❗Let's close the gap: We still need your help to raise $40,000 by April 1. Donate now

Behind the lyrics with Rap Genius

Jeremy Hobson Oct 15, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Behind the lyrics with Rap Genius

Jeremy Hobson Oct 15, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

It’s been called the “Wikipedia of rap”, and it just landed $15 million in venture capital funding. RapGenius.com allows people to post annotations and commentary on the meanings behind rap lyrics.

“I think people are coming for the voice and the community and it’s rap academia — and we don’t even charge tuition — and it’s a place full of love,” says Mahbod Moghadam, one of the founders of the site.

Asked about whether the site has staying power, Moghadam says, “Lyrics have been around forever and no one is going to stop writing rap songs or country songs or analyzing the Bible.”

Listen to the audio interview above to hear Moghadam’s explanation behind an exeprt of the first verse of Kanye West’s No Church in the Wild.

Is Pious pious cause God loves pious?
Socrates asked whose bias do y’all seek?
All for Plato, screech
I’m out here balling, I know y’all hear my sneaks

 

 

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.