Can't Understand Rap? Experts Offer Free Translations!

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Can't Understand Rap? Experts Offer Free Translations


Rap music raises plenty of questions, from "What's my name?" to "When's the last time you heard a funky diabetic?"

Thankfully, a number of analytic hip-hop experts are willing to share the answers. Online and in print, lyric lovers have crafted rap Rosetta stones that can help new listeners parse through some of the genre's most difficult-to-understand rhymes.

"Most rap listeners, like most rock listeners, are more interested in a hot beat and a catchy hook than deep, meaningful lyrics," said Tom Lehman, one of the founders of the Internet rap interpretation site Rap Genius. "The difference between rock and rap though is that with rap there's actually meaning to uncover."


With their complicated flows and ever-changing slang, some rappers like Lil Wayne can confuse casual listeners and even their biggest fans.

For example, in Lil Wayne's "6 Foot 7 Foot" he raps, "I got through that sentence like a subject and a predicate."

According to Bill Buckholz, the mind behind Understand Rap, Lil Wayne isn't necessarily rapping about his grammar. It's a sly reference to his recent prison sentence in a quip that could be translated to:

"I can endure a supposedly stressful incarceration as easily as the component parts of a basic grammatical unit come together in my mind to form these lyrics which I have just skillfully rapped."


By playing up the disparity between rap lyrics and proper English, Buckholz has built one of the more prominent rap interpretation hubs. First available online and then in his book "Understand Rap: Explanations of Confusing Rap Lyrics You and Your Grandma Can Understand," his translations of MCs like Slim Thug and Fat Joe can be both informative and humorous.

"The reason I made the website was so that anyone who wanted to post a confusing lyric could do so without feeling embarrassed, and anyone could browse through the lyrics that need explanations without feeling like they're being quizzed or put on the spot," explained Buckholz, a technical writer by trade.

Figuring out the meaning of rap songs isn't always easy -- especially when dealing with particularly tricky lyricists like Cam'ron or Ghostface Killah. But Buckholz is confident that any listener can figure out the meaning of complicated rhymes, even those who don't know the difference between Biz Markie and Wiz Khalifa.

"I think anyone can learn to understand rap -- it just takes time, and you can't get frustrated and give up," he said. "It's a quickly evolving language, so you have to stay current by listening to all the latest songs if you want to keep up, but once you build a solid rap vocabulary, you should be able to pick up on new terms quickly."

Buckholz certainly isn't the only person offering lyric interpretations. In fact, a rival group that deciphers rap says it has "beef" -- rap lingo for bad blood -- with Buckholz.

In the first salvo of what could be rap's most meta feud to date, the creators of Rap Genius told AOL News that Understand Rap misses the point.

"[Understand Rap's] entire project is dedicated to a single joke: rap lyrics sound funny when translated into intentionally white-sounding language. But translating rap into white-speak is only peripherally related to analyzing its meaning," Lehman told AOL News.



"Rap Genius, on the other hand, engages rap as poetry, rather than as the butt of a joke."

While Understand Rap offers interpretations of single lyrics from songs, Rap Genius breaks down entire tunes line by line, peppering them with individual explanations of similes, photos and even informative quotes from the rappers themselves -- a superior approach, according to Lehman.

"Rap has a great deal of jargon, but that's not the hard part," said the 27-year-old New York City resident, who works part time at a hedge fund. "Rap lyrics are more closely comparable to poetry than to song lyrics -- there are often complex metaphors and extended conceits at play which a 'slang dictionary' will not help crack."

Lehman also contends his site is better than Understand Rap because it features more explanations, critiques more current music (like Kanye West's new album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" or Eminem's new album "Recovery"), and draws more readers (more than 10 times as many unique visitors every month since June, according to Compete.com).

But according to Buckholz, haters gonna hate.

"I don't really care what the guys at Rap Genius think," he said. "I created Understand Rap over a year before their site appeared."

Buckholz says he hasn't been updating Understand Rap as often recently because he's been focusing on the book and claims Rap Genius actually ripped off his site's terms of use and privacy policy.

Still, he wants to increase the peace.

"I don't claim to be the best at or the first to translate rap lyrics -- it isn't a new concept," Buckholz said. "If they really cared about the music, they wouldn't have a problem with the two sites co-existing."
 
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