Which Rapper Has The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop (an interesting study)

[lazypakman]

#3 - 5

Kool Keith, Canibus, Cunninlynguists



Moving past Wu-Tang’s dominance, the next three artists are relatively not as well-known. Of the three, Kool Keith has the most diverse vocabulary. For a taste of his work, check out his album with the largest vocab: Dr. Octagonecologyst. #2 and #3 are two relatively underground (yet accomplished) acts: Jamaican-born rapper Canibus and southern-based group CunninLyguists.



#14 - 15

Outkast and E-40

Of course E-40 is in the top 20; he’s considered to be the inventor of much slang. Just a few that he’s been responsible for: all good, pop ya collar, shizzle, and you feel me.

At #15, Outkast’s deep vocabulary is definitely a function of their style: frequent use of portmanteau (e.g., ATLiens, Stankonia), southern drawl (e.g., nahmsayin, ery’day), and made-up slang (e.g., flawsky-wawsky).

As expected, other southern-based acts aren’t in Outkast’s league. Take a look at the regional break-out below:

The south has the lowest average (4,268) and the east-coast the highest (4,804). In fact, only 4 of the 17 southern-based artists in the dataset are above average. My guess is that this is a function of crunk music's call-and-response style, resulting in more repetition of words.

#26 and #33

Busta Rhymes and Twista

Since both rappers are known for their speed, it’s nice to see that their verses are just as lyrically diverse as their peers.

And skipping ahead to the bottom of the dataset...

#67, #68, #71, and #72

snoop dogg, 2pac, Kanye west, and lil wayne

Some of the biggest names in hip hop were in the bottom 20%. Let’s take another look at the data:

#85

DMX

At #85 and in last place: DMX. But this shouldn't undermine an artist whose raw energy and honesty were the most memorable qualities of his music.

 

[Busta Carmichael]

I think this shows how much an image or crazy style can have an impact on a rapper.

Because Masta killa had more rhymes than ODB but ODB is more rememberable.

 

[Karl.]

Thought of Gza when I saw the thread title.

 

[lazypakman]

the east coast though.

leagues above.

 

[5 Grand]

This is why I love Allhiphop.com. You can sit around with your homies and discuss hip hop, but a study like this is better discussed on an online forum. You got charts, graphs and statistics. I feel like I'm in college.

The question remains, whhat determined the 85 MCs they chose? Who are their top 85? who did they leave out?

Also, I'm not suprised to see Tupac at #68. His vocab wasn't hat deep and he kept rhyming Hennessy with Enemy

 

[JerfyT]

It was people that had at least 3 albums, I know that. That's why Biggie or Kendrick Lamar aren't included

 

[5 Grand]

It was people that had at least 3 albums, I know that. That's why Biggie or Kendrick Lamar aren't included

Really, Life After Death was a double album. Big didn't have 3,500 words? I guess it was because of the features. What if you included that Best of Biggie mixtape that Mr Cee put out? I wonder if that would add up to 3,500?

 

[lazypakman]

who would have put u-god above gza though?

with the amount of random gibberish that comes out of ghostface's mouth (just use one from 'nutmeg' as a reference) i don't even know what language he is speaking in at times.

 

[5 Grand]

who would have put u-god above gza though?

with the amount of random gibberish that comes out of ghostface's mouth (just use one from 'nutmeg' as a reference) i don't even know what language he is speaking in at times.

Yeah, I feel the same way about Kool Keith. His lyrics don't make any sense but he's in the top 10 and Pac is at #68. That just goes to show that the number of words you use doesn't really mean much, although sometimes Pac comes off a little simplistic.

Another way to look at it is that Pac says more with less words.

 

[lazypakman]

I'd also argue with the majority of artist's who start relatively young (like pac and wayne) it's harder to really gauge the vocabulary just based off their initial works since their catalogue is so deep and they evolved much more over the course of their careers.

they became more complex and lyrically aware as men and as artists as time went on.

 

[5 Grand]

I'd also argue with the majority of artist's who start relatively young (like pac and wayne) it's harder to really gauge the vocabulary just based off their initial works since their catalogue is so deep and they evolved much more over the course of their careers.

they became more complex and lyrically aware as men and as artists as time went on.

Good point. I know Chuck D and GURU had college degrees before they started rapping. I'd expect them to have a broader vocabulary than people who were teenagers when they started

 

[Valentinez A. Kaiser]

4,300 And Above (based of unique words used)

1. Aesop Rock (7,392)

2. Gza (6,426)

3. Kool Keith (6,238)

4. Canibus (5,991)

5. Cunninlynguists (5,971)

6. Rza (5,905)

7. Wu-Tang Clan (5,895)

8. Roots (5,803)

9. Ghostface Killah (5,774)

10. Killah Priest (5,737)

11. Blackalicious (5,480)

12. Kool G Rap (5,394)

13. Redman (5,331)

14. Outkast (5,212)

15. E-40 (5,207)

16. MF Doom (5,204)

17. Nas (5,096)

18. Beastie Boys (5,090)

19. Das EFX (5,005)

20. Raekwon (5,001)

21. Xzibit (4,982)

22. Common (4,974)

23. Method Man (4,951)

24. De La Soul (4,933)

25. Wale (4,896)

26. Busta Rhymes (4,839)

27. Tech n9ne (4,830)

28. Goodie Mob (4,814)

29. Ludacris (4,806)

30. Gang Starr (4,794)

31. Big Daddy Kane (4,768)

32. Mobb Deep (4,756)

33. LL Cool J (4,743)

34. Twista (4,705)

35. Talib Kweli (4,703)

36. Brother Ali (4,700)

37. Fat Joe (4,686)

38. A Tribe Called Quest (4,635)

39. Mos Def (4,630)

40. Rakim (4,621)

41. Brand Nubian (4,609)

42. Tyga (4,601)

43. KRS-One (4,585)

44. Cypress Hill (4,568)

45. Clipse (4,514)

46. Jay-Z (4,506)

47. Eminem (4,494)

48. Public Enemy (4,481)

49. Lil' Kim (4,474)

50. Lupe Fiasco (4,439)

51. Ice t (4,431)

52. Royce da 5'9 (4,430)

53. Puff Daddy (4,429)

54.The Game (4,416)

55. Nelly (4,413)

56. Cam'ron (4,406)

57. Ice Cube (4,371)

58. Biz Markie (4,313)

 

[Mr. Rich Pryor]

gza or rakim got dis

 

[lazypakman]

i dare you to stay sleeping on Cunninlynguists.

best hip hop group of the last decade.

 

[RXMasked]

of course the only flaw in it is they picked certain rappers. Like why they put Aesop Rock but no El-P, Camu Tao, Myka 9, Rass Kass, Aceyalone, Kool Moe Dee, Percee P, and etc.? Why they even put groups/duos in there?

 

[TWMorris]

Wow this was interesting to read, I knew artists from Rhymesayers would have a high ranking in this but I didn't expect Aesop Rock to be #1

 

[lazypakman]

of course the only flaw in it is they picked certain rappers. Like why they put Aesop Rock but no El-P, Camu Tao, Myka 9, Rass Kass, Aceyalone, Kool Moe Dee, Percee P, and etc.? Why they even put groups/duos in there?

i'm just amazed at how the dude who did this managed to even put this system together.it could have been more thorough yeah but i'm sitting here looking at the term 'token analysis' trying to figure it out and my mind is blown to shit.

 

[MrJR]

Tupac vocabulary- Hennesy enemies babies bitches niggas ride thug life westside bestside repeat any word four times and you got 10 of his most popular songs.

 

[5 Grand]

Lol @ Puff Daddy being listed? They should have just listed Sauce Money or Mad Skills.

I'm surprised Redman is so high. Who would of thought that Redman uses more words than Nas? And Redman is ten slots higher than Method Man.

And Kool G Rap is 12 and Big Daddy Kane is 31

I would have expected Rakim to be higher than 40 and certainly higher than The Beastie Boys.

Nas is ranked higher than Jay. That doesn't suprise me

 

[sully]

i don't like this analysis. It's too crude.

i think a better, more accurate method would've been to catalogue these rappers based on a certain amount of verses spit and not albums (b/c of the differential in songs and albums released) and b/c of the differential b/w solos versus groups.

Breakdown by number of verses and then break that down into average unique words per verse. W/ a minimum qualification of about 100 verses per artist no less than 16 bars. And maybe instead of using unique words, break it down by words repeated X amount of times (maybe 5 if they're 100 verses to account for a margin of error).

This way, you'd have a better understanding about who is using the same words every verse and would seem to imply who is talking about different things, since a low repeat rate would indicate a higher amount of topics or concepts touched upon per artist.