THE SOUND OF A YEAR
Slide through hip-hop history
1994
19882026
MEDIAN TEMPO
91 BPM
most songs 85–97 · avg 94 · 15 songs
MOST COMMON KEY
A MINOR
15% of 13 songs · 46% minor · tied with C♯ major, F♯ major
SYLLABLES / BAR
10.5
avg of 209 songs
SONGS IN THE DATA
239
vocab diversity 47.4%
DENSEST RAPPERS
MOST DEXTEROUS SONGS
Nas · 84 BPM80 DEXRaekwon · 91 BPM79 DEXNas · 87 BPM60 DEXRaekwon · 92 BPM58 DEXIce Cube · 96 BPM52 DEX
ALBUMS FROM THE TOP-RANKED ARTISTS
Years run 1988–2026 (years with 40+ songs in the GOAT Meter catalog). Tempo and key come from songs with a known BPM/key (GetSongBPM, with a Deezer preview analysis as fallback; keys from the preview analysis aren't used), so early years have few. Syllables per bar comes from the lyric analysis. "Albums from the top-ranked artists" are ordered by the artist's current GOAT score, not by sales. Release years are as listed by the streaming services, so reissues can show a later year.