Several years ago I had a discussion with my homey Tahir about how you could definitively determine that rap music was in decline as an American art. We talked for hours about the use of language as a socializing culture tool and the complexity of the spoken word in music. I took those discussions and framed them into weblog drops. Tahir took those discussions and developed the Hip-Hop Word Count. Think of the HHWC as a sort of rap music Wikipedia containing all kinds of cross-referenced information on rap songs from 1979 to the present.
Tahir needs our support to help him complete this project. If I can be big enough to allow him to take full credit for this project I figure you can be big enough to pitch in a $5 spot to move this endeavor forward. My dad always told me that if I ever had a good idea to make sure that I had a second one and then a third one. The Hip-Hop Word Count is a good idea. Let’s see this thing thru.
Very interesting– and tho’ on one level it pains me realize ‘this is our music’ (with so much crap included), Tahir totally convinced my this is great social science project.
Some questions that spring to mind:
1) First use of word “Crooklyn” in rap?
2) How many references to Frederick Douglass?
3) How would the best rappers compare to Gil-Scott Heron, Langston Hughes, Lawrence Paul Dunbar etc were we to include their texts in the almanac?
etc etc
Salut!
totally convinced ME this is A great social science project
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
learn to type asswipe
LOL. Obviously we’re BOTH big enough. Thanks for the Drop. I do this for our culture.
Willis this temp login/password will be good til the end of the year. Do the search and report back:
http://staplecrops.com/index.php/hiphop_wordcount/#comment-3980