In March, Music Feeds reported on the folks from Priceonominics Data Services, who’d managed to quantify just how indie or non-indie an album is to create what they called the ‘Hipster Music Index‘. Now once again with the power of statistics, we can uncover the biggest vocabulary in rap.
To discover just who has the greatest gift of the gab in the game where gab is everything, data scientist and rap fan Matt Daniels examined the lyrics of 85 hip-hop artists, ranked them, and then turned his dataset into an interactive visualisation, which readers can check out at his website.
Daniels wrote that while the literary elites gush about Shakespeare‘s colossal vocabulary, he decided to compare The Bard’s legendary output to some of the most famous artists in hip-hop, using each artist’s first 35,000 lyrics so that prolific artists like Jay-Z could be compared to newbies.
For artists that didn’t quite make 35,000 words — which ought to cover 3-5 studio albums and EPs — Daniels included mixtapes. Quite a few famous rappers, including Biggie Smalls and Kendrick Lamar, did not have sufficient material to be included. Readers can see who nabbed #1 below.
Gallery: The Largest Vocabulary In Hip-Hop — Facts & Figures
Rap Vocabulary Facts
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Tupac
Some of the biggest names in hip-hop were actually ranked in the bottom 20%, including the legendary Tupac Shakur (3,970), Snoop Dogg (3,974), self-described genius Kanye West (3,982), and Lil Wayne (3,743). -
Aesop Rock 3
Long Island-born rapper Aesop Rock has the largest vocabulary in hip-hop at 7,392 words, according to Daniels' dataset. In fact, his datapoint is so far to the right, technically he's off the scale! Interesting to note is that Daniels originally intended to leave him off the chart as he thought he was too obscure. His place was cemented thanks to an uproar on Reddit. -
DMX
The rapper with the lowest vocabulary, meanwhile, is DMX with 3,214 original words. Of course, a lack of vocabulary doesn't take away from X's infamous stage presence, his intensity, and his commanding rasp. -
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Lil Kim is the highest ranking female with 4,474 words, which is around the average for most rappers. She's followed by young gun Nicki Minaj (4,162), while Salt-n-Pepa (3,612) were the lowest-ranking female artists of those tallied. -
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We were all blown away by the "supersonic speed" verse in 'Rap God' but obsessive wordsmith and arguably the most popular rapper of all time Eminem sits comfortably smack dab in the middle of hip-hop's vocabulary bell curve with just 4,494 words. -
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Meanwhile, those lucky enough to be seeing Atlanta legends Outkast at Splendour In The Grass this July will see the duo spit some of the 5,212 words they've recorded, making them the highest-ranking Southern rap act. -
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Interesting to note is the number of artists who actually outrank the man who had a considerable hand in shaping the English language itself, with 15 rappers ranking higher than William Shakespeare and three ranking higher than Herman Melville. -
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Five members of the Wu-Tang Clan made the tally -- GZA, RZA, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Method Man -- with the group itself ranked sixth and three of its members ranking in the top 10. -
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Counting only the members' solo albums, GZA, at 6,426 words is highest ranked Wu-Tang Clan member, while Method Man is the lowest with 4,951 original words, though he still sits towards the right end of the bell curve. Either way, Wu-Tang Clan definitely ain't nuthing ta fuck wit. -
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When looking at the group's output as the Wu-Tang Clan, Raekwon did most of the heavy lifting, providing 17.8% of their lyrics. -
Busta Rhymes 5
Interesting to note is that while notoriously impenetrable rhymer Busta Rhymes is renowned for his rapid-fire rapping style, at 4,839 words, his vocabulary actually falls in the average range for rappers. -
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And just like Shakespeare, who invented turns of phrase and slang we still use on a daily basis, E-40 -- who allegedly invented 'all good', 'shizzle', and 'you feel me' -- still gets outranked by Redman, taking the 15th spot with 5,207 words.
