Eminem beat Bob Dylan, Tupac, Kanye West, The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Mariah Carey to be the artist with the widest vocabulary of all time. The study showed that through his impressive career, Eminem topped the list by using 8,818 different words, while Jay Z came in second with 6,899.
By beating The Black Eyed Peas, Celine Dion and Bob Dylan, Eminem has earned himself the title of the artist with the largest vocabulary.
The study conducted by Musixmatch took into consideration the top selling 100 singers/bands of all time and looked at 100 songs from each of them to find out, who is is the master of words.
Singers like Celine Dion and Julio Iglesias have released albums in dozens of languages, and all of their top selling tracks in Spanish, French, Italian and Mandarin were taken into account.
In 100 songs, Eminem used 8,818 words and the study discovered that “on average, he uses a word he has never previously used every 11 words.”
Below are some of the poignant words uttered by Eminem on his mentor’s Dr. Dre‘s “I Need A Doctor,” which also features Skylar Grey:
“I told the world one day I would pay it back
Say it on tape, and lay it, record it so that one day I could play it back
But I don’t even know if I believe it when I’m sayin’ that
Doubts startin’ to creep in, every day it’s just so grey and black
Hope, I just need a ray of that, cause no one sees my vision
When I play it for ‘em, they just say it’s wack, but they don’t know what dope is
And I don’t know if I was awake or asleep when I wrote this
All I know is you came to me when I was at my lowest
You picked me up, breathed new life in me, I owe my life to you
But for the life of me, I don’t see why you don’t see like I do
But it just dawned on me you lost a son, demons fighting you, it’s dark.”
Beyoncé‘s husband, Jay Z, came in second with 6,899 words, while Tupac Shakur took in the third spot with 6,569 words and Kanye West, who used 5,069 words was given the fourth spot.
Despite being considered as one of the greatest songwriters in the world, Bob Dylan only took in the fifth position with almost half of what Eminem produced, 4,883 words. The researcher had the following to say about Dylan’s technique:
“Given how articulate and descriptive his songs are, it is no wonder Bob Dylan ranks so highly. He also ranks at the top (#11) of the N.W.I ranking (on average he uses a new word after writing 9 words).”
The Black Eyed Peas and a group of polyglots including Julio Iglesias, Andrea Bocelli, B’z, which is a Japanese rock duo, and Celine Dion wrapped up the top ten.
Beyoncé was number 15 with about 3,000 words, with less than 2,500 words Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry were placed at 40, 41 and 43 respectively. The late Micheal Jackson took number 42.
Kenny G, the famous saxophonist was last with barely 809 words, but then again he is famous for his romantic smooth jazz instrumentals, which rarely have any lyrics.
