Rap Genius is a lyric-annotation site that proved to be popular among rap listeners, but actual rappers have been split on the subject. One New York rapper (and occasional Gawker contributor) called Homeboy Sandman, took to Facebook to complain about the incorrect lyrics attributed to him on the pages to his songs. He wrote:
"Please no tagging or posting any alleged "homeboy sandman lyrics" from Rap Genius [on] this page. those disrespectful irresponsible dicks seemingly purposefully publish "lyrics" to my songs that are so horrifically incorrect that it seems whoever transcribed them was listening to two songs at once." He continued, saying "Those clowns will have you think i'm just blurting out random words. They create "verified artist" pages without ever contacting the artists that people then think have verified something. They have no concern whatsoever for grossly misrepresenting people's art."
The rapper and lyricist continued his accusations, adding, "If Rap Genius cares about lyrics, they need to care about getting the lyrics right. I know it takes way more time and effort to actually get artists to verify stuff, and then of course that would mean that Rap Genius would need to share some of their proceeds with the artists who make their entire site possible, but that's what it would take for this to be a legitimate site. if you're going to have a site based on what rappers say (which is a good idea), the very FIRST thing you have to make sure that you have is, what the rappers actually say."
Of course, most of Rap Genius' content is user-submitted, but he is not the first to grumble about the perceived lax standards of the site. What do you think? Are Homeboy Sandman's complaints valid criticism? Or not?
