Der Computer-Spezi Matt Daniels hat in seinem “The Largest Vocabulary in HipHop”Projekt die Größe der Wortschätze von verschiedensten Rappern mit denen von Shakespeare statistisch verglichen. Das ganze lief dann auf Basis von 35.000 Wörtern, die er dafür zurecht gelegt hat.

Literary elites love to rep Shakespeare’s vocabulary: across his entire corpus, he uses 28,829 words, suggesting he knew over 100,000 words and arguably had the largest vocabulary, ever.

I decided to compare this data point against the most famous artists in hip hop. I used each artist’s first 35,000 lyrics. That way, prolific artists, such as Jay-Z, could be compared to newer artists, such as Drake.

35,000 words covers 3-5 studio albums and EPs. I included mixtapes if the artist was just short of the 35,000 words. Quite a few rappers don’t have enough official material to be included (e.g., Biggie, Kendrick Lamar). As a benchmark, I included data points for Shakespeare and Herman Melville, using the same approach (35,000 words across several plays for Shakespeare, first 35,000 of Moby Dick).

Und ich weiß ehrlich gesagt nicht, ob ich über das Ergebnis schockiert oder überrascht sein soll. Oder einfach beides. Gerade so die schwächsten von allen enttäuschen mich sehr. Aber schaut doch einfach mal selbst rein.

via Marc