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The largest vocabularies in HipHop | Spoilers: your favorite rapper is mid-tier.
- Thread starter Khalifa Jayy
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Enter the Dragon Punch
Banned
Aw yeah! Sage Francis reppin'!
theignoramus
Member
Where the fuck is Pun? Big L?
Pun should be at or near the top easily.
I'm like the beast with a warrant, far from a law man"
Gave you fair warning, now you on the stairs falling"
Dude is straight up corny. Bronson and GZA win this.
Pun should be at or near the top easily.
I'm like the beast with a warrant, far from a law man"
Gave you fair warning, now you on the stairs falling"
Dude is straight up corny. Bronson and GZA win this.
Aesop Rock established himself as a competent storyteller early in his career with 'Lucy'. Linear, structural integrity is just not where he chooses to level his inclination and I always find it frustrating that people would criticize an artist for not focusing on established elements of the genre just to suit them.
block tower
Member
aesop is one of my favorite mc's so im not mad.
EDIT : the aesop hates funny because he's definitely smart, witty, and talented enough to embarrass a sizable portion of the rappers on that list if they went head to head in a rap battle. if he's not your style that fine, but people trying to say he's no good have no fucking taste or never listened to his work.
EDIT : the aesop hates funny because he's definitely smart, witty, and talented enough to embarrass a sizable portion of the rappers on that list if they went head to head in a rap battle. if he's not your style that fine, but people trying to say he's no good have no fucking taste or never listened to his work.
Gordon Shumway
Banned
My man..
theignoramus
Member
Ive heard like two Aesop songs I can fuck with (Gopher Guts being the standout), the rest of what Ive heard has been gibberish with production that ranges from serviceable to very good. To be fair, other wordsmiths are guilty of verbosity over musicality (RZA's spent his whole fucking career rhyming out of pocket and I cant stand his rapping for that reason), but Aesop is the worst offender by a long shot. Sometimes when I hear him it feels like Im listening to an internet blogger on acid. I understand thats what some people want (and maybe being on drugs unlocks a higher level of understanding of Aesop's shit) but I dont and it annoys me when people list that dude as an example of lyrical sophistication in the rap genre. There's so much better out there and from people who actually flow to a beat.
Sorry, he's just an above average rapper to me. He's outstanding at one element of MCing (words), but he's not charismatic and his rapping technique is sloppy.
Khalifa Jayy
Banned
It's unique words used in their first 35,000 total words.
DivineRage002
Member
Where's Dr. Dre?
bobbychalkers
Member
In Apple headquarters not working on Detox.
morningbus
Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
I think the more egregious omission is MC Paul Barman.
Gordon Shumway
Banned
You know what? You're absolutely right..what an odd omission.
Lil'DigiOp
Member
I think MF Doom got shafted a lil bit, He's high on the list but words that man uses are elaborate.
D
Deleted member 57681
Unconfirmed Member
Knew Del would be right up there.
And lol at that Busta face in the updated one.
And lol at that Busta face in the updated one.
Not necessarily. It's just an interesting study
Spuck-uk
Banned
Daaaaaaamn
I'm always surprised how people get so defensive when lyrical uniqueness comes into discussion with rappers. The last 5 times I've discussed this with people, people usually call people who try to use an expanded vocabulary out as being corny or tryhard.
Not always, but I struggle to see how its, by default, some sort of negative.
Not always, but I struggle to see how its, by default, some sort of negative.
theignoramus
Member
Nobody thinks prime GZA was corny. Nobody thinks Pun was corny. Wordy rappers who come correct on the mic get respect.
sheepishlord
Member
Akala has a brilliant talk on hip-hop and Shakespear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgM-WXr-0gM
He did another one on the evolution of the Emcee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgM-WXr-0gM
He did another one on the evolution of the Emcee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgM-WXr-0gM
Ah OK that explains it.
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
What does this really mean at the end of the day? In the grand scheme of things as far as lyricism, sonically, and content? Nothing much.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Not even a little. It doesn't really translate into anything other than "who is more likely to consult a thesaurus when writing their lyrics."
Vincent Grayson
Member
Oh good, we're trotting out the classic "people with large vocabularies are just using a thesaurus" thing.
Wellington
BAAAALLLINNN'
Haha my man Canibus up there!
Right.
Ghostface is one of my faves and he is high up on the list but there are songs in which he says a lot of things but it's all gibberish. Listen to Apollo Kids off of Supreme Clientele as a prime example. Whatever, it flows, so I like it.
Right.
Ghostface is one of my faves and he is high up on the list but there are songs in which he says a lot of things but it's all gibberish. Listen to Apollo Kids off of Supreme Clientele as a prime example. Whatever, it flows, so I like it.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Going to college rarely translates to "sizeable increase in vocabulary". Likewise NOT going to college doesn't necessarily translate to "smaller vocabulary." If anything, matching these artists by who reads the most would match up much better than going by their educational achievements. A good 2/3 of the artists on this list have never gone to college some not even finishing high school.
I mean GZA barely finished Highschool, but GZA on many interviews has stated how much he loves reading and use to read while on the road during Wu-Tang tours.
breakfuss
Member
Poor attempt at sarcasm on my part. I agree with you with though.
I'm pretty comfortable with where DOOM, Outkast, The Roots, and Redman are.
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
I think an interesting follow-up analysis in the same veins as this should compare rappers to musicians/lyricists in other genres and/or make some averages and compare genres themselves. I think you'd find pop and country woefully below DMX, but at the same time, metal could probably give a lot of the rappers on this list a run for their money, especially particularly wordy bands like Cannibal Corpse.
Woops, my bad. Guess he was one studio album short.
Are you taking requests?
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
~Devil Trigger~
In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
I said GZA even before clicking in
The guy's amazing, the true King of monotone
The guy's amazing, the true King of monotone
DivineRage002
Member
Anyone else noticed how the top 20 is almost entirely east coast?
Herewego.gif.
Herewego.gif.
theignoramus
Member
You goddamn right I dont understand Aesop's shit. His music isnt compelling enough for me to want to try to understand the intricacies of it, assuming there is an internal logic and cohesion to even half of what he spits. But that aint even the point. I dont understand half of what Ghost spits, but that dude is entertaining as fuck as a rap artist. Dude's charisma and mic presence are off the hook. He's also extremely vivid and coherent as a storyteller when he wants to be.
……forgetit
Member
They even put Watsky on the list? Well that's really thorough.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
The whole "Shakespeare knew so many different words!" shit was debunked quite handily by Steven Pinker. He certainly had a large vocabulary, probably a fair bit larger than even most today (and definitely in his own time), but the reality is that even the dumb among us know more words than they realize.
Skillful writing is about deploying words well, not necessarily how many words you use. Notorious B.I.G. was a good rapper because he was a solid storyteller, had a rhythm that was smooth and natural-sounding even when he was doing more technical spitting, and had dope as fuck beats. Vocabulary size doesn't even really come into play.
Skillful writing is about deploying words well, not necessarily how many words you use. Notorious B.I.G. was a good rapper because he was a solid storyteller, had a rhythm that was smooth and natural-sounding even when he was doing more technical spitting, and had dope as fuck beats. Vocabulary size doesn't even really come into play.
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