If DJ Khaled was a Marvel Comics character his superpower would be networking. For almost 20 years he’s assembled an Avengers-worthy list of top-tier emcees and producers for his studio albums, and given his latest, 2022’s God Did, debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, he has no intention on stopping.
Khaled’s roots are in Florida; he cut his teeth as a DJ and radio personality in Miami. His connection to the area shines in his albums, particularly his early releases that often featured Trick Daddy, Pitbull, Cool & Dre, and a myriad of emcees that call the Sunshine State home. “B**** I’m from Dade County” off his 2007 We The Best album is a track where Miami shines brightly. Seven Miami emcees-Trick Daddy, Trina, Rick Ross, Brisco, Flo-Rida, C-Ride, and Dre-celebrate their ties to The Magic City in a posse track that bangs in clubs well past Florida to this day.
“B**** I’m from Dade County” came on while I was in the gym a few weeks ago, and it was the first time I realized Trick Daddy lists off neighborhoods in the Miami-Dade County metro in the song’s intro. I absolutely had to map it Throughout the song a total of 20 places are celebrated in the lyrics, including Dade County itself and Miami’s 305 area code. As always, I symbolized the map using sports team colorways as inspiration: the Dade County/305 area code boundary (which is the same) is the blue from the Miami Heat’s “Miami Vice” City Edition jerseys and landmarks are fuchsia from the same. The legend boxes are blue and gray from the jerseys of the Miami Marlins.
T-Pain was only 23 when he rhymed mansion with Wiscansin…
If you’ve spent any considerable time on the internet in the last few years you’ve probably seen the above quote in a meme. Today I’m not deconstructing the meme’s origin-the most popular source comes from Twitter user @vinnycrack in a 2017 reply to learning Sir Isaac Newton’s age when he discovered the law of gravity-this is RapGEO, so I’m mapping the source of the quote itself, T-Pain’s “Can’t Believe It”, the lead single from his third album Three Ringz.
I thought this would be a fitting map for three reasons: 1) it’s mid-February and this song definitely makes the Valentine’s Day playlist; 2) this year will mark the 15th anniversary of the song’s release; and 3) the song is very much still relevant. The meme took off so well T-Pain began selling University of Wiscansin merch (which I still need to purchase for Mrs. Smithsonian and I) and people are still quoting it to this day.
This map was relatively simple to put together. In the song T-Pain mentions four places he can take his woman to: a log cabin in Aspen, Colorado; a mansion “somewhere in Wiscansin”, a condo in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and a beach house on the “edge of Costa Rica”. Each location was mapped as its own point layer, symbolized as close as I could get using open source .svg files. Of course I couldn’t finish the map without giving special attention to the State of Wisconsin/Wiscansin, symbolized in the red from the University of Wisconsin’s colorway. I didn’t incorporate Lil’ Wayne’s verse in the map, but he mentions the Cayman Islands.
I will always think of The Game as the emcee who tapped into the vibe of late-80s/early-90s West Coast gangsta rap and brought it to the next generation. His music often interpolates or re-samples classic songs by NWA, DJ Quik, Ice-T, and of course Dr. Dre-who would sign him to Aftermath Records. He’s among hip-hop’s elite, possessing formidable skills on the mic and a discography boasting several albums that hit #1 on the Billboard charts.
The Game’s most widely-known trait is his repeated use of name-dropping in his lyrics. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines name-dropping as “the studied but seemingly casual mention of prominent persons as associates done to impress others”, and the hip-hop world buys into the phenomena wholeheartedly. Emcees drop the names of notable collaborators, producers, and celebrities in their lyrics: often by associating themselves with them or conducting wordplay with their names. For example, in the song “Bach to Bach” Fabolous rhymes “Quarterback life, people wanna pass you sacks / Matte black Maybach I named it Matt Hasselbeck”. This of course is a nod to NFL Pro-Bowl QB-turned-analyst Matt Hasselbeck. Game does this on a grandiose scale and his usage of proper nouns in his lyrics is arguably higher than any other emcee. I decided to conduct a count of his name drops and map them.
Method/Criteria: Using the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive (OHHLA.com) and Genius.com I took note of everyone mentioned in The Game’s studio albums-no mixtapes-counting frequency of unique names and total name drops by album. I sorted the names into 17 categories loosely based on professions (athlete, musician, politician, etc.) to assist with later analysis. The only names omitted were fashion designers: Louis Vuitton, Tom Ford, (Mario) Prada, and the like. I didn’t include them at first, and when I though to start I was a few albums into the count and didn’t want to start over. Exceptions are Dapper Dan, Virgil Abloh, and basketball players with sneakers.
Everyone was mapped based on their hometowns or cities they were most known from. For example, Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, but is notably from Compton, California. I aggregated location information to determine if The Game favors name-dropping people from any region in particular. Of course all points are symbolized as a nod to The Game’s membership in the Bloods.
Findings: Based on my counts The Game made a total of 1,094 name drops (averaging 109.4 per album) and mentioned 650 unique names. Based on album: – The Documentary: 130 – Doctor’s Advocate: 84 – LAX: 123 – The R.E.D. Album: 96 – Jesus Piece: 96 – The Documentary 2: 98 – The Documentary 2.5: 100 – 1992: 119 – Born 2 Rap: 102 – Drillmatic: 146 The Game’s top 5 name drops are Dr. Dre (148 times), 2Pac (75), Biggie (47), Jay-Z (42), and Kanye West (40). Dre, Pac, Kanye, Nas, and Snoop Dogg are mentioned at least once per album.
He drops musicians, record executives, politicians, fellow gang members, models, actors and actresses, and even terrorists (al-Qaeda and ISIS are both mentioned in his songs). Musicians are shouted out the most by far (377 total), followed by 85 athletes and 45 fellow gang members. He also name drops the family members (parents, spouses, and children) of 10 emcees.
Geographically a total of 36 states, two US Territories, the District of Columbia, and 30 countries are represented.
Elite Emcees: The Game has a penchant for shouting out emcees on the top of the food chain, just look at his top 5 above. Other emcees with more than 10 name drops that are top-tier in my opinion are Eminem (35), Lil Wayne (23), Kendrick Lamar (18), and Ice Cube (13).
G-Unit: The Game’s affiliation and subsequent beef with 50 Cent and G-Unit are well known in the hip-hop community. It should be no surprise The Game name drops them in both friendly and threatening bars. He calls out 50 Cent’s name the most at 35 times, and the rest of G-Unit a total of 15: Lloyd Banks (5), Young Buck (5), Tony Yayo (4), Sha Money XL (1).
West Coast Love: The Game is from Compton so of course there were more name drops of Californians than those from any other state (155). New York was a close second (143), mostly due to shouting out hip-hop veterans.
Errors/Omissions: See my notes above regarding omitting fashion designers. I also realize my numbers are quite different from other great rap data sources like Hip-Hop By The Numbers, and even by The Game’s own count, so the possibility of my own human error isn’t out of the question. I will say I come damn close though. I did my counts by hand, writing out every name drop song by song, album by album. I’m happy to share my summary tables and data with anyone who has a different count.
Chingy’s “Holidae Inn” holds a special place in my memories. I was in my late teens when it dropped in 2003: that age where you’re almost grown, pseudo-grown, grown enough to vote but not drink, etc. That age where you’re allowed in some clubs but not the good ones so you resort to clubbing in the hotel room.
Every generation has the hotel room experience. Some 18-20 year old has an older sibling or cousin with a credit card willing to put a hotel room in their name. If they’re really cool they’re okay with purchasing “party favors.” Then we know what happens next: I call my friends, you call your friends, and we crowd in with loud music blaring until we’re damn near kicked out. Fun times. “Holidae Inn” was one of the songs that had to be played if you were hosting or going to a hotel party. Its release also coincided with my landing a job as a DJ for my college’s radio station. Evansville, Indiana is a 3-hour drive away from St. Louis and STL definitely held influence on local hip-hop fans. “Holidae Inn” was one of the first songs I kept in heavy rotation.
In a fashion similar to my Ice Cube map, instead of just reminiscing on Chingy’s hit, I wanted to find out the where. What Holiday Inn options did Chingy have at his disposal? Was there a particular Holiday Inn he frequented? I asked, researched, and found answers.
Holiday Inn is owned by IHG Hotels and Resorts, according to their website this is the number of Holiday Inns in the St. Louis area:
14 Total
5 with St. Louis addresses (only 2 within the city limits)
6 within St. Louis county
3 outside St. Louis county
The stars on the map reflect all of the currently open Holiday Inns, so there may be more that once were but are closed or reopened by another name. Illinois was not included for simplicity. Per usual I symbolized the map based on the colors of local sports teams:
The City of St. Louis, split into its many neighborhoods, and the stars representing St. Louis addresses are Cardinal red. Freeways are colored the dark blue of the Rams home jerseys when they played in St. Louis.
St. Louis County, and stars within are Blues blue.
Stars outside of the both the city and county are Cardinal yellow.
Of these there’s a particular Holiday Inn Chingy mentioned in his lyrics. In the first verse he say’s he’s “On Highway 270 to Natural Bridge Road.” There’s a Holiday Inn on 10000 Natural Bridge Road, within a few miles of Interstate 270. I enlarged the star of the Natural Bridge Road Holiday Inn, which is northeast of the St. Louis city limits. Fun fact: Mrs. Smithsonian is from St. Louis and Chingy’s favorite Holiday Inn happens to be the one we’re usually staying at when visiting our family.
I found it odd some of the hotels have St. Louis addresses but are not within the St. Louis city limits, so I explored further and learned about the difference between the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County. In most places I’ve lived and most places I studied as a planner cities exist inside of counties for the most part. St. Louis is different. The City of St. Louis separated from St. Louis County in 1877 and became an independent city. Independent cities are considered primary divisions of their home state, meaning the City of St. Louis doesn’t have to go through or include a county to conduct business with the State of Missouri. According to Wikipedia there are only 41 such cities in the United States. I’m not certain if this city-county division is a contributor to St. Louis addresses existing in the county and not the city, but I have a hunch it might.
No emcee has ever represented their state harder than Petey Pablo…EVER.
I will stand on that until proven otherwise. Most hip-hop artists incorporate their home city in their songs and lyrics: “Brooklyn Zoo” (Ol’ Dirty Bastard), “Chi City” (Common), “San Francisco Knights” (People Under The Stairs), I could go on. Very few songs carry the weight of the whole state. At the time of writing this the only two I can think of off the top of my head are “Virginia” by The Clipse and “California Love” by 2Pac and Dr. Dre. I’m sure there are more, but this isn’t about them, this is about “Raise Up”, to this day still a a banger in my book.
What makes “Raise Up” so special is because before Petey Pablo came around no one was checking for North Carolina hip-hop. This was 2001, before the likes of Little Brother, J Cole, Da Baby, and Rhapsody were names known throughout the culture. It was just Petey Pablo and an anthem that could make the most reserved of us all take our shirts off and twist them over our heads like a helicopter. I was in high school when it dropped, and I remember hearing this song everywhere. My friends and I were screaming “WHO AM IIIIIIIII, PETEY PAB MUTHA F######AAAAAA!” like maniacs every time it came on, and we were in Michigan. I bet it was like that across the country, and that’s what makes the song special. We didn’t know anything about North Carolina outside of the University of North Carolina and Duke University, which we knew because some of our favorite basketball players (Michael Jordan and Grant Hill, respectively) came from there. Completely oblivious to the state, Petey Pablo made us want to represent where he was from as hard as we represented our own homes.
The song is not just an ode to his home state, Petey Pablo is also giving a special shout out to those locked up in North Carolina’s correctional facilities. According to Genius.com, all of the places mentioned in the song are references to state’s prisons and jails. He mentions his past behind bars and shouts out those serving life sentences in prison in the lyrics. A total of 21 places are given shout-outs: although some correspond to a county or city, all are associated with correctional institutions.
“Polk”: Polk Correctional Institution, Butner, NC
“Bladen”: Bladen Correctional Center, Elizabethtown, NC
“Marshall”: Madison County Jail, Marshall, NC
“Hoke”: Hoke Correctional Institute, Raeford, NC
“Greene”: Greene Correctional Institution, Snow Hill, NC
“Tillery”: Tillery Correctional Institute, Halifax, NC
“Sandy Ridge”: Sandy Ridge Correctional Center, High Point, NC [CLOSED: Guilford County Sheriffs Department is shown in lieu of
“Pasquotank”: Pasquotank Correctional Institution, Elizabeth City, NC
“Statesville”: Iredell County Detention Center, Statesville, NC
To create this map I used data from NC One Map, North Carolina’s open data portal. They host a shapefile of the state’s correctional facilities I downloaded and selected those referenced in “Raise Up”. I used the state and county boundary layers to create the base map. Similar to my Detroit map, this map is symbolized using color ways of the state’s sports teams: the blues from the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
Although I don’t live there anymore, the city of Detroit will always hold a special place in my heart. I was born in Detroit and it’s where my love for hip-hop and maps begin. I remember learning how to read a map from the Rand McNally in my dad’s glove box and later memorizing the bus route maps that could take me across town as a teenager. Eastside Chedda Boyz, Slum Village, Esham, and D-12 are very much a part of my foundation as a hip-hop fan and participant. Trying my hand at making a city map has been on my list since I began this project. I knew I had to start with Detroit, but I didn’t know how challenging it would be. I’ve been working on and off on this map for a good year now, mostly from analyzing source materials.
THE PROCESS As with my emcee maps, I set a list of criteria for the map that assisted in giving me some limits and creating something replicable for when I create another city map or if you would like to duplicate the process for your own maps. Here is what I set:
Any emcee from the city, and surrounding areas if they reference the city, are fair game.
Geographic references can be cited from the lyrics in studio albums, freestyles, battles, mixtapes, etc. In my personal methodology I began with studio albums and mixtapes, then features on other artists’ projects, freestyles, etc.
Find 1 unique geographic identifier (street, place, neighborhood…) per emcee. I would later find out how difficult this can be when a significant amount of emcees are all reppin’ the same street (more on that below)
Places significant to hip-hop culture in the city, but not called out by an emcee, can also be added to the map.
THE MAP I mapped 37 unique places from 36 emcees/groups: 16 streets/highways, 17 places, 4 neighborhoods. I added Saint Andrews Hall/The Shelter for being a premiere venue for rap battles in the 90s. The City of Detroit has an open data portal and I used their streets, neighborhoods, and zip code shapefiles for my foundation. I plotted the places myself using Google Maps as a reference for ones I did not know the exact location of. Since it’s a Detroit map I based the symbology on the colorways of Detroit sports teams. Streets are honolulu blue (Lions), neighborhoods are green (90s Pistons), and places are red (Red Wings). Streets were more common to be shouted out on the west side, and the east side had more neighborhoods and places. Putting together the data for the map involved listening to a lot of Detroit music, some old favorites, some emcees I never listened to before. One I didn’t even know was from Detroit: Boldy James. Prior to hearing any of his songs that reference Detroit I assumed he was from Buffalo, NY like the rest of the Griselda camp. I was listening to a song of his and he mentioned Stahelin Ave. I know Stahelin because I had a cousin who lived on the street a while back and instantly added him to the list. I can imagine it probably wouldn’t go over well if I didn’t include him. Another thing I found out: EVERYONE IS FROM EFFING 7 MILE ROAD. Just kidding, but seriously, 7 Mile was the most brought up street in lyrics. Blade Icewood, Royce da 5’9, Guilty Simpson, D-12, Esham, and others represented 7 Mile Road often. Through this process I became a fan of several Detroit emcees I didn’t do much listening to when I lived there. When I was active DJing I made most of my money on the 40 and up events and family reunions, both venues where knowing the local scene isn’t necessarily useful for business. For this project I really dug through all of their catalogs and found some great music. Emcees like Payroll Giovanni, Peezy and Tee Grizzley are on mainstays on a few of my personal playlists now, although admittedly I didn’t listen to them much in the D.
Speaking of playlists, here are all of the songs where I cited lyrics for the map. I’m not paid by any streaming service so I’m not going to tell you which one to go to. Instead I’ll give you a list of the songs. K-Deezy – In My Hood Royce da 5’9” – Ride Slum Village – Conant Gardens Shady Records – Detroit vs Everybody Remix Tee Grizzley – First Day Out Eminem – 8 Mile Guilty Simpson – Rhyme 101 D-12 – 40 Oz Big Sean – So Much More T. Baby – It’s So Cold in the D (reference comes from video) Icewear Vezzo – Real Niggaz GMac Cash – We on The Lodge Wit It Payroll Giovanni – Get Money Stay Humble Intro Blade Icewood – Fa Sho Sada Baby – Alright Drunken Master – My Nigga Jake (RIP) Doughboyz Cashout – Neighborhood Star Danny Brown – Greatest Rapper Ever Esham – Back in the Day Obie Trice – Rollin URLtv – Arsonal vs Calicoe Kash Doll – Check Dex Osama – Crime in the D Stretch Money – Pray for Me Eastside Chedda Boyz – Detroit 2 the Bay Tone Tone – Put Dat Shit on Yo Hood Elzhi – Let’s Talk Peezy – Never Seen B4 Lodge Boyz – I’m from the D Big Herk – Show Me Luv Fat Killaz – Skit 1, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Boldy James – Brick Van Exel 42 Dugg – Free Mine
OMISSIONS/ERRORS Flint. I thought about doing an inset map for Flint, which is about 60 miles north of Detroit, but eventually decided against it. Flint has a robust hip-hop history as well, from the Dayton Family and MC Breed, Jon Connor, and current emcees like BFB da Packman and YN Jay. Still might do a Flint map in the future. A was going to add Somerset Mall, a high-end shopping center north of Detroit, on the map because it’s where many purchase the infamous Cartier “Buffs” glasses and where a lot of emcees brag of ballin’ out at. It’s out of the extent of the map and didn’t want to include the rest of the suburbs just for a mall. I know I couldn’t have included everyone worthy to be on this list. If you know of someone I missed reach out and I’ll amend the map.
Nas has always been one of my favorite emcees. Not only was I a fan of his music, listening made me want to participate. Hearing “Nas is Like” for the first time was a definitive moment of my coming up: Nas’ vocals complementing DJ Premier’s production and scratches made me want to write rhymes and get busy on the turntables. He’s a legend in the game and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t have him on their top emcees list. There’s no doubt that I can’t have a hip-hop atlas without deconstructing the lyrics of the God Nas.
This is my second artist-themed map and I’m building this ship while piloting it, so first I’d like to revisit my “rules” in creating it to have a standard method of comparing emcees.
Use lyrics from studio albums only. No mixtapes, freestyles, nor feature verses on songs by others. This isn’t to discredit the significance of those projects, but to manage the workload.
Note unique geographic places: countries, US states, cities (domestic and international), and unique places (domestic and international). Unique places can be buildings or neighborhoods.
No rights of way (highways, streets, etc). Intersections can be included as unique places.
Do not count the same place twice.
Countries
US States
US Cities
International Cities
US Places
International Places
Total
Lupe Fiasco
28
9
20
14
4
2
77
Nas
42
16
29
13
32
3
135
Lupe Fiasco set the baseline with 77 references. Nas almost doubled that with 135! In his lyrics Nas calls out 42 countries, 16 US states, 42 cities, and 35 unique places. His lyrics span the globe with concentrations in western Europe, central Africa to the Middle East, and southeast Asia.
In the US, Nas’ lyrics focus east of the Mississippi and especially in the greater NYC area. You can create a New York City tour of landmarks just off of Nas songs! I would love to see it, and if anyone in his camp wants to put it together I’m happy to share my data with you.
One unique shout out: prisons. “A Message to the Feds, Sincerely We the People” is a powerful song that calls out the prison industrial complex. Nas lists seven federal prisons (he has a total of 9 jails and prisons across his body of work), asking us to “pour some juice out” so we never forget those we’ve lost to an unjust justice system.
135 references is now the bar. Who should I do next? Who do you think can top it?
Omissions: -I used some discretion on the NYC-specific references. There were a few that seemed redundant, such as small areas within a neighborhood already referenced. I think I’m going to incorporate all of the NYC references in one map in the future: there are enough sites to do a city tour just based on Nas songs (NAS IF YOUR PEOPLE ARE READING THIS I’M WILLING TO SHARE THE DATA ON THE STRENGTH).
Like many in my age cohort, much of my coming of age was during the Dirty South’s takeover of hip-hop, and I like my friends felt the influence. I remember being a high school freshman when Cash Money was “takin’ over for the ‘99 and the 2000” and hearing “Back That Ass Up” at homecoming. OutKast, Eightball & MJG, Three 6 Mafia, and No Limit Soldiers kept spins in the soundtrack to my life. And of course you can’t mention the South without Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz.
My first exposure to Lil Jon was through the So So Def Bass All Star CDs of the late 90s. He had a few jams on them, but honestly I wasn’t checking for them at the time. It wasn’t until high school when I started hearing crunk music on the airways was I hooked. Even though I was in Michigan you couldn’t go to a party or tune in to the radio without hearing a Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz song or Lil Jon’s signature production on a variety of other tunes. I had to make a map to pay homage.
The second track of Lil’ Jon & the East Side Boyz’ fourth album Kings of Crunk was “Throw it Up,” which embodied his influence on the rest of the game. Before the song starts, Lil Jon tells the listener to throw up their hood and lists the cities and states that needed to “represent”. Eight states (Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, North & South Carolina, Louisiana—unsurprisingly all in the South) and eight American major cities (Indianapolis, Saint Louis, Jacksonville, Detroit, Washington, DC, Dallas, Houston, Oakland (the Bay)) are shouted out in the song. Of course we would get extra hype when Detroit was shouted out.
Similar to the Lupe map, “Throw it Up” will be my reference point for future maps of songs that show cities and states love. I wonder which ones will have more shout outs than “Throw it Up.”
SOURCES: -ESRI Data and Maps [Download]. (2013) Redlands, CA: ESRI [October, 2014] -Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, “Throw it Up.” From the Album Kings of Crunk (2002)
A map on Lupe Fiasco is kind of an obvious fit: “Paris, Tokyo” was a Grammy-nominated single with a hook that’s catchy to this day. Let’s go to sleep in Paris, wake up in Tokyo / Have a dream in New Orleans, fall in love in Chicago… I enjoy the song myself, while listening to The Cool I had the idea to map Lupe and decided to run with it.
I set out to discover just how world-traveled Lupe is in his lyrics. “Paris, Tokyo” nears a dozen geographic references alone counting states, cities, and airports (more if you count the international greetings in the third verse). How many could he fit in his body of work? I analyzed the lyrics from his seven studio albums at the time (Food & Liquor, The Cool, Lasers, Food & Liquor II, Tetsuo & Youth, Drogas Light, Drogras Wave) for geographic references. For the sake of time I only used studio albums and not mixtapes, freestyles, nor feature verses on songs by other artists. That would be a ton of music to track down for an emcee that’s been in the game for two decades now. I decided not to include airports but I did count countries, U.S. states, cities (U.S. and international) and places I thought were of unique significance (U.S. and international).
Accounting for redundancies (for example, Lupe obviously shouts out to Chicago more than once) Lupe includes no fewer than 77 unique geographic places in his lyrics: -28 countries -9 US States -34 cities (20 US, 14 international) -6 unique places (4 US, 2 international)
Every continent is covered. Lupe’s bars span from the West Coast Sun God Sam & The California Drug Deals / Rain drop Wayne and the Bangkok love bills to the Middle East Damage, managed to still be able to feel / Some of the long lost magic of downtown Damascus to Southeast Asia And the flow tight, skinny jeans skinny jeans / Hit you like Pacquiao, Philippines Philippines. Even some of the non-highlighted countries are touched by his lyrics. Lupe’s reference to Russia is actually to the U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) which at its peak encompassed many of the Baltic nations not highlighted on the map.
Arguably Lupe is the most well-traveled emcee bar for bar. He’s the baseline for the Hip-Hop Map Project to gage whether or not these emcees truly get around as much as they say they do.
Omissions: Africa. If you’re a fan of Lupe Fiasco’s music you know Mother Africa is ubiquitous in his music. In hindsight I probably should have outlined the continent to show its prominence in his body of work.
Antarctica. Lupe mentions Antarctica once in the song “Go to Sleep” (Food & Liquor II) and is not included in the extent of the map.
Which Park are Y’all Playin’ Basketball: South Central Parks With Outdoor Basketball Courts
Who doesn’t know Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day”? Even now it remains one of hip-hop’s greatest and most beloved tunes. You’d be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t enjoy Cube rapping about California livin’ over the Isley Brothers. Personally I have too many to count. Jamming to it after winning a football game in high school, or closing the deal with a woman-lady after a night clubbing. Ending a party by playing it as the last song of a set. My favorite has to be during Basic Training where the Drill Sergeants casually went back and forth with the lyrics as if they were having a conversation, trying to see which Private was going to be the first to flinch or laugh.
This was a perfect song to build a map from. My approach isn’t the first analytical stab at deconstructing the song; there was a viral Tumblr post that estimated which day had to be Ice Cube’s good day based on the references to real events in his lyrics. I’m going to focus on one particular line. Towards the end of his first verse, Cube decides to find out what his friends are doing:
Called up the homies and I’m askin’ y’all / Which park, are y’all playin’ basketball? / Get me on the court and I’m trouble / Last week f***ed around and got a triple double!
I got to thinking, I wonder where his friends were hooping at? Which park was chosen? What options did they have to choose from? So I created this map of potential options to where they could be playing. I made three assumptions along the way:
They’re playing basketball at a public park.
They’re in South Central Los Angeles; a pretty easy assumption given South Central is referenced in the song: Plus nobody I know got killed in South Central LA / Today was a good day
The court is outside; in the music video they’re playing ball at an outdoor court.
I began with mapping the 3,038 public parks in Los Angeles County. To determine the number of parks in South Central, I used the neighborhood boundaries and definitions from the LA Times’ Mapping LA Neighborhoods project, found with a little Google and Wikipedia searching. According to the LA Times, there are 32 neighborhoods in South Central including the cities of Inglewood and Hawthorne. After filtering based on these boundaries I found 140 South Central parks. To find out how many of these parks had outdoor courts I cross-referenced my park locations with satellite imagery. I identified outdoor courts by the relatively easy identifiable paint markings (baselines, three point lines, half court, etc). As a result, Ice Cube and the homies had 44 parks to choose from, categorized in blue on the map. That’s a lot of options; if he didn’t ask first Ice Cube likely could have went to the wrong park.
ERRORS/LIMITATIONS: Hindsight is 2020, and right when I completed the map I noticed one huge omission: COMPTON. Turns out Compton is southeast of the South Central neighborhoods and is not included in the LA Times’ list (it’s listed as South East). Although Compton isn’t “technically” in South Central I think it’s important to include in the context of LA hip-hop. It’s the home of N.W.A. and has cultural significance and history when we think of the Black LA experience. If you think I should include Compton, let me know and I’ll kick out an updated version.
Rap GEO 