Image via Complex Original
A great writer once said, "Men lie, women lie, numbers don't." But an even whiter, older writer once said, "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics." Why do we juxtapose those quotes? To make an important point: Raw data is very helpful in making arguments, but raw data can still be misleading. This is good to keep in mind when looking at something like Google Trends.
What is Google Trends? It's a free service provided by Google that allows users to see how often terms are searched on Google. Better yet, it allows you to compare the popularity of different search terms. So for example, if you wanted to see whether people searched more for BMW or Honda, you simply type in "BMW" and "Honda" into Google Trends and you'll get your answer.
Why is this important? Because let's face it, the Internet is not really the "information superhighway." It's a sprawling, tangled mess of confusing pop-up ads and porn. Google, though, is something closer to what might be called the information superhighway, because it's the portal we all use to get to the information we want to know. It's become so embedded into our way of life that the phrase "Google it" has became a part of our everyday lexicon.
So if Google is the answer to all of our questions, what is it that people want to know? More specifically, what is it that people want to know about rap music? If people are using Google to get their information about rap music, or to get the rap music itself, what words or terms are they searching for? Remember, the Internet is the most democratic thing in the world. Press exposure, radio spins, and videos on MTV can build an artist's name, but a gauge of word searches for that name will tell us more about voluntary behavior—how many people express, through direct action, interest in that name.
We logged onto Google Trends this week to compare the names of some of our favorite rappers, to see who's really hot in these streets. (Or, well, these Internet streets.) Here are our results: 15 Significant Stats About Rap We Learned From Google Trends.
Written by Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)
RELATED: The 30 Most Lyrical Rap Songs of the Last 5 Years
RELATED: The 25 Best Rap Verses of the Last 5 Years
2Pac vs Biggie
Well here's a classic rap debate that'll never go away: 2Pac vs Biggie. The late rap greats died in the late '90s, and will forever be entwined by their shared history. Over the past decade of rap conversation, though, it's seemed like 2Pac had lost some muster, because bloggers love to remind you that he was not exactly the best technical rapper who ever lived. While Biggie has been continually celebrated for being, exactly, the best technical rapper who ever lived.
And yet, Google Trends reveals that 2Pac has been consistently more "bigger" than Big since 2004 (that's as far back as Google Trends goes). Searches for Biggie peaked in 2009, around the time of the Notorious film was released. Pac's stock shot up just last year, thanks to his hologram appearing at Coachella.
One more interesting note: although his artist name was indeed "2Pac," people tend to search for him using his real name, Tupac.
Jay Z vs Nas
We know what you're gonna say: WHY NOT JAY Z VS NAS STRAIGHT UP?!?! As much as we'd love to settle that debate once and for all, we really can't. Results for a search of "Nas" are affected by the fact that "NAS" is an acronym for "Network Attached Storage," an electronics term that, obviously, has nothing to do with the Queensbridge rapper. Some names are just not search-engine friendly. (Try searching "The Game.") So, to circumvent the problem, we added the term "lyrics." For the first five years of Google Trends, the two rappers were neck-and-neck, but since 2009, Jay has pulled way ahead.
Sorry, Nas Stans.
Who really won the decade: Jay Z or Eminem?
A few weeks back, we ranked the 10 Best Rappers of the 2000s, and gave the nod to Jay Z, over Eminem, for the top spot. Google Trends would say otherwise. Again, this data only goes back to 2004, so it misses the years 2000 (when Eminem dropped The Marshall Mathers LP) and 2001 (when Jay dropped The Blueprint). Still, interesting that Em has been consistently more popular than Jay. Even from 2004 through 2009, years when Eminem didn't even drop a proper album.
50 Cent is still pretty popular.
Conventional wisdom holds that 50 Cent's rap career was frontloaded, and has been on a downward slope since he lost the famous first-week sales battle with Kanye West in 2007. While it's true that 50's no longer reaching his mid-2000s Google-search peak, the numbers show that, in this way at least, he's still competing regularly with Kanye—who is now widely hailed as one of the most important musical artist of the new century. Kanye searches have peaked three times: In late 2005 when he made his infamous comments about president Bush not caring about black people; in 2007 around the time of the aformentioned sales battle; and in 2009, when he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs. But through it all, 50 has remained right up there with him.
In fact, he's still more popular than Rick Ross.
If losing the sales battle to Kanye proved there was a chink in 50 Cent's bulletproof vest, his beef with Rick Ross a couple years later proved that he did not have the power to destroy rap careers anymore. In the past few years, Ross has hit his artistic and commercial peak—there is no question that he is more relevant than 50 is at this point. And yet, if you look at the numbers over the past year, 50 consistantly outperforms. The only time Ross' name really popped was in January, after he nearly lost his life in a drive-by shooting.
There's Drake, then there's everyone else.
You know why every song sounds like Drake featuring Drake? Just look at those stats. Compared to his peers, Drake isn't even in the same category. This just adds another line to Drake's growing resume: He's already more popular than Kanye and Jay combined on Twitter, and he was previously named the most pirated artist last year.
Granted, there is a caveat: Notice how Drake's name has been popping since 2004, even though he only became famous in 2009? This is where Google Trends is misleading: As was the case with Nas, if a rapper shares a name with another popular search term (like Nick Drake, say, or Vera Drake, or the Drake Hotel) it can skew the results. And yet, even if you take that into account, Drake is still miles ahead of his peers.
Kendrick Lamar hit an insane peak with his "Control" verse.
Two of the biggest rap stories of Summer 2013 were Kendrick Lamar's guest verse on Big Sean's "Control" and the return of Eminem. As we already proved, Eminem is one of the most popular rap artists of the last 10 years. Yet even his recent comeback was dwarfed, searchwise, by the splash Kendrick made with "Control"—a verse so hot that Big Sean, too, followed his guest's trajectory.
Who's really running MMG?
Maybach Music Group has one of the most interesting rosters in rap. They have three legitimate stars, Rick Ross, Wale and Meek Mill. However, the label has been having a bit of an off year. Meek's Dreamchasers 3 project has been repeatedly delayed, and Ross got himself into trouble with his boneheaded "U.O.E.N.O" lyrics. Wale, it seems, is now carrying his cronies, thanks to his album that did come out, The Gifted. Other than the spike after the attempt on Ross's life, Wale has been the name on more peoples' lips (or fingertips.)
Macklemore is definitely winning the "White rappers with Mac in their name" race.
Two interesting story lines this year have been Macklemore's rise to superstar status and Mac Miller's left-turn off the pop route to drop a "keep it real" kinda album. Although Mac Miller has been consistently popular, Macklemore's name has been searched for far more often over the past few months.
Wiz Khalifa > Wale > J. Cole?
This is really interesting. J. Cole and Wale have both dropped albums this year. Wiz Khalifa has not. While he's enjoyed a few newsworthy events (he had a baby and recently got married), he's seemed pretty cold as far as the rap conversation has gone. Yet lo and behold, on Google Trends, his name has remained popping. A testament to the Taylor Gang fanbase.
Watch The Throne: Jay Z vs Kanye West
Jay Z is the one who claimed numbers don't lie. And while he's been famous for far longer, and has the advantage of being married to Beyonce, and much more money, his protege Kanye is still more searched than he is.
But watch the Queen conquer...
"Bitches ain't popping, Google my ass," rhymed Nicki Minaj on the "Dance (A$$) Remix." "Only time you on the net is when you Google my ass." It's true, people do use Google to search, a lot, for words like "ass," "sex," and such. We suppose that might have something to do with why Nicki Minaj consistently outpaces both Jay Z and Kanye in this regard: People (read: horny teenagers) are Googling her to stare at photos of her curves (something she encourages). Whatever the reason, it's still striking to see a stat like that.
The real throne is Drake & Lil Wayne, not Jay Z and Kanye.
What makes this chart particularly interesting is that Jay, Kanye and Wayne have all released albums this year, and Drake will release one very soon. Wayne's name got the search boost in the spring, when he was hospitalized after having a series of seizures, but even without that spike, he and Drake are running laps around Jay and 'Ye.
Drake, Nicki, and Wayne are still fighting for the top spot.
So if all three stars on YMCMB are running the game, who's running YMCMB? Much like MMG, it's a very tight race. But Nicki has a slight advantage.
Rap vs Hip Hop
Hip-hop, ya don't stop. But people start calling you "rap." This, of course, is mostly a study of semantics. But as we would have guessed, the term that was coined for Bronx block parties in the 20th Century seems to be going the way of the dodo.
