Rap Research Lab: Student Research
The Rap Research Lab is a place for teaching art, design, data analysis and data visualisation to students using a project based curriculum that visualizes Hip Hop as a cultural indicator.
Crime Rates versus Crime Lyrics by Emmanuel Khodra
After the persistent media coverage about rap lyrics being used as evidence in trials, I decided that it would be beneficial to map crimes mentioned in rap lyrics against crime rates across the country. The study would provide insight into whether there was any correlation between lyrics that involved crime and the crimes themselves. Many people have associated rap lyrics with rising crime rates, suggesting that the genre is violent in nature. However, during my research, I stumbled upon an article on The Wire that described the opposite. The article describes that as hip hop became more popular, crime decreased. I centered my project around investigating this trend and its legitimacy.
The 8 Different Types Of N-Word by Gabriel Willoughby
In Rap Music’s long history the use of the “N” word has increased as time moved on. Before a certain time the word was used to insult Black people and to decrease their motivation. In our generation the “N” word has transformed into a word of endearment.
When the rapper YG came out with his brand new single “My Nigga” it was controversial due to the overwhelming use of the “N” word 158 times.
YG is quoted saying “The word is based off of friendship. When you say the ‘n-word’, ‘that’s my n-word,’ you saying ‘that’s my homie.’” This seems to be a popular trend in Rap music and made me question if the word is really used as a term of endearment.
My project uses YG’s music as a sample to understand the different types of the “N” word use in Rap. To do this I used Clarence Major’s definitions from the essay “Types Of Niggers” for a comparison.
New York City’s Most Successful Borough By Nonye Irozuru
During my time at the Rap Research Lab I have been working on researching which borough has the most successful rappers in New York City. I determined this by categorizing the rappers’ twitter followers, net worth, albums, record sales, endorsements, court appearances, years it took to get signed (from when first active), reality (fact vs. fiction), and total concerts.
I started this project by choosing the rappers I was going to use to represent the borough they came from. Then I made a spreadsheet on google drive of the rapper’s data, soon after I then transferred that data to Microsoft Excel. When the data was prepared I visualized it as parallel coordinates. Then I brought the charted data into adobe illustrator and made a 3D shape that represents the rapper 50 Cent.
Negativity Trait Comparisons (Brooklyn and Compton) by Emmanuel Khodra
My second project investigated positivity and negativity traits between Brooklyn and Compton through sentiment analysis of lyrics. I took the most popular artists in both regions in the 90s and 2000s and analyzed their music through the sentiment analysis. My goal was to see which city was more positive and whether each city had gotten more positive. I took inspiration for this project after seeing Tahir’s sentiment analysis of popular rappers. My results were very surprising. Brooklyn was more positive than Compton in the 90’s but is now more negative than Compton. Of the artists researched, Jay Z was the most positive rapper with only 74 percent of his music being negative. The highest, on the other hand, was NWA with 100% of their music being negative. It seems that despite Brooklyn’s dropping crime rates, their music has gotten sadder. Compton’s music also became more negative over time.
An Analysis of the F-Word In Rap: Understanding N.W.A. By Tremayne Baker
While reviewing the data I came across the fact that the 1980’s had the highest uses of the f-word as an intensifier and that is because of the rap group N.W.A. This lead to the side poster project of “Understanding N.W.A”. “Understanding N.W.A” is inspired by the “Understanding Shakespeare” project where the verses in each rap that contained the word fuck are singled out and the word fuck is color coordinated based on the content which it is used. The result of the project gives the public a view of how N.W.A uses the word fuck.
The Rapper Popularity Calculator by Edwin DeJesus
The Rapper Popularity Calculator is a measurement tool developed by Edwin DeJesus in association with Tahir Hemphill @ staplecrops.com
This tool has two purposes:
- To prove that net worth does not necessarily equate to fame
- To develop a standardized system of measurement for a rapper’s (or other types of artists) fame based on a variety of aspects involving personal statistics and social media.
An Analysis of the F-Word In Rap By Tremayne Baker
The word fuck first made its appearance during the 15th century in a satirical poem that takes aim at Carmelite friars of Cambridge. Even though the letters “F, U, C, K” aren’t exactly used that is due to the fact the poem is written with a mixture of Latin and English. According to Oxford Dictionary the word fuck is defined as “to have sexual intercourse or to ruin or damage something”. It is also known as “an act of sexual intercourse or a sexual partner.” But with new definitions and usages for the word fuck it is no longer singled out as a simple noun or verb. It now spreads across the parts of speech (P.O.S) spectrum becoming anything and everything.
Hip Hop & Hydro: An Interactive Map of Cannabis Strains Mentioned in Rap Music by Edwin DeJesus
This map traces the progression of Cannabis strain mentions in Hip Hop music. Data taken from The Hip Hop Word Count database was used to pinpoint the location and time any rapper has ever mentioned a specific strain of cannabis between 1987-2010. It is an interactive map which allows the user to scroll and zoom across a satellite of the world into any city. One observation made in the map is the uprising of Hydro after its initial distribution in the 1990s. Strains range from Chocolate Thai stick to White Widow, with rappers such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z included.