By: bogota rocks

This illustrates the problem with so-called "data journalism" in general. We can analyze the obvious like who uses the most words in their raps, but how do you measure charisma, or the beauty of a metaphor? Vocabulary size tells us very litte about whether someone is a good rapper or not, just like that 538 chart about classic rock only told us which songs are popular at corporate rock stations. It's a lot of well-organized, statistically-accurate information that tells us absolutely nothing. When I want to get amped on a Saturday night, I'm am going to put on DMX repeatedly barking like a dog over Aesop Rock's big vocabulary every single time. Then again, I'll probably put on Aesop when I am stoned. Everyone gets a trophy!