Lyric sites before Rap Exegesis (2000s) Prior to Rap Exegesis' creation, there were websites specifically for searching up lyrics, such as AZLyrics or SongMeanings. Some were meant for specific genres, while others included guitar tabs or MIDI (as in
karaoke). Few lyric sites of the time actually embedded songs meant to be transcribed, and even fewer had annotations to explain subtleties like samples, interpolations, references to other lyrics,
wordplay,
double entendres or
rhyme schemes. Genius first started as a
crowdsourced hip-hop focused lyric site, and was originally named
Rap Exegesis. The site changed its name to
Rap Genius in December 2009 because "
exegesis" was difficult for users to spell.
Founding and early years (2009–2012) 2013. Genius was created in August 2009 by founders Tom Lehman (who "entered the first line of code" for the website at 12:30 p.m. on August 19, 2009), Ilan Zechory, and Mahbod Moghadam, the three of whom met during their undergraduate years at
Yale University. 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.
Initial funding In 2011, with the site "drawing over 1 million unique visitors per month", prompted in part by partner
Marc Andreessen's own past effort to build a group annotation feature into a web browser.
Establishment of verified accounts The popular success of the venture was exemplified by the participation of artists like
Queensbridge rapper
Nas, Such annotations are highlighted in yellow, 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 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". 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 Genius and
Poetry Genius. The service also added the ability for outside publishers to integrate Rap Genius's platform into other websites to create annotated articles.
Music publishing dispute In October 2013, Rap Genius was one of fifty sites targeted with notices by the
National Music Publishers Association 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".
Google search penalty In December 2013,
Google penalized Rap Genius for violating their backlinks guidelines 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 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 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 of Reuters was a noted early user, using the platform to create an annotated breakdown of
Janet Yellen's first
FOMC statement.
Nas embedded the entire annotated
Illmatic album onto his website to promote the release of
Illmatic XX.
Relaunch as "Genius" and expanded funding On July 12, 2014, reflecting its recent expansions and growth into a platform, Rap Genius relaunched 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, chairman of
Quicken Loans and owner of the
Cleveland Cavaliers. With its operations expanding, Genius relocated from
Williamsburg, Brooklyn to
Gowanus, Brooklyn. At one point, rapper
Kanye West, a fan of the site, submitted a mockup of a redesign to investor
Ben Horowitz. Although Lehman was impressed, telling
Business Insider that future redesigns could use elements from it, In September 2015, Genius partnered with
The Washington Post to annotate the various presidential debates being held at that time. The following month, Genius announced the hiring of Brendan Frederick, formerly of
Complex, as director of content. In 2015,
Rick Rubin,
A-Trak,
The-Dream and
Eminem were among those who created verified accounts. Pulitzer Prize winning author
Michael Chabon has also been verified and has contributed several annotations. Composer and Lyricist
Lin-Manuel Miranda also has a verified account with which he frequently joined discussions on the lyrics from his musicals
In the Heights and
Hamilton.
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'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.
Launching content (2016–2021) Genius began offering original content in 2016, In October 2018, Genius announced a partnership with
Apple Music 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,
YouTube, and
Amazon Music. 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 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, 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 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. 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,
Dej Loaf,
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 an 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,
Mariah the Scientist,
Wiz Khalifa,
Ty Dolla $ign, and
The Kid Laroi. Genius also pivoted another original content series, The Co-Sign, from YouTube to
Twitch 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.
Acquisition by MediaLab (Since 2021) Genius Media was acquired by the
holding company MediaLab in September 2021 for $80 million. Genius entered into agreement with MediaLab, who also own other viral websites and applications like
Kik and
Datpiff, to sell the website as it was "the ideal partner to propel Genius forward". Immediately after the acquisition,
Bloomberg announced Genius was now
laying off staff, though no official numbers were released. This was due to a "restructure" from MediaLab to shift the website's focus towards emerging artists. == Features ==