Anyone who writes enough explanations gets access.
A crime noir exposé surfaced on the site attributing blame to a group who infiltrated the community with the express purpose of making it look bad. Rap Genius recently came under fire for racially insensitive remarks posted to a private editor chat room. OHHLA doesn't have Kendrick Lamar, and he's the hottest shit on the site right now by far. That's how I would memorize raps! Regardless of all of the motion in the ocean, Rap Genius is on the new shit. I was hooked on that site when I was a kid. We have complex formatting, and we try to bitch about how the lyrics are transcribed.
#Stay awake lyrics rap genius archive#
How do you respond to accusations that your site lifted portions of its database of lyrics from the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive ?įans put up lyrics, and a lot of times for older shit, they cut and paste. What would be more problematic would be some artist like Weezy or somebody shouting out Pepsi on the site, since I think sugar is the devil. What if you give a shout-out to Ciroc in your verified explanation? How much do you think Ciroc would pay Kanye to casually shout them out in verified Rap Genius explanations of his dopest lyrics? Rap Genius could be a major tool for convincing college kids to drink more Ciroc, which is a cause I believe in, and we can all eat then. I think artists will get paid off Rap Genius, though. Half the time they're not even correct, so who knows what the royalty would be? It probably wouldn't be much. Īre any of these artists being paid royalties for the use of their lyrics?
Rap Genius explanations are often quite complex. The site is an academic hip-hop community. The site is the opposite of me in many respects. However, I don't think it is true of the site. Well, when we started it, there was an element of cultural tourism. Are you willing to accept that there are people who find it insulting, whether it comes from a place of respect or not? What about the Rap Genius approach to explaining hip-hop lyrics sets it apart from the more flippantly academic ebonics translations of an Understand Rap? If there's an admitted element of cultural tourism to your site's exegesis of rap lyrics. Browne than the racist ones like Gobineau, inventor of the word "Semitic", who was the Understand Rap of orientalism Rap Genius is orientalism, but it is more akin to the OG orientalists like Lawrence of Arabia and Edward G. There is a sophistry element to Rap Genius, but we are cognizant of that. The actual answer is that Rap Genius doesn't belong to me. īut the Iranian descent argument I always make is not a good answer. Even the Asians will stunt on you and cut you off in the school parking lot. That's the best part about being Persian: you get your ass beat by black kids & white kids. In junior high and high school I was called "sand nigger" by white kids who would beat my ass. How does you not being white absolve Rap Genius of claims of exploitation? You've responded by stressing your Iranian descent. It's not necessarily age that makes one a "'90s blogger." A lot of younger people are also in tune with the '90s.ĭetractors have written Rap Genius off as a platform for the ironic appropriation of black slang and culture, "white devil sophistry," as Das Racist quipped. Modern hip-hop is a war of attrition between older fans' traditional values and younger fans' looser tastes and embrace of new technology, but it seems a little disingenuous to chalk up people's reservations about Rap Genius to old heads being trapped in the '90s. Rap Genius is more on-point for contemporary hip-hop. MAHBOD MOGHADAM: The bloggers who have problems with Rap Genius are obsessed with the '90s. What do you think is rubbing them the wrong way? Many have weighed in on the Rap Genius phenomenon this month, and they haven't all been kind. NOISEY: You've been the talk of the hip-hop quadrant of the internet for weeks. I caught up with Mahbod to discuss his motives and his haters, and then annotated the whole shebang because I thought he might appreciate it. Rap Genius remains resolute in its mission of demystifying rap lyrics and has recently begun expanding its body of annotated works to include law documents, famous speeches, religious texts, and other genres of music. With $15 million in the bank and rappers steadily joining the movement, Mahbod doesn't need the approval of the hip-hop blog establishment. He uses the company Twitter account as his own, chatting with rappers and site members, hitting on girls, and engaging in flame wars with naysayers.
Mahbod is his site's biggest defender and its chief provocateur.
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