The Right Rhymes (historical dictionary of hip-hop)

[Ben Zimmer]

Anyone interested in the history of hip-hop slang needs to check out
The Right Rhymes, a website launched last month by OUP language
technologist Matt Kohl:

http://www.therightrhymes.com/

Matt has amassed an exhaustive corpus of properly dated rap lyrics and
presents huge numbers of citations for lexical items, along with
common collocates and maps indicating the origins of cited artists. By
way of example, see the entry for "represent," which came up here
recently (see below). In the relevant intransitive usage, Matt
presents examples back to 1986:

http://www.therightrhymes.com/represent/

So far, Matt has compiled 512 headwords and 646 senses, citing 22,139
lyrical quotations. Very impressive work -- also good to consult in
conjunction with the Google Ngrams-style Rap Stats from Rap Genius:

http://rapgenius.com/rapstats


On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Browsing the NYT Archives
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 11:11 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >
> > It's the intransitive "represent" that's relevant here, in terms of
> > the then-newish slang usage that the 1997 NYT definition is trying to
> > convey. OED3 is oddly silent on this, despite the entry for
> > "represent" having been revised as recently as 2009. MWCD's def is "to
> > perform a task or duty admirably :  serve as an outstanding example,"
> > which is getting there.
> >
> > We've talked about this sense of "represent" a few times, most
> > recently in January:
> >
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1401C&L=ADS-L&D=0&I=-3&P=50624
> >
> > In the mid-'90s, when that NYT article came out, "represent" was
> > enjoying a vogue in hiphop usage, thanks to songs like "Represent" by
> > Nas off his 1994 album "Illmatic." The ngram-style Rap Stats graph on
> > Rap Genius demonstrates this nicely (though of course it doesn't
> > distinguish transitive from intransitive use):
> >
> > http://rapgenius.com/rapstats?q=represent
>
> Even before "Illmatic," intransitive "represent" showed up several
> times on two influential albums that came out in late 1993: Wu-Tang
> Clan's "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" and A Tribe Called Quest's
> "Midnight Marauders." Examples from both (note how it often appears as
> an imperative):
>
> "Wu-Tang, yo soooooo, represent." -- Wu-Tang Clan, "Bring Da Ruckus"
> http://rapgenius.com/Wu-tang-clan-bring-da-ruckus-lyrics
>
> "Represent! Chop his head off, kid!" -- Wu-Tang Clan, "Wu-Tang Clan
> Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit"
> http://rapgenius.com/Wu-tang-clan-wu-tang-clan-aint-nuthing-ta-fuck-wit-lyrics
>
> "From the bad lands of the killer, rap fanatic / Representing with the
> skill that's iller." -- Wu-Tang Clan, "Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber"
> http://rapgenius.com/Wu-tang-clan-wu-tang-7th-chamber-lyrics
>
> "Linden Boulevard, represent, represent / Tribe Called Quest,
> represent, represent." -- A Tribe Called Quest, "Steve Biko (Stir It
> Up)"
> http://rapgenius.com/A-tribe-called-quest-steve-biko-stir-it-up-lyrics
>
> "A gritty little something on the New York street / This is how I
> represent over this here beat." -- A Tribe Called Quest, "Electric
> Relaxation"
> http://rapgenius.com/A-tribe-called-quest-electric-relaxation-lyrics

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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