Rap Music Analysis – The 23 Most Repetitive Rappers

There is a lot of debate over some rappers being boring, and, more specifically, about which rappers are overly repetitive, tedious, or monotonous in their melodies. In order to get to the bottom of this question, I did a statistical study of rap lyrics transcription databases that I found online. The chart below measures what rappers in those databases repeat the same words the most often. (This chart is actually an index, a statistical concept that gets its own in-depth explanation on Wikipedia here.) As the statistician who generated this data for me told me: “‘Repetitiveness’ is an algorithm I hand rolled to use on this data. It’s similar to vocabulary density, but uses ngrams instead of individual words. I think it gives a really meaningful metric. I got the idea when I saw this meme comparing Beyonce to Freddie Mercury.”

I used Excel to create the visualization. The data analyst got the raw material from crawling popular lyrics websites. To start, here is the data on how many words and how many songs the data was compiled for each artist, so you can decide how big the sample size should be:

 

And, without further ado…the 23 most repetitive rappers in the game today! Here you go…and if you like these ones, you’d also probably enjoy my 2 most popular articles. One of them is on Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid, m.A.A.d city” album here, and the other one has the title “Is Nas The Best Technical Rapper Ever…By Far?,” which you can read here.

 

 

 

Perhaps not surprisingly, I haven’t analyzed many of the rappers on this list. Once exception is Snoop Dogg, though, and another is Kanye West. You can read my analysis of Snoop Dogg here, or my one on Kanye West here.

Thanks guys!

-Martin

**I also want to thank everyone who helped this article spread. It went on a worldwide tour of my hometown HipHopDX (thanks to Danielle Harling), as well as XXLBETPigeons and Planes (thanks to Graham Corrigan), Complex (thanks to Justin Davis), and even a translation into French (thanks to French Montana.) If you like these articles, and want to see more, feel free to like the Composer’s Corner facebook page.

Martin Connor is a music teacher & writer from Philadelphia, PA, with a music degree of high distinction from Duke University who is currently studying for a master’s degree at Brandeis University in Boston, MA, while focusing his research on the vocal melodies of the rap genre. He has contributed freelance articles to HipHopDX, Complex, and Pigeons and Planes, and had multiple articles from his website, www.RapAnalysis.com go viral on BET, The Source, XXL, and MTV. He teaches rap lessons online through the music school LessonFace, and has a book, The Artistry Of Rap Music, forthcoming from the McFarland Publishing House, scheduled for release in late 2017, as a follow-up to his 2014 contribution to their anthology "Eminem & Rap, Poetry, Race." He welcomes all comments, compliments, insults, and restaurant suggestions at [email protected].

15 Comments

  1. Hey,

    First off, I just wanted to commend you on your site. It really provides a whole new perspective in how to view rap. I noticed that you analyzed a few of Wayne's songs. I wanted t get your opinion on the technical aspects of a few of his old verses (from the Lights Out album and Sqad Up mixtape:

    Got to get it grinding
    Got to get it for the sake of cake
    Never fake – I bet I’ll kill you for the sake of sake
    Young and full of ambition like whatever it takes
    Never a day a snake make me/break me, I’m too thorough (whoah)
    You no see tomorrow if you try it (no!)
    Youngn’ wrap up the game – I two-tied it
    I move silent, like gangstas and mobbers
    Murderers and robbers relate to my problems
    This take all the way back to the days I was starvin’
    Caged in apartment, younging Country-Cajun from blazing New Orleans
    Raised in the part, where the crazies where caught
    Base babies, and cases over babies were fought – (woah!)
    But not in court, but in the middle of the court – so pull up a seat, (ok)
    Watch a bitch get beat until her fetus’ at her feet
    This is only for the streets, I am only from the streets!
    Came in the game with them ponies on my feet, (okay?)
    Now I’m trading lanes with the chromies on the jeep, (arrr!)
    Just the homey, I ain't deep
    No phony in me
    I vow in holy matrimony with the heat, (I do)
    Little whodie act a donkey with the piece, (I do)
    Spent all my change paying dues, I’m at peace
    And right when it seemed that the team was in defeat, (ok?)
    I snatched the ball from cousin, beat the buzzer by 3, now the buzz is over me, (ok!)
    And Dizzy, Nut, and Slim
    And I won’t stop ‘till Sqad Up and the buzz is over them
    I Say – I won’t stop ‘till Sqad Up and the buzz is over them (nigga…)
    Sqad Up

    Shit’s locked, click clack man
    Check me…
    They say I’m too young to know about the shit I be talking about
    See that’s the type of shit I be talking about
    But fuck the world and what they talking about
    If you ain't talking about this, then you aren't talking about shit
    Listen, I got a quarter of block
    I stretch it, let it harden and rock
    Then show the hood what a bargain about
    -Fuck
    I got shop I call it stock
    But not on Wall Street, I put this shit on Ya’ll Street so ya’’ll ???
    Word to the highest above –
    If so happens my raps don’t fly I’ll flip pies and such
    Use my, school knowledge, mix science with drugs
    And I’m smart enough to know that I’m going to die as a thug
    Nigga life’s nothing but getting high off the bud
    Cause after that I feel like I could just die in love
    For the streets: I got dying love
    Two tear drops are crying for, all my dying thugs
    Embrace my pistol, with their lying hugs
    Keep trying, your lying in blood
    Man nigga, I breathe Iron man
    My heart pumps lion blood
    And when I roar, I grow wings and soar high above –
    Birdman, Jr. in the skies above
    The turbulence in the air make my tires rub
    "I’m about to drop down Phe, Line me Up"
    Perfect landing like (whistle) boom!
    High, what's up?

    You can find me on the corner with stones, quarters and zones
    or dope and powder broke, and our sale's soap and flour
    And most of our customers come up to us daily
    Yet and still I cut this stuff crazy – a hustler, baby
    What can I give you? I distribute ki's to the kings and oz's to the fiends,
    and ecstasy and weed to the teens
    You need to see Wheez – anything you like and I have 'em
    From crack to Viagra, and Vicadins valiums
    I'm the nigga they point to when you hit my av
    So get all your money together, come and get my slabs
    I get my cash, put some aside, and flip like half
    And still enough for me to TV and deep-dish my Nav'
    And you can tell the law that I say they can kiss my acid
    For the white people, when I get two bricks for ten, I know the right people
    And I keep a nine on my waistline
    And I'ma be right on the corner, wodie – I'm gonna grind

  2. Can you please elaborate on the formula used? Also, what songs were sampled? Are these songs spanning a whole artist's career — from early mixtapes to big label releases? It's a cool concept, but I'm skeptical of the results.

  3. "This chart measures what rappers repeat the same words the most."

    Have you counted in "confounding variables" such as

    1. Emcees who are lyrical and use a lot of wordplay (such as B.o.b, Snoop, Cube, Nicki, Luda, Mase, Jeezy) tend to repeat themselves (like many other emcees I'm surprised you didn't mention in the same manner)

    2. Some I listed do not have the biggest discographies (such as Em, Wayne, Hov, Nas) who actually repeat themselves, way more as they have a ton of material.

    3. This is clearly biased and chooses Mainstream or rappers from the past who were Mainstream, you don't like, mixing them with those they shouldn't even be compared to.

  4. Very interesting!

    Quick question, do you have an opinion on Mick Jenkins? His flow is unique and very interesting to me. I personally thought that The Water[s] was one of the best projects of 2014.

  5. Mick Jenkis is one of the best from the last 5yrs, i really strongly hope he gets the success he deserves, and Water[s] is the truth, top mixtapes of 2014 for certain.If you are considerin doin a post about him, do it.
    Concerning the post i guess Snoop was kinda expected on the list, but Kanye i didn't saw it coming. I'm a big Eminem, fan but i figured he'd be on that list given the amount of times that he said "Shady" (and the obvious rhymes "crazy" and "baby").
    Anyways great post Martin, good job!

    1. Hey man, the computer told me what the computer told me. In fact, the program ended up not being able to crawl for every rapper, so E-40 actually wasn't included in the final tally at all 🙁 haha

      Anyway, sorry about that! If you want I can give you the whole thing on every rapper, just hit me up on email.

      Thanks LaJuan!

      Peace,

      Martin

  6. I'm having trouble understand how to read this. Ex. Will.I.Am – He has around 18,328 words in his 44songs. What is the 113 number identify? Basically, how do I understand the percentage of word repeated given the total number of songs used? Does that question make sense? haha?

    1. Hey man! Sorry you're having trouble understand it. That "113" number is actually random, and meaningless; I just had to assign a random, consecutive number to every rapper, so I could follow their path as I re-organized the data from its original random state into an ordering based on repetitiveness. As far as That other number above Wll.i.am's name, .674, that number is NOT meaningless; however, it is only meaningful within the context of the data. That is, that .674 is more than very other repetitiveness number assigned to a rapper because they are all being compared to each other. It doesn't mean that 67.4% of all of Will.i.am's words get repeated over a verse; it only expresses the extent to which Will repeats words more than the other rappers here.

      That help? I hope so! If not, let me, preferably over at [email protected]…I check my email way ore often than here, haha.

      Thanks for reading!

      Peace,

      Martin

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