Matt Daniels, author of other noted studies, just published what may be the most significant statistical analysis of this young century: a ranking and analysis of hip-hop artists based on their vocabulary. For the study, Daniels plugged in the first 35,000 lyrics from Rap Genius for 85 artists and the results are pretty interesting. New York rapper Aesop Rock tops the list by an impressive thousand word margin, and the Wu-Tang Clan as a whole dominates the upper portion. Perhaps most interesting, however, are those lower down. Kanye, 2Pac, and Drake all came in well below the average vocabulary level, with Drake dangerously close to last. Unsurprisingly, DMX took the last place spot, as it turns out that aggressive noises and barks don’t actually count as words. Check out Daniels’ whole chart here.
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