Hiop-Hop Word Count by Tahir Hemphill:
We have developed a rubric that estimates the education level needed to understand each rhyme as well as, rates the artistic sophistication employed through the metaphors, similes, cultural references, consonantal/vocalic alliteration and overall pattern of each rhyme. We calculate the final score by averaging the syntactic (readability measures) and semantic (artistic sophistication) scores of each rhyme. On a scale from 0 (illiterate) to 20 (post-graduate degree).
here’s an except from a person who didn’t like the project in the comments:
Here’s a better idea…stop trying to measure the level of education needed to understand the components of something that is in fact an art form. I mean come on, how do you determine what is considered “artistic sophistication”? If this were applied to poetry, say Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son”, what would the score be? “Artistic sophistication” is qualitative and highly subjective, and I truly question how it’s been implemented. Although I don’t believe it’s your intent, this tool can easily be used (as I’ve already seen on grandgood.com) to compare Rakim’s vs. 50 Cent’s lyrics. Huh? What’s the purpose in that, on a site that despises Lil Wayne and 50 Cent and worships KRS-One and Immortal Technique? Reads like hip hop elitism rearing its big a–ugly head again! This rubric is being used to indicate that hip hop should be communicated in only a particular way in order to be considered more legitimate than others, and it appears that its results are used to devalue the use of slang, jargon, colloquialism in lyrics.