A recent study by SeatSmart proves that the lyrics in hip-hop today really aren’t that advanced, and that some of today’s top artists songs don’t pass a third grade reading level. In fact, in the study, which was put together by Andrew Powell-Morse, he found the overall reading level in Billboard hits have declined since 2005, with hip-hop having the lowest lyrical intelligence out of the four major genres in music. Morse put together this study by examining lyrics of certain Billboard hits and plugging them into Readability Score, and then figured out the average reading level.
In hip-hop, Eminem is leading the way with the most advanced lyrics that mark just under a fourth grade level, while the likes of Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Chris Brown’s lyrics are all found to be below that of a third grade reading level.
