Over the years, Genius expanded into all genres of music, and eventually it was clear that any text-whether it was Shakespeare, a legal document, a political speech, or even a pharmaceutical bottle-can be annotated.
#Pyramids frank ocean choreography full#
It launched a full year before Jay Z released his book Decoded, so this notion of going deeper into hip-hop lyrics and hearing from the artists themselves on their references was definitely in the air. The Genius project began in 2009 with Rap Genius, a website for collaboratively breaking down hip-hop lyrics through line-by-line dissections, and annotations added and edited by anyone in the world. "I’ve worked at Genius for just over two years, which, at a startup is basically a thousand-a lot has changed in this time. ON WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE TO WORK AT A START-UP: Good thing I listen to music! I had no idea this job would become such a huge part of my life." I guess I kind of stumbled into the music and tech scene. This was my grind for a while until my friend Ezra Glenn, who worked at Genius-then known as Rap Genius-told me he was looking for someone to fill a position on the operations team.
On lucky days, “Pyramids” by Frank Ocean would play twice in a shift, and that track is nine minutes and 53 seconds of gold. This was particularly painful during the holiday season - I hate Christmas music unless it’s Mariah Carey, to which I’d be down to listen on loop. The music they played in-store was alright, but the playlists would loop over and over during a shift. At that time, I nannied for a family and worked at Urban Outfitters, where I was the only employee who smiled. "I graduated from Oberlin in 2012 and moved to New York to see if I could make being a dancer in the city work. ON HOW IT ALL BEGAN AT URBAN OUTFITTERS (& KIND OF FELL INTO HER LAP):
Here, she talks about burn-out, the most surreal moments in her career so far and that time she (sorta, kinda) partied with Beyoncé. As McCants more or less put it, it's now out to annotate the entire damn Internet. Still scratching your head on this one? You might better know Genius as Rap Genius, the little lyric annotation site that could-Eminem, Nas, Kanye West and Wu-Tang are fans.
In this case, we're talking about Jael McCants, whose rise to heading up Content Partnerships and Label Relations at Genius is nothing short of tell-all-worthy. And usually, an unprecedented rise (in this case, two years) to job titles that come with some pretty serious perks-like, say, hearing original Rihanna demos played off of her producer's iPhone. But one nugget of truth remains: all of those big risks, more often than not, equal big rewards. If you've even haphazardly thumbed through a copy of Vanity Fair on the plane in the last, say, three or four years, you know first-hand that the realities of running and working at a tech and media start-up are often mythologized beyond actual recognition.
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