More so than many genres of music, rap is based around words. They hold a special importance. It’s why there are full books and websites dedicated to lyrics alone.

To help quantify some of the the variance in words that rappers use, Matt Daniels, who is a coder, designer and data scientist, put together a project he called “The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop.” To do this, he compiled dozens of rappers’ first 35,000 lyrics, using the website RapGenius, and sought to determine which MC had the largest vocab.

“I used a research methodology called token analysis to determine each artist’s vocabulary,” he exlpains on his site. “Each word is counted once, so pimps, pimp, pimping, and pimpin are four unique words. To avoid issues with apostrophes (e.g., pimpin’ vs. pimpin), they’re removed from the dataset. It still isn’t perfect. Hip hop is full of slang that is hard to transcribe (e.g., shorty vs. shawty), compound words (e.g., king sh–), featured vocalists, and repetitive choruses.

Some of the results are surprising. For instance, Eminem, at 4,494 unique words, used less than 100 more than Diddy. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, with their rapid fire deliveries, were fourth to last on the list.

Others aren’t quite as jarring, like the fact that members of Wu-Tang Clan, Outkast and Kool G Rap were all near the top in terms of unique words used.

Head over to Daniels’ site for the entire interactive project

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May 6, 2014 | No Comments on Which Rappers Have The Largest Vocabularies?

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FOX may have only just finished the pilot for their young Batman series “Gotham,” but the series already has been picked up — rumors place it at a thirteen episode order — and has a trailer, which debuted during the premiere of “24: Live Another Day.”

The series is created by Bruno Heller (“The Mentalist”), and stars Ben McKenzie as a young Commissioner Gordon in his pre-mustache days. Picking up with the murder of young Bruce Wayne’s parents, the series will follow his long journey to becoming Batman, while meeting other villains along the way including Penguin and Catwoman.

What do you think of the first teaser? Sound off in the comments below.

Alex Zalben

By Maurice Bobb

Good news, Marshmallows! CW Seed announced Monday (May 5) that they are taking fans back to Neptune with the launch of “Play It Again, Dick,” a “ Veronica Mars ” spin-off starring Ryan Hansen.

Mars creator Rob Thomas has been tapped to co-write and produce the show for the digital-only studio. According to the official press release, Hansen will play himself on the show as he “begs, cajoles, and pleads with his former ‘Veronica Mars’ castmates and friends to help him get his character, Dick Casablancas, his own spin-off show.”

That, of course, leaves the door wide open for key guest appearances from Hansen’s former “Veronica Mars” co-stars, especially the queen of sleuth herself, Kristen Bell, as Veronica, and other high-profile guests.

Casablancas, Neptune’s rich and endearing surfer boy, was a Mars series regular that became a fan favorite after a recurring role in the first season (2004), which ran on UPN until The CW picked up the detective franchise for one year. Casablancas made his last appearance in the Veronica Mars feature film earlier this year.

Hansen currently stars as middle school gym teacher Joel Kotsky on the CBS series “Bad Teacher.” “Play It Again, Dick” is slated to premiere on CW Seed this summer.

MTV News Staff

Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora had an ultimate BFF moment on “Live From MTV” Monday (May 5)… but they may have messed things up for a few fans in the audience.

The two blondes stopped by our Newsroom to chat about their new duet “Black Widow,” and while we had them, we challenged them to a few games, welcomed fans to ask questions and got the scoop the important stuff — like, whose hair takes the longest to do?

Iggy and Rita both agreed that it takes at least two to two-and-a-half hours to fuss with their ‘dos. “You’re not leaving the house in under two hours,” Iggy told Rita in true friend fashion.

At the beginning of the show, the singer and the rapper took audience members’ phones and texted random people. As you can imagine, anything could have happened. Did Iggy and Rita play it safe? Or will the fans have a lot of explaining to do with their grandmas, boyfriends and bosses?

Make sure to watch the show to find out what happens? You won’t want to miss this one.

Emilee Lindner

By Phillip Mlynar
During his rise to mega-stardom, 50 Cent has clocked up many milestones: He’s been the universe’s one-time most dangerous rapper, blazed trails by shifting a now legendary 872,000 first week copies of his debut album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, made a gazillion bucks from a savvy Vitamin Water endorsement deal and, now, he’s successfully transitioned over into the world of film.

Fif’s biggest achievement though is surely the collection of selfies he’s amassed alongside famous femmes. Glancing through Fif’s impressive Instagram account is like rummaging through a complete collection of Pokemon cards — when it comes to posing with daytime talk show staples and legendary ladies of the silver screen, 50′s scored them all.

In tribute to the rap king of the celebrity selfie, here’s a round-up of 50′s 15 favorite ladies. (You can draw your own conclusions as to whether any romantic trysts ensued.)

1. Meryl Streep

A classic power-move from the top of this year, 50 Cent spotted legendary Oscar collector Meryl Streep at a Knicks versus Lakers game. With the smooth and steely moves of a predatory panther, Fif moseyed on up to Meryl and pulled out his hand-holding flirt tactic courtside. Then he took things backstage where, as he put it, “Things got a little gangsta. Lol TURN UP, Turn Down for what!”

2. Rachael Ray

There’s a kittenish first-date vibe to the series of snaps that emerged of 50 and modern family kitchen maestro Rachael Ray cozied up together after an appearance on her TV outlet.

“[Rachael] Ray ...

Every year XXL Magazine puts out their annual Freshman class cover, where they give fans a new crop of hip-hop talent to check for.

In the past B.o.B, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa and Macklemore have all graced the list and this year’s cover boasts 12 fresh faces with a range of talents. Some guys have had hits and some have been building strong fanbases a bit under the radar; some are from the East Coast, some West, some Midwest, some South. But they’re all sure to get fans talking one way or another.

Get to know the guys on this year’s list below.

What do you think of this year’s selections?

CHANCE THE RAPPER
Age: 21
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Last release: Acid Rap
Random Fact: Has decided not to sign with a major label thus far.
Listen To: “Everybody’s Something”

RICH HOMIE QUAN
Age: 24
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Last Release: I Promise I Will Never Stop Going In
Random Fact: “Type of Way,” his breakout single, hit No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Listen To: “Type of Way”

TY DOLLA $IGN
Age: 29
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Last Release: Beach House EP
Random Fact: Sang the chorus on YG’s 2010 single “Toot It & Boot It”
Listen To: “Paranoid”

TROY AVE
Age: 28
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Last Release: White Christmas 2
Random Fact: Troy offered a money back guarantee on his New York City: The Album LP.
Listen To: “Show Me Love”

AUGUST ALSINA
Age: 21
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Last Release: Testimony
Random Fact: His brother was killed shortly before August turned 18, which motivated him to increase his focus on music
Listen To: “I Luv This Sh–”

VIC ...