Culture: Pass the mic!

Reginald Smith, a MIT grad student, mapped the collaborations of the top 55 rappers in the nation - "the small world of the rap community made large."

I came across this the other day while I was flipping through the Feb/Mar 2006 issue of Seed Magazine. My initial reaction was disbelief that some of the best and the brightest math minds of the country are spending time tracing the lines of loyalty and respect through the rap/hip-hop community signified by the collaborative effort. But with a closer inspection, it's incredible to realize the myriad of cross-overs there are in a sphere where the entourage rules. And even more interesting is to see who makes up those central nodes, and who is the true hub of the hip-hop universe. Why play "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" when you can play "Two Degrees of Fat Joe"?