RapGenius: Discover the meaning of rap lyrics

I've been talking about this idea at startup parties for the last two years. Great conversation piece. I'm pretty psyched someone actually did it, and at the same time kind of disappointed you guys aren't looking at a site I made instead.<p>On the plus side, yet another real-life example for the "ideas are everywhere; it's all about execution" entrepreneurship file.

There's a lot of content that's not simply translation - context, jokes, etc. Thanks for the link

This site is brilliant. Check out the translation for these lyrics: <a href="http://rapgenius.com/lyrics/The-notorious-b-i-g/What-s-beef" rel="nofollow">http://rapgenius.com/lyrics/The-notorious-b-i-g/What-s-beef</a><p>It's quite funny, for example:<p>"It ain't hard to find me, number one with the "booyaka" Give me the Remy and the chronic, ain't no telling what I do to ya"<p>The explanation of the lyrics:<p>"When Biggie gets drunk and high off Remy Martin cognac and bomb-ass weed, there’s no telling what he’ll do to you! (esp. if you’re a sandwich, watch out! Your days are numbered)"

Kudos to a great use of the Grooveshark API.<p>I once wanted to use their API in a class project where we had to make a web mashup. It took until 2 days before our deadline to finally get access; and we had since moved on. Since then I've been idly wondering what else I could use it for.

“Pop” means “shoot” and Wayne seems to be saying “we shoot so many people that you might mistake the frequent outbursts of our guns for the rapid popping of popcorn”<p>my only complaint about rap lyrics is the excessive use of over-exaggeration

Is there any reason to limit this technology to the rap genre? This site looks technologically superior to <a href="http://www.songmeanings.net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.songmeanings.net/</a> ; maybe they could make a sister site for other genres.<p>Side comment: I think the mocking/ironically pompous tone of the annotations detracts more than it adds.<p>e.g.: <a href="http://rapgenius.com/1163" rel="nofollow">http://rapgenius.com/1163</a><p>If you're going to market the site to rap fans, many will interpret the tone as condescending and be turned off. As with any other genre, a lot of fans personally identify with the rapper or the subculture. Even to people who find it funny, the joke gets old quickly. Just explain what the lyrics mean in plain English.

Only half joking: I wonder if you could train NLP models to explain rap lyrics automatically. Actually, you could think of it as a sort of machine translation problem, translating one type of English dialect+jargon into another...

<a href="http://www.songmeanings.net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.songmeanings.net/</a> is a popular community site for song meanings, not just rap. I've used it on lots of songs - they tend to have a meaning for most anything.

This is interesting but I'd prefer to see mathematical proofs explained verbosely line by line in this fashion.<p>Transition between two lines of mathematical deduction can be denser and more cryptic than any verse of any rap gibberish (not to mention more useful).

I try to be open minded; I try to appreciate the style; I try to pretend it's not just a glorification of criminality, immorality and shallowness, but with every song I listen, I get closer to the conclusion that it's the same goddamn piece of rap.<p>Would anybody care to prove me wrong?

1) curious what kind of CMS is powering this site<p>2) wanna meet the creator and light up a blunt

Word to your mother.

I already knew all this.