I looked at RapGenius over the past year or so. At first I
thought it was pretty cool – a site to break down rap lyrics. They hit me up on
Twitter randomly to ask me to join their site, I told them I’d think about it. Since
I love lyrics, I ended up joining and added my two cents to some of my favorite Ice Cube/Nas songs.
I don’t have a beef with the site per se. Because it’s all
user based, anybody can comment on a song. That’s both good and bad because
while there are some great breakdowns (see Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean), some of the reasoning
is silly and immature. When you post a
new meaning, there’s a corny “Yeeeeah Boy” picture afterwards.
RapGenius has also succeeded in partnering with folks like Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Murs and Jean Grae to help breakdown their lyrics. The site admits that not every breakdown is approved by an editor so that’s pretty much carte blanche to allow anything. In our Wikipedia generation, it works even if it emphasizes current rap over old school joints that deserve to be deciphered more.
So what’s the big issue? Discovering that RapGenius got a $15 million investment and it’s the brainchild of three slang-talking, non-Black
guys from Yale. Guys who got started the site on a whim and watched it grow.
