tag your knowledge

rap was never a
list of songs

it is a network. a record is a receipt, a shout-out, a recipe, a lesson, a warning, a claim on territory — and all of it doubles as documentation. some of it is true. some is a lie told well. most of it sits somewhere between exaggerated and understated, and the gap is the point.
you cannot read that as a timeline. a timeline has one thing happening after another. this was a community talking to itself — somebody jabs, somebody shifts position, somebody answers three years later on another man's album. every record is a move made against other records.
“Treat it like boxing: stick and move, stick and move” — The Notorious B.I.G., Gimme the Loot, 1994
that is the whole method. this site is the footwork written down.
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songs
—
artists
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shout-outs w/ the bar
—
steps between any 2
start here
three threads, three moves each. pull one.
follow a feud
who said what →
whose crate is deeper →
the whole war, in order →
follow a sample
648 records that took →
one of them, up close →
the crate it came out of →
follow a city
21 scenes, 21 hands →
philadelphia writes in one line →
the band that never stopped →
runs, different stories
none of these is a timeline — each one is a sequence of moves.
albums · 1992–1996
the west takes four summers
  1. The ChronicDr. Dre · '92
  2. DoggystyleSnoop Doggy Dogg · '93
  3. All Eyez on Me2Pac · '96
one producer's sound, handed down the roster record by record, until it owned the radio.
songs · 1996–2001
a war fought in verses
  1. Dead Presidents IIJay-Z · '96 · borrows Nas's voice for the hook
  2. TakeoverJay-Z · '01 · says the name out loud
  3. EtherNas · '01 · the answer that became a verb
five years pass between the first move and the reply. a list of events cannot hold that; a network can.
albums · 2004–2008
one man rewrites his own sound
  1. The College DropoutKanye West · '04 · sped-up soul
  2. Late Registration'05 · strings and horns
  3. Graduation'07 · stadium synths
  4. 808s & Heartbreak'08 · no rapping at all
four records, four different arguments about what the genre is allowed to be.
songs · 1994–2018
a voice travels twenty-four years
  1. Gimme the LootThe Notorious B.I.G. · '94 · where the quote up top comes from
  2. SICKO MODETravis Scott · '18 · Biggie opens the second beat switch
the man had been gone twenty-one years and still made the handoff. that is what a network does that a list cannot.
songs · 1964–2017
one woman, three men, fifty years
  1. DontGetItLil Wayne · '08 · takes Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, '64
  2. Blood On The LeavesKanye West · '13 · takes Strange Fruit, '65
  3. The Story of O.J.Jay-Z · '17 · takes Four Women, '66
three records that have nothing else in common, all reaching back to Nina Simone inside a decade. she is the most-flipped single source on this wall.
albums · 1993–1996
new york answers itself
  1. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)Wu-Tang Clan · '93
  2. IllmaticNas · '94
  3. Ready to DieThe Notorious B.I.G. · '94
  4. Reasonable DoubtJay-Z · '96
four records in three years, each one a reply to the last. nobody planned it; that is what a scene talking to itself sounds like.
songs · 1997–2004
two men from virginia beach ran the radio
  1. The RainMissy Elliott · '97 · Timbaland
  2. Try AgainAaliyah · '00 · Timbaland
  3. Hot In HerreNelly · '02 · the Neptunes
  4. Drop It Like It's HotSnoop Dogg · '04 · the Neptunes
st. louis, long beach, detroit, a rapper and two singers — and the same two production teams under all of it. the map of who makes a record is not the map of where it is from.
songs · 1993–2012
the south takes twenty years to be believed
  1. Nuthin But a G Thangthe coast that was already winning · '93
  2. Ms. JacksonOutKast · '01
  3. Stay FlyThree 6 Mafia · '05
  4. Int'l Players AnthemUGK · '06
  5. Money Treesand the west answers back · '12
the middle three are memphis and houston records that the coasts spent a decade calling regional. by the end of it the drum programming on this wall is theirs.
run the route
two names, and we'll find who connects them. try somebody obvious against somebody who has no business being there.
?
6 DEGREES
the game: guess the path →
play!
search the wall
every bar we have, one search
type any phrase — a name, a brag, a city — and we'll find every line that says it.
what's on the wall
every room in the place, and what it's for.
The Roster
every name, where they're from, how deep the crate runs. start here.
Degrees
the shortest path between any two rappers, and the song behind each hop.
Beef
who said what about who — with the actual bars, not a summary.
Timeline
the moments that moved everything, —.
Trends
what rap talks about, year by year — counted off the lyrics, not vibed.
The Digs
where the beats came from, and how far back each one reaches.
Scenes
the cities, and each name written in the hand its city writes.
The Crates
one artist's whole world — catalog, crew, who they named, who named them.
What's Kickin
every coat of paint this wall has taken, newest first.
where this comes from
sampled from public sources, chopped, and put back together — same as its subject. name-drops aren't hand-typed; they're found in the lyrics then checked one by one, because "chuck" in a bar is usually not Chuck D. it's not complete and not always right: lyric sites hand you the wrong words, credits point at compilations, and a diss still counts here as a connection. what's wrong gets fixed in the open, on what's kickin. no ads, nothing sold. it's a thank-you note with a search box.