Project Rationale: Jay-Z incorporates hundreds of lyrical and instrumental samples into his body of work. For black artists, certain kinds of allusions or simply signifying constitutes a crucial element of black artistic expression. And, as a rapper, Jay-Z is fond of drawing (signifying) on words, phrases, and musical compositions from a wide range of source materials. Show Data Story Description: This project visualizes the extent to which Jay-Z incorporates hip-hop, R&B, Rock, and other musical genres into his thirteen solo albums. Figure 3.1.1 This visualization illustrates the number of samples Jay-Z has incorporated into his 13 solo albums.Formulate – A Research QuestionExploratory Question:
Explanatory Question (I revised my research questions during the fourth step in process, analyze):
Locate – A Data SourceFor this project, I used The Jay-Z Samples Dataset. This pre-assembled dataset is published on the subverse of the Texas Data Repository. The “Black Studies Data Verse” has datasets related to an assortment of topics in Black literature and Black studies in general. The information is already cleaned and organized in a coherent manner. You can access this information by going to this website here. Organize – Your DataThis information already came organized. It has a data dictionary that explains the organization and components of the dataset. The dataset has 12 main categories: Release Date, Album Title, Song Title, Track #, Producer, Number of Samples, Sample Artist, Sample Song Title, Sample Year, Sample Decade, Sample Genre, and Sample Type. The structure of the dataset is defined in the accompanying data dictionary. Analyze – Your DataI used Microsoft Excel to create a pivot table to explore the dataset. I refined my questions after my analysis. I focused on the following columns in order to ask more targeted questions that focused on the specific variables in the dataset. Explanatory questions:
For this analysis, I focused on columns B, G, H, J, K to answer my revised questions. I used the following columns in a pivot table to answer my refined research questions.
Tell— A Data StoryI used Tableau Public to create a visualization that answered all of the four central research question. I created three different charts to provide answers to these questions. I also used color to point out distinguishing factors. Step 1 – Create a bar chart (How many samples does Jay-Z incorporate into each album?)I created a bar chart of each of Jay-Z’s 13 albums to offer a visual contrast of how many samples uses on each album. Each individual block represents a different sample. Hovering over each block reveals the name of the song, the sample artist, and the year the song was released.
Step 2—Add color to Bar chart (How many genres does Jay-Z sample in his music?)I used color to represent the different genres Jay-Z uses in his music. On the bar chart, each block is colored to represent the various genres of the songs.
Step 3—Create a word cloud (Who are the artists that Jay-Z sampled?)I created a word cloud to comprehend the large number of artists that Jay-Z has sampled on every album. The larger the word, the more times Jay-Z has sampled the artist’s music. Who is the most sampled band ever?According to whosampled.com, the most influential artists in hip hop are:. James Brown "" Sampled 7,451 times.. Public Enemy "" Sampled 2,912 times.. Beside "" Sampled 2,329 times.. Run-DMC "" Sampled 2,046 times.. The Notorious B.I.G "" Sampled 1,718 times.. Kool & The Gang "" Sampled 1,564 times.. Jay Z "" Sampled 1,484 times.. Who is the most sampled rapper?1 James Brown Got sampled 8538 times.. 2 The Winstons Got sampled 5992 times.. 3 Lyn Collins Got sampled 3576 times.. 4 Public Enemy Got sampled 3309 times.. 5 Beside Got sampled 2623 times.. 6 Run-DMC Got sampled 2372 times.. 7 Traditional Folk Got sampled 2138 times.. 8 The Notorious B.I.G. Got sampled 2090 times.. What song has been sampled the most?More videos on YouTube. Who did JayThe song "Otis" from the collaboration album Watch the Throne by Kanye West and Jay-Z carries the following line "What more can I say?". It samples "Top Billin'" from American hip-hop duo Audio Two, who released the album What More Can I Say? in 1988.
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