In my other life I'm a student of science — in May, I'll be graduating with a B.S. in psychology and English — so I took this very seriously. I'm nothing if not a man of my word: Just as I promised I would last week, I sent my dad a selection of rap songs, and just as I predicted, he was more than willing to give them a listen and share his thoughts. The results of my experiment will be presented in (sort of) APA format.
Methods:
Participants: The participant in the present study was one white male. He was selected because he was my father and had little to no knowledge of, or experience with, hip-hop.
Materials: The participant listened to nine songs, which allowed researchers to extrapolate opinion on numerous long-standing hip-hop debates without the participant's explicit knowledge. Participants were asked to rate enjoyment of each song on a Likert scale ranging from one ("do not like at all") to seven ("liked very much"), as well as to rank the songs in order of favoritism (he didn't do this).
The songs were Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" (2009), The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy" (1994), Tupac Shakur's "Changes" (1998), Kanye West's "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)" (Featuring Jay-Z) (2005), Lil Wayne's "Right Above It" (Featuring Drake) (2010), Nas's "N.Y. State of Mind" (1994), The Root's "Baby" (2006) and Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M." (1993). The songs were all presented as digital mp3 files.
Design: The current experiment wasn't really an experiment and no manipulation was done.
Procedure: The participant was asked to listen to the songs at his convenience and rate them.
Results:
The following are the participant's responses: "‘Empire State of Mind' — Timeless references; complex production; good imagery; interesting: 6." "‘Juicy' — self-serving; looking for approval; too long; materialistic: 3." "‘Changes' — interesting presentation and message: 4. "‘Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)' — lots of energy; keeps your attention: 5." "‘Right Above It' — So what!!: 2. "‘N.Y. State of Mind' — What's the point!!: 2." "‘Turn My Swag On' — BORING!!: 2." "‘Baby' — sounds like a '60s oldie — good beat: 5." "‘C.R.E.A.M.' — You and everyone else!!: 3."
The mean rating overall was 3.56 (S.D. = 1.51).
Discussion:
Based on the participant's rankings of the nine songs he listened to, it is clear that, while he doesn't totally hate it, he is not a fan of hip-hop. As we predicted, the song he found most enjoyable was Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," literally the most parent-friendly rap song of all time.
According to his ratings, the participant prefers West Coast hip-hop to East Coast. He agrees with the outcome of Jay-Z and Nas's beef from which Jay-Z ultimately emerged the victor. He prefers Kanye West to Lil Wayne, hates Soulja Boy just as much as most people do (myself not included), dislikes Wu-Tang Clan and thinks it's a good thing that The Roots are playing Spring Fling (It is a good thing, but haters finna hate.)
Future research should delve further into the East Coast/West Coast debate and examine other subgenres and groups (i.e., Southern rappers, Midwest rappers, backpack rappers, blog rappers, cocaine rappers).
My dad was a great sport, and I'd like to take a second to thank him here.
Hip-hop isn't an easy genre to break into if you have no experience with it — I mean, even I hated it when I was younger. I don't agree with his assessments, for the most part ("Juicy," "N.Y. State of Mind" and "C.R.E.A.M." are some of the best rap songs ever written), but it is fascinating to see the trends that emerged in these results. He was more drawn to current mainstream/pop hip-hop than old school "real" hip-hop, for example: The machine is doing its job, and the shiny poppy safe stuff really is perfectly tailored to a mindbogglingly wide audience.
Works Cited: Really? You thought I'd go this far? Sorry I'm not sorry.
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Mitchell Geller is a senior majoring in psychology and English. He can be reached at Mitchell.Geller@tufts.edu
