Davu Flint about his musical upbringing, how his home state has moulded his music and another life as an international gigolo. Of all the social media I use, Facebook is arguably the worst for content that doesn’t make me want to throw my laptop out of my bedroom window. However, I’ve done my best to surround myself with like-minded individuals and music…
Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang star in a video for Ice Cube’s classic Ghetto Bird. There was Barney rapping to Tupac and Barney rapping to Ludacris and the Muppets jamming to the Beastie Boys but now the folks at Sesame Street have lent their talents to another fine piece of hip hop work thanks to BENITOLOCO (aka Benoit Neuveglise), a London-based producer. The song in…
Data scientist Matt Daniels has examined rappers and their lexicon and discovers who has the largest vocabulary in hip hop. It’s fair to say words play a pivotal role in hip hop music. Contexts have changed over the years but you just can’t beat a fine example of wordplay, no matter what the topic and a data scientist named Matt Daniels has used this as…
We interviewed hip hop duo Latyrx. A sixteen year gap between albums isn’t that common within the realms of hip hop but for Latyrx, the timing was perfect to drop their sophomore offering, The Second Album. We caught up with Lateef and discussed what the reasons for the “hiatus” and what we should expect from the album. Sampleface: Some of our readers might not have…
Hip hop hasn’t always had a harmonious relationship with the F word – feminism – but where does it stand now and is it any better in other genres? Taytula Burke ponders on the subject. I’ve been a fan of hip hop ever since I made my debut on this planet. No other genre of music is able to quench my thirst for intricate wordplay…
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…
If hip-hop were personified by a Pokémon, it’d probably be Geodude: it’s decent but not all that impressive at first… and then it evolves. Before you know it, you’ve got a massive beast to contend with and everyone’s trying to be down with that tough stuff Onyx is coming with. However, I get the impression that hip-hop has devolved since then. I’m constantly seeing terrible-to-mediocre emcees spitting their…
