Genius is an American
digital media company founded on August 27, 2009, by Tom Lehman, Ilan Zechory, and
Mahbod Moghadam. The site allows
users
Ancient Egyptian roles
* User (ancient Egyptian official), an ancient Egyptian nomarch (governor) of the Eighth Dynasty
* Useramen, an ancient Egyptian vizier also called "User"
Other uses
* User (computing)
A user is a person who ...
to provide annotations and interpretation to song lyrics, news stories, sources, poetry, and documents.
Originally launched as Rap Genius with a focus on
hip-hop music, the company attracted the attention and support of celebrities, and
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
enabling further growth.
The site expanded in 2014 to cover other forms of media, such as
pop, literature,
R&B, and added an annotation-embedded platform. That same year, an
iPhone app was released. To reflect these new goals, the site re-launched as Genius in July 2014. An
Android version was released in August 2015, and in 2016 and 2017, the company began producing music-focused original video content and hosting live events and concerts.
In December 2013,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
penalized Rap Genius for violating their backlinks guidelines—particularly involvement with blog networks—by removing them from its top
search results. Even with the search query "rap genius", results from rapgenius.com did not appear in the top results. This happened after blogger and Rap Genius contributor John Marbach exposed its link scheme to manipulate Google search results by offering Tweets or Facebook shares in exchange for linking to Rap Genius with keyword-rich texts.
History
Founding and early years (2009–2012)
Genius first started as a
crowdsourced
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...
hip-hop focused site, and was originally named Rap Exegesis. The site changed its name to Rap Genius in December 2009 because "
exegesis
Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...
" was difficult for users to spell.
It was created in August 2009 by founders Tom Lehman (who "entered the first line of code" for the website at 12:30 PM on August 19, 2009), Ilan Zechory, and Mahbod Moghadam, the three of whom met during their undergraduate years at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
Lehman and Moghadam came up with the idea for the site in the summer of 2009 when Lehman asked Moghadam about the meaning of a
Cam'ron lyric.
After Lehman built the earliest version of the site, he—along with cofounders Moghadam and Zechory—decided to leave their jobs at
D.E. Shaw and
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
to pursue the idea full-time and bring it to fruition.
Initial funding
In 2011, with the site "drawing over 1 million unique visitors per month",
Rap Genius applied to start-up incubator
Y Combinator
Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, St ...
, and "became the fastest-growing start-up in Y Combinator history",
obtaining $1.8 million in
seed funding
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...
, which enabled the founders to occupy offices in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 United ...
.
In 2012, the company received an additional $15 million investment from Silicon Valley–based venture capital firm
Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Andreessen H ...
(also known as a16z),
prompted in part by partner
Marc Andreessen's own past effort to build a group annotation feature into a web browser.
Ben Horowitz
Benjamin Abraham Horowitz (born June 13, 1966) is an American businessman, investor, blogger, and author. He is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder along with Marc Andreessen of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He previously c ...
described Genius as "one of the most important things we've ever funded".
The company's three co-founders were named to the
Forbes 30 Under 30
''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...
in December 2012.
Establishment of verified accounts
The popular success of the venture was exemplified by the participation of artists like
Queensbridge rapper
Nas
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air ( ...
,
50 Cent,
RZA,
and
A$AP Rocky,
prompting the company to create a "Verified Artists" designation.
Verified accounts are offered to established artists, where they annotate, moderate, and edit their own lyrics. Such annotations are highlighted in green, rather than the usual gray. Nas became the first verified artist, using the platform to post numerous explanations of his lyrics and dispel some misinterpretations,
as well as to comment on the lyrics of other rappers he admired.
As part of his support for the website, Nas "released the lyrics to his new single '
The Don' on Rap Genius the day before putting out the song itself".
Masta Killa
Jamel Irief (born Elgin Turner; August 18, 1969), better known by his stage name Masta Killa, is an American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Though one of the lesser-known members of the group (he was featured on only one track on their 19 ...
,
Inspectah Deck
Jason Richard Hunter (born July 6, 1970), better known by his stage name Inspectah Deck, is an American rapper, producer, and actor. He is a member of the groups Wu-Tang Clan and Czarface.
He has acquired critical praise for his intricate ly ...
,
RZA,
GZA
''Gary Eldridge Grice'' (born August 22, 1966), better known by his stage names GZA ( ) and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is the group's "spiritual head", being both ...
,
Ghostface Killah
Dennis Coles (born May 9, 1970), better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and a member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of ''Enter the Wu-Tang (36 C ...
and
Raekwon
Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon The Chef, or simply Raekwon (), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success ...
, members of the American
hip hop group
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close aff ...
, also obtained verified accounts on Genius. In late 2012, novelist Bacchus Paine became the first current release prose author to voluntarily annotate part of her own work.
Early controversies (2013–2014)
In an effort to extend the concept into other genres of culture, Genius launched several new channels in 2013 including
Rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
Genius and
Poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
Genius. The service also added the ability for outside publishers to integrate Rap Genius's platform into other websites to create annotated articles.
However, the company also experienced some issues familiar to the online content field.
Music publishing dispute
In October 2013, Rap Genius was one of fifty sites targeted with notices by the
National Music Publishers Association
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) is a trade association for the American music publishing industry. Founded in 1917, NMPA represents American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA’s mandate is to protect and ...
for the unlicensed online publication of song lyrics. Unlike Genius, most of the sites that were targeted were ad-supported. In response, Zechory stated that they "can't wait to have a conversation with them about how all writers can participate in and benefit from the Rap Genius knowledge project".
[ In 2014, Rap Genius entered into a licensing agreement with music publishers covering both past and future publishing of music lyrics.
]
Google search penalty
In December 2013, Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
penalized Rap Genius for violating their backlinks guidelines,—particularly involvement with blog networks—by removing them from its top search results. Even with the search query "rap genius", results from rapgenius.com did not appear in the top results. Instead, the top results showed Rap Genius' Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
, and Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
pages, as well as news related to the penalty. This happened after blogger and Rap Genius contributor John Marbach exposed its link scheme to manipulate Google search results by offering Tweets or Facebook shares in exchange for linking to Rap Genius with keyword rich texts. Rap Genius posted an apology, promising to stop and reverse the practice. Rap Genius also pointed out that its competitors were participating in similar or worse practices, and asked Google to look at "the whole lyrics search landscape" and improve its lyric search results.
Ten days later, after removing links in violation of Google's Quality Guidelines, Rap Genius partially recovered from their penalty.
Resignation of Mahbod Moghadam
''Fast Company
''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year.
History
''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
'' featured Rap Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam in its list of the Most Creative People of 2013. By early 2014, however, Moghadam had reduced his involvement in Genius to a part-time role, due to complications from his surgery for meningioma, a benign brain tumor. In May 2014, Moghadam resigned after annotating the manifesto of Isla Vista spree killer Elliot Rodger in ways labeled as inappropriate.
Expansion and rebranding (2014–2015)
New apps and features
The company rebounded with the release of an iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
app on January 28, 2014, also called "Genius". Genius co-founder Tom Lehman said at launch: "This is the true launch of Rap Genius. Right now, more than half of our traffic comes from mobile devices. Soon, it will be 100%".
In March 2014, Genius launched a feature allowing users to "embed" annotated texts on other websites. Felix Salmon
Felix Salmon (born 1972) is a financial journalist, formerly of ''Portfolio Magazine'' and ''Euromoney'' and a former finance blogger for Reuters, where he analyzed economic and occasionally social issues in addition to financial commentary. In Apr ...
of Reuters was a noted early user, using the platform to create an annotated breakdown of Janet Yellen
Janet Louise Yellen (born August 13, 1946) is an American economist serving as the 78th United States secretary of the treasury since January 26, 2021. She previously served as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. Yellen is ...
's first FOMC
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a committee within the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), is charged under United States law with overseeing the nation's open market operations (e.g., the Fed's buying and selling of United States Treasur ...
statement. Nas
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air ( ...
embedded the entire annotated ''Illmatic
''Illmatic'' is the debut studio album by American rapper Nas. It was released on April 19, 1994, by Columbia Records. After signing with the label with the help of MC Serch, Nas recorded the album in 1992 and 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Re ...
'' album onto his website to promote the release of ''Illmatic XX''.
Re-launch as "Genius" and expanded funding
On July 12, 2014, reflecting its recent expansions and growth into a platform, Rap Genius re-launched as Genius. The co-founders said that the change was because most internet users fail to "dive into" stories they find in greater detail, and that Genius aimed to "help us all realize the richness and depth in every line of text". The company also raised an additional $40 million in series B funding led by investor Dan Gilbert
Daniel Gilbert (born January 17, 1962) is an American billionaire businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Rocket Mortgage, founder of Rock Ventures, and owner of the National Basketball Association' ...
, chairman of Quicken Loans
Rocket Mortgage, LLC (formerly known as Quicken Loans LLC) is a mortgage loan provider. It is headquartered in the One Campus Martius building in the financial district of Downtown Detroit, Michigan. In January 2018, the company became the la ...
and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. With its operations expanding, Genius relocated from Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 United ...
to Gowanus, Brooklyn
Gowanus ( ) is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community District 6. Gowanus is bounded by Wyckoff Street on ...
. Genius also obtained buy-in from artists, including investments by Eminem, Nas
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air ( ...
, and Pharrell Williams.
At one point, rapper Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
, a fan of the site, submitted a mockup of a redesign to investor Ben Horowitz
Benjamin Abraham Horowitz (born June 13, 1966) is an American businessman, investor, blogger, and author. He is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder along with Marc Andreessen of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He previously c ...
. Although Lehman was impressed, telling ''Business Insider'' that future redesigns could use elements from it,[ the redesign was not used. In mid-2015, along with its redesigned logo and webpage, Genius released its Android app, which initially allowed users to search for and vote on annotations.]
Staff expansion and new partnerships
Hip-hop journalist Rob Markman was hired by Genius as its manager of artist relations. In September 2015, Genius partnered with ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' to annotate the various presidential debates being held at that time. The following month, Genius announced the hiring of Brendan Frederick, formerly of ''Complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
'', as director of content.
In 2015, Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records.
Rubin helped popula ...
, A-Trak
Alain Macklovitch (born March 30, 1982), known by his stage name A-Trak, is a Canadian DJ, record producer, and record executive. He came to prominence in the late 2000s as an international club DJ and remix artist, known for incorporating highly ...
, The-Dream
Terius Youngdell Nash (born September 20, 1977), better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. His co-writing credits include songs with "Me Against the Music" (2003) for Britney Spears, " Rid ...
and Eminem were among those who created verified accounts. Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon ( ;
born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...
has also been verified and has contributed several annotations. Composer and Lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ''Hamilton'' (2015) and '' In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animat ...
also has a verified account with which he frequently joined discussions on the lyrics from his musicals ''In the Heights
''In the Heights'' is a musical with concept, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican American neighborhood of ...
'' and ''Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
''.
News Genius
News Genius is a web annotation platform which was launched in late 2015 or early 2016. In January 2016, the White House began using Genius to provide annotations for its online postings of President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's State of the Union addresses. The News Genius platform was controversial because it allowed annotations to be added to websites, including personal websites, without the webmaster's consent and without an option to opt out of having annotations.
As of 2022, the News Genius website is still up but has not been updated since 2016; it is no longer possible to log in and leave new annotations.
Launching content (2016–present)
Genius began offering original content in 2016, beginning with a "Behind the Lyrics" integration offered in collaboration with Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
that "pairs pop-up annotations with select tracks from the streaming service as well as exclusive artist content", launching with content from Pusha T
Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 201 ...
, Tinashe
Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe ( ; born February 6, 1993), known mononymously as Tinashe, is an American singer, dancer, and actress. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Tinashe moved to Pasadena as a child to pursue a career in entertainment. Her notab ...
, and Diplo. Initially available only on iOS, "Behind the Lyrics" became available on Android in April 2017. In October 2018, Genius announced a partnership with Apple Music
Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...
where Apple Music subscribers could play songs in full right from the site. In addition, Genius would provide lyrics for the main Apple Music service. On February 4, 2020, Apple Music and Genius announced an expanded partnership, most visibly premiering flagship content series "Verified" on Apple Music early, with Apple Music joining as co-producers on the show. The deal is viewed as part of a larger initiative by Apple to bring exclusive content to its platform amid competition from other digital streaming platforms like Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
, YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, and Amazon Music
Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights ...
.
Genius began planning for the creation of original video content, and in June 2016 announced the hiring of Regina Dellea, previously of ''Mic'', as head of video. Planned shows that Dellea was hired to oversee included "Genius Level, an Inside the Actors Studio-style interview series hosted by Rob Markman". In 2016, Genius launched the video series "Verified", "featuring artists like Mac Miller, Ice Cube, and Common decoding their songs on camera", and has since launched various other series, including "Deconstructed (in which producers dissect the tracks they created) and "IRL", a career-spanning interview series initiated with DJ Khaled
Khaled Mohammed Khaled (born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ, record executive, record producer and rapper.
Khaled first gained recognition as a radio host in the 1990s on the radio station 99 Jamz, a ...
as the first subject. In September 2016, Genius announced the addition of Steve Stoute, founder and CEO of the brand development and marketing firm Translation, to its board of directors. In 2017, Genius collaborated with Logic to produce an episode of "Verified" for every song on his album. Logic had previously name-dropped Genius in his song "Slave II", from the 2016 album ''Bobby Tarantino
''Bobby Tarantino'' is the fifth mixtape by American rapper Logic. It was released on July 1, 2016, through Visionary Music Group and Def Jam Recordings. It was released to various digital platforms without prior announcement. ''Bobby Tarantino'' ...
'', with the line "I'm a Rap Genius like Rob Markman".
It also received an additional $15 million in funding in 2018, bringing its total funding to $79 million since 2009. In June 2019, Genius accused Google of lifting lyrics from Genius.com without permission and publishing the lyrics directly in search pages on Google. This resulted in a drop of traffic to Genius.com. In December 2019, this accusation escalated to a lawsuit filed in New York, seeking $50 million in combined minimum damages from Google and LyricFind, a Canadian Company that provides licensed lyrics to companies including Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Judge Margo Brodie dismissed the lawsuit in August 2020, finding that Genius' lyric transcriptions were derivative works
In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of an original, previously created first work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent in fo ...
of the transcribed songs, meaning that Genius did not hold the copyright to the lyrics and could not claim Google's display of them as a copyright violation. The dismissal was upheld in March 2022 upon appeal.
Live events
Genius began hosting live events at their Brooklyn headquarters in 2017. On April 26, 2017, Genius hosted a listening party with rapper Wale for the release of Wale's album, '' SHiNE''. The first Genius Level live interview was in May 2017, with The-Dream
Terius Youngdell Nash (born September 20, 1977), better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. His co-writing credits include songs with "Me Against the Music" (2003) for Britney Spears, " Rid ...
. On September 7, 2017, Rob Markman interviewed Issa Rae before a live audience. Genius held its first live concert event on September 9, 2017, with the IQ/BBQ festival at the Genius headquarters. The event featured performances by artists including Pusha T
Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 201 ...
, Dej Loaf
Deja Monét Trimble (born April 8, 1991), better known by her stage name Dej Loaf (stylized as DeJ Loaf), is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. She began her music career in 2011, and released her debut single "Jus ...
, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, and was produced in partnership with Adidas and Atari.
Genius held a live event with Dropbox in 2018 called "Lyrics to Life," a four-day art exhibition featuring art installations inspired by music.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Genius pivoted part of its original content strategy to focus on a livestream approach, most notably with a new series, "Genius Live", hosted directly on the site. Its intent is to be a new platform focusing on facilitating artist to fan interactions and providing direct monetization opportunities. Features that went live with launch allowed fans to vote directly on the set list, request shoutouts from the artist, join the Watch Party for a chance to be featured on stream, do a virtual meet and greet, and contribute to collective rewards such as unlocking a unreleased song. Custom merchandise created specifically for the Genius Live show also goes on sale with the performance. Artists that have been booked by the Artist Relations team since launch include Vory
Tavoris Javon Hollins Jr. (born August 17, 1997), known professionally as Vory (formerly King Vory), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He won a Grammy for his work on The Carters' '' Everything Is Love'' and has released several solo ...
, Mariah the Scientist
Mariah Amani Buckles (born October 27, 1997), known professionally as Mariah the Scientist, is an American singer-songwriter. She released her debut studio album ''Master'', on August 23, 2019, with her now former labels, Canadian rapper Tory Lane ...
, Wiz Khalifa
Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, ''Show and Prove'', in 2006 and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 20 ...
, Ty Dolla $ign
Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He first gained major recognition in 2010 for his feature on Ameri ...
, and The Kid Laroi
Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard (born 17 August 2003), known professionally as the Kid Laroi (stylised as the Kid LAROI), is an Australian rapper, singer and songwriter. He originally gained recognition from his association and friendship with A ...
.
Genius also pivoted another original content series, The Co-Sign, from YouTube to Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
during the pandemic. Up and coming artists from around the world are given a chance to compete every Friday for coverage by the platform, most notably in the "Genius Freestyles" series spearheaded by the social team.
Merchandise
Genius began selling branded merchandise in mid-2016, and engaged in "a T-shirt collaboration with rapper Pusha T's Play Cloths line for Art Basel" in December 2016. In 2017, Genius expanded its merchandise offerings with the launch of its "1997" collection, with a set of styles and themes inspired by cultural events of 1997.
Features
Works and articles on Genius are annotated by community members with various lines highlighted in gray (approved annotations); by clicking on these lines, pop-up "tates" are displayed, which provide additional details and context for the lyrics in question. Users can provide their own annotations by highlighting fragments of text. Texts on Genius are sorted into various topic channels, including rap, rock, and pop music, literature, news, historical texts (History Genius), sports, television and film (Screen Genius), and "X"—any other subject not covered by other categories. The site formerly offered the "Rap Map", a Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
display featuring profiles and placemarks for geographical locations related to rap culture or mentioned in rap songs. In 2021, a similar feature was launched in a branded campaign via collaboration with French cognac firm Rémy Martin
Rémy Martin () is a French firm that primarily produces and sells cognac. Founded in 1724 and based in the commune of Cognac, it is among the oldest cognac producers still in existence. and one of the "big four" cognac houses (along with Henne ...
titled Collective Sounds. Landmarks culturally important to the musical communities of the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Atlanta were spotlighted by the lyrics and pop culture moments that made them iconic. Artists 6lack
Ricardo Archibald Valentine Jr. (born June 24, 1992), known professionally as 6lack (stylized as 6LACK, pronounced "black"), is an American singer and rapper.
He initially gained notable recognition following the release of his single, " Prblms ...
, Mick Jenkins, Reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
, and Meechy Darko
Demetri Simms, better known by his stage name Meechy Darko, is an American rapper and songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. He is best known as a member of the hip hop trio Flatbush Zombies, with whom he began his rapping career with his longtime f ...
also delivered personal accounts of what these places meant to them.
Contributors to Genius receive points, "IQ", for interactions on each song page. The IQ system employs both direct points—for example, a 10 IQ point increase for an annotation—and a voting system. Especially insightful and popular annotations gain positive reviews, increasing the IQ value of an annotation. Popular song pages also reward IQ to the transcriber as they reach certain view count milestones. IQ serves as measure of a community member's impact and work on the site. Editors and Moderators gain additional means of obtaining IQ as a reward for quality assurance work on the site.
Registered users with 300 IQ unlock most features of the "contributor" role and can upload, edit, and annotate texts. They can also offer suggestions to improve already published texts and annotations. Editors, Moderators, and Mediators, volunteers who are given the role by peer vote within the Genius community, help to generate and monitor content to ensure quality writing. Users can earn IQ with most interactions within the site, such as annotations, song transcription, votes, song page views, and also competitions/projects initiated by the Genius community and/or community staff.
Spotify
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
has had a partnership with Genius since 2016 on their "Behind the Lyrics" feature, which displays lyrics and content from Genius for select tracks, allowing users to "watch annotated lyrics for songs as you listen to them". Previously, bringing up the album art while playing a track reveals a black tab behind the art reading "Behind the Lyrics", which gives users access to the feature. As of 2021, the feature lives under the song player itself, where users can scroll up to reveal the full content piece.
Key people
, key staff members and advisors to Genius include co-founders Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory (resigned as president in 2021), additional board members and investors Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz
Benjamin Abraham Horowitz (born June 13, 1966) is an American businessman, investor, blogger, and author. He is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder along with Marc Andreessen of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He previously c ...
, Dan Gilbert
Daniel Gilbert (born January 17, 1962) is an American billionaire businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Rocket Mortgage, founder of Rock Ventures, and owner of the National Basketball Association' ...
, and Steve Stoute; Chief Content Officer Brendan Frederick, VP of Content Strategy Rob Markman, Chief Strategy Officer Ben Gross, President Miki King, CFO Nakuj Vittal, CTO Andrew Warner, and Site Director Stephen Niday.
On March 11, 2021, Genius named Miki Toliver King, the Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
's chief marketing officer, as its new president, replacing co-founder Ilan Zechory. Zechory will remain on the company's board of directors and continue to be involved in strategy. King commented to Variety Magazine, "Never has there been a more important time for the work of artists and creators to reverberate around the world, with Genius as its driving force. I am honored to leverage my career-long commitment to connecting audiences to the content they value most." She joined the company in the second quarter of 2021 and will oversee revenue, content, audience operations, and marketing alongside co-founder and CEO Tom Lehman.
Top artists contributing to Genius include Lorde, Frank Ocean
Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...
, Jaden Smith
Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born July 8, 1998), also known mononymously as Jaden, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He has received various accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an MTV Movie Award, a BET Award and a Young Artis ...
, Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ''Hamilton'' (2015) and '' In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animat ...
, Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress and producer. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring a ...
, Phoebe Ryan
Phoebe Holiday Ryan (born September 21, 1990) is an American singer and songwriter. In 2015, she released a mashup of R. Kelly's "Ignition" and Miguel's "Do You", followed by her first single "Mine" from her debut EP of the same name. She signe ...
, DJ Khaled
Khaled Mohammed Khaled (born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ, record executive, record producer and rapper.
Khaled first gained recognition as a radio host in the 1990s on the radio station 99 Jamz, a ...
, Nas
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air ( ...
, Eminem, Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer.
Cuomo was raised in a number of Buddhist communities in the Northeast U.S. until the age of 10, wh ...
, and Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records.
Rubin helped popula ...
.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
2009 establishments in the United States
Online mass media companies of the United States
Hip hop websites
Internet properties established in 2009
American music websites
Online music and lyrics databases
Rock Ventures
Web annotation